My first, and still favorite, gardening book, Wisconsin Garden Guide, by Jerry Minnich, devotes a full page to preparing your garden so you can have a worry-free vacation and return home to find your garden doing just fine.
With just a few hours of preparation before leaving on vacation you can avoid coming home to find zucchini the size of watermelon, broccoli and lettuce gone to seed, and weeds overgrowing everything.
First, remove all spring crops from the garden. Those are peas, lettuce, radishes and spinach and other salad greens. A short hot spell will render them worthless anyway. As soon as you return home you can use the space to plant beans, carrots or late cabbage.
Next, pick all the blossoms from beans, zucchini and cucumbers. While you are gone, the plants will be revitalized and send out more blossoms than before and will produce a crop just as large at a time when you are home to gather the harvest.
If tomatoes are starting to ripen, pick them and wrap them in newspaper. Store them in the refrigerator and when you return, take them out to ripen on the windowsill. If left on the plant, they will become overripe and slow the development of younger fruit.
If there are heads, even small ones, on broccoli and cauliflower, cut them off and freeze them for later use. Broccoli will form lateral heads that will be ready when you return from vacation. If you leave the main head on the plant before you leave, it will probably go into full blossom while you’re gone, rendering the plant totally worthless.
Don’t worry about root crops such as onions, potatoes, carrots and turnips. The exception is spring beets which may bolt to seed, ruining the texture of the root. The beets should be picked and stored in the refrigerator.
Next, go through the garden and remove any plants or plant parts that look diseased. Plant diseases can spread quickly and by removing affected leaves and stems you lessen the possibility of a catastrophe occurring while you’re away.
Remove all the weeds. Ha! You knew that one was coming didn’t you? Do a good job, getting up the entire weed, roots and all. Then mulch the garden, covering any area where there is bare soil. For this you can use grass clippings, pine needles, hay, straw or any purchased mulch.
Finally, if the garden is dry, soak it thoroughly just before you leave, giving it more than the normal amount of water. If you have been mulching all along, you probably won’t have to water at all.
I’ve been talking about vegetable gardens so far, but many of the same methods can be used to keep your flower gardens happy while you’re gone. Weeding, deadheading and a thorough watering are a must. Any plants in containers should be moved to the coolest spot you can find in full shade and out of the wind.
Having a friendly gardening neighbor to keep an eye on things for you is a good idea too!
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