Nine Ways to Vacation-proof Your Yard, Landscape and Garden

DrDrainage
Jul 25, 2017 · 5 min read

It’s that time of year for Americans to pack their bags and take that well-deserved summer vacation. Maybe you’re leaving for the beach to soak up the summer rays or travelling somewhere cool to beat the heat. However, it’s important to ensure that while you’re taking the time to rest and recharge, the health of your yard, landscape and garden doesn’t deteriorate in the process.

Weather forecasters are calling for the coming weeks to be full of unpredictable storms and record-breaking temperatures. To keep homeowners one step ahead of the game, here are nine ways to ensure that your outdoor spaces will look even better than it did than when you left.

1. Check the weather forecast

The most important thing to do before your vacation is check the weather forecast for when you’ll be gone. It may seem like an obvious thing to do but you’d be surprised how many people don’t think to look ahead and make preparations. Knowing if there’s a heat wave coming or a lot of rain in the near future will help determine how you prepare.

2. Put a timer on your sprinkler

With a few easy steps, you can create your own automatic irrigation system. Take a flexible hose and attach a soaker hose on one end and a timer on the other. Now you can set the watering start time, duration, and frequency before you go on vacation, instead of relying on a gardening company or neighbor to water your plants for you. Automatic irrigation systems are easy to move around too, so you can re-arrange your watering system if you later decide to change the layout of your garden.

3. Bring together your baskets and containers

If you have your hanging baskets and container plants that are spread out throughout your yard, consider moving the containers closer to the main area of your garden before you leave for vacation. In doing so, the potted plants can take advantage of your sprinkler and get the necessary water needed to survive your time away.

You can also reduce the amount of water that your plants need by grouping the pots together under the shade, which allows them to create their own humid microclimate. If your vacation is for a longer period, cluster the pots within an inflatable kid’s pool with 1–2 inches of water at the bottom, which can keep the plants hydrated for up to two weeks.

4. Mulch well

Mulched gardens retain 25 percent more moisture than un-mulched gardens since the mulch acts as a protective layer between the soil and the hot air. Consider fertilizing your plants and watering the roots, allowing the moisture to seep in before you add the mulch barrier. If you don’t want to re-mulch the entire garden, consider mulching the plant roots, and be careful not to bury the crown of the plant.

5. Inspect your yard for drainage issues

Remove any ground level branches, leaves, trash or other debris from your yard that can become obstructions to storm water drainage systems and cause flooding; as a general practice, it’s best to never dump anything down storm drains — sweep grass clippings, fertilizer and soil onto your lawn so they don’t get washed into storm drains — and pick up pet waste to help reduce bacterial and nutrient pollution.

6. Clean out your gutters and downspouts

Inspect your gutters and remove any debris that has collected; this ensures that water can properly flow through the gutters, and away from your roof and home. This reduces the chances of buildup and clogging once a storm hits, as well as flooding onto your lawn, flower beds and garden.

7. Ensure that water flows away from your house

If water isn’t carried far enough away from your house, it can seep into your home’s foundation and flood flower beds, planter boxes and plants in containers, making a mess and creating standing water as a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Make sure the downspouts from your gutters carry water at least 10 feet away from your home. If they don’t, pick up a downspout extension pipe at your local hardware or home improvement store and install it.

8. Install a dripline

Drip irrigation is an economical and efficient way to ensure that your garden gets the water it needs while you’re gone. Since a dripline releases the water under the mulch, you will lose little water to evaporation. This method saves water and prevents run off. There are many kinds of drip irrigation kits for specific applications at your local hardware or home improvement store. There are kits from Raindrip for flower, shrubs and trees, ground cover and flower beds, container and hanging baskets and vegetable gardens, and most come with a timer for easy maintenance.

9. Install a catch basin

Extreme downpours are common in many parts of the country during the last month of summer, and you’ll want your yard to be best prepared to deal with this rainfall while you are away to ensure that your yard and garden doesn’t get flooded. Consider investing in a catch basin, which effectively collects water from landscape areas, planter areas, and downspouts and connects to a drainage pipe to discharge water away from your house.

For more information about how to select and install solutions for fixing the 8 most common homeowner drainage problems, visit NDS’s Home Drainage Center.

DrDrainage

Written by

Ryan Larsen is a civil engineer at NDS, Inc. who is known as “Dr. Drainage” as host of NDS’s YouTube video series on drainage systems and stormwater management.

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