Hands up if you’re slightly terrified to leave your plant babies alone while you’re on vacation?
We just got back from a week-long trip, and I logged some serious pre-vacation hours sorting out how I could keep all the green beauties in our house alive!
We have tropical plants, succulents, tiny baby propagators (is that a word?), fruit trees and a whole lot more in this house… so I was worried about finding a solution that would work for all of them. And frankly, I wanted to wait until we came home, to confirm that the plants did indeed live before I shared our tips with you!
But, I’m happy to report: we came home to happy healthy plants, and it was significantly easier to manage than I thought it would be. So, here’s what we did:
Our Vacation Plant Survival Guide
- Give all of your plants a serious soaking before you leave. Any plants that are in draining pots – move them to the tub or shower, and fully wet the leaves and soil, letting them drain fully. Any plants in non-draining pots, use a damp cloth or mister to moisten leaves and then give the soil a full watering (being careful not to over water, to avoid standing water around the roots).
- Move as many plants as possible to a light, bright space in your kitchen or bathroom. These rooms have the highest moisture level in your home (think of all the standing water in them!) and will keep the soil moist just a little bit longer. Note: obviously don’t do this if your kitchen and bathroom are dark – good light still trumps moisture levels.
- If you have a sink or bathtub that’s close to a window, even better. Fill the tub with roughly an inch of water and place your watered-and-drained pots in it. The water should just cover the bottom of pots, so that the soil can wick the moisture up through the drainage holes in the bottom. This is the easiest way to create a self-watering situation while you’re away and it worked like a charm for us! Note: Be careful not to put too much water in the tub (more than an inch), because it could lead to water pooling around the roots of the plant which is a formula for root rot!
For Succulent Success:
One last note: I didn’t put my succulents in the tub. I know roughly how long I can go between watering with these guys, and because we were only going away for a week, and they like to have their soil dry fully between watering, moving them into the bathroom to take advantage of the ambient moisture was enough for them!
That’s it! That’s all we did, and we came home to happy, healthy plants that we then moved back to their own cozy corners of the house. And my husband avoided me having to mourn the loss of any green babies. Win-win.
