How garden sitters help keep plants alive during end-of-summer travel

For any home gardeners still planning to travel during these remaining weeks of summer — or for those planning travels in early fall — it’s important to figure out who will help care for plants and vegetables during the time away.

Hiring a garden sitter could be one solution, as the Associated Press pointed out.

It’s wise to find someone — a professional, a friend, a neighbor or a loved one — who knows the gardening landscape.

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“The first thing is to find one friend with a garden you like and make sure you’re willing to return the favor,” Adam Choper, associate director for outdoor gardens and sustainable horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, told the AP.

For people who don’t have trusted neighbors to care for their gardens, there are numerous ways to hire a professional, through online message boards, nurseries and horticultural societies, the AP said.

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Choper of the New York Botanical Garden also gave several tips for preparing a garden — and a garden sitter — before heading out for a trip.

He recommended walking a sitter through the process of caring for your garden so that the person knows exactly what needs to be done.

People with home gardens are looking for ways to make sure their gardens are cared for while they’re away on vacation.
(Gerald Singer via AP)

Choper also suggested setting up sprinklers or soaker hoses and putting down mulch, which can help conserve water.

GardeningKnowHow.com also recommends pulling weeds and watering your garden before you head out.

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Container gardens should be grouped together and moved into the shade, so that plants won’t dry out too quickly, Choper told the AP.

Before you go on vacation, make sure to walk your sitter through the process of caring for your garden the way you’d like the person to do so.
(iStock)

Sometimes, gardeners even put their containers in kiddy pools with some water that sitters only have to fill up if necessary, the AP pointed out.

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Aside from keeping gardens alive, a sitter can also help by harvesting the crop, which allows for more growth and prevents rotting or overgrown vegetables to take over your garden while you’re away.

Tips for getting the most out of gardening may come in quite handy at a time when many American families are feeling the effects of inflation — and are feeding their families with the food they’re growing in their gardens.

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Historically high inflation continues to affect Americans of all backgrounds.

That includes high-income individuals and families who have been driven to Walmart, thrift stores and even food banks as a result of the skyrocketing cost of groceries and goods these days.

Cortney Moore and Andrew Miller of Fox News Digital, as well as the Associated Press, contributed reporting to this article.