Keeping Your Plants and Gardens Alive When You Travel Away from Your Southern California Home

Written by Kelsey W.

Traveling is a popular pastime, whether it’s across the state or across the world, but doing so can make it tough for your plants to survive when the temperatures rise or you’re gone for several days.

Is it possible to keep your plants alive while you travel without taking drastic measures? Are there any options available that will keep your plants alive without having shorten your trip to just a few days?

Let’s talk travel, plants, and how you can make sure your plant friends remain healthy and hydrated while you’re away.

How Long Do Plants Survive Without Water?

For the most part, you won’t need to put a lot of thought into watering your plants if you’ll only be away for a few days. If your travel plans have you going on a Friday and back on a Sunday, it’s unlikely you’ll need to do anything more than water your thirstiest plants before you leave.

The point at which you should begin to worry about watering the plants is about five to six days. If you’ll be gone for more than a week, there’s a good chance you may need to think about making some special arrangements for your plants.

The type of plants you have around your home will definitely impact whether you need to worry about watering them. As you’re probably aware, cactuses are quite content to ride out a water vacation, even if you’re gone for up to a month in the winter (or whenever they’re dormant).

However, if you have a vegetable garden, your tomato plants might start to wilt, and the leaves on your spinach plants might wither away if you don’t water them for a full two weeks or more. Your plants are probably used to getting water at regular intervals, and they might not fare well if that routine is interrupted.

Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Leave for Vacation

The type of plant you own isn’t the only determining factor as far as whether you’ll need to water the plant during your absence. Asking yourself a few quick questions can help you determine whether your plants will become truly parched while you travel or whether they’ll fare just fine until you return.

1. In what season are you traveling?

If you travel during the winter when many plants are resting for the season or are in their dormant phase, they might not care if you skip a few watering sessions while you’re away. However, if you travel in early September during a late summer heatwave, you might return to some very angry plants.

2. Are your plants in the shade or in the sun?

In most cases, plants that live in the shade don’t need water as often as those in the sun because the soil around them remains moist. If the plants you’re worried about are full sun plants and need daily watering, you’ll definitely need to make some arrangements for watering while you’re gone.

3. Do your plants live in the ground or in pots?

There are three things to consider regarding pots and ground plants. Your potted plants in small pots will dry out more quickly than plants in large pots. Furthermore, the plants in the ground will dry out as fast as their soil allows, so you may need to take note whether the soil is slow or fast-draining.

4. Do you travel very often?

If you travel often for work or leisure, you might want to consider plants that are well-suited to taking breaks from watering. In Southern California, that often means cacti and succulents, but you also have access to a variety of native, drought-resistant plants that don’t need a lot of water once established.

Options for Watering Plants During Your Absence

It takes just a few minutes to plan your watering schedule when you travel. Let’s assume you’re traveling for long enough that you’ll need to make special arrangements for your plants, so they don’t become stressed or parched during your absence.

Hire Someone to Water Your Plants

The easiest way to ensure your plants don’t get thirsty is to hire someone to water your plants. If you have a pet that requires feeding, many pet sitters can also take care of your plants while you’re away, so it makes sense to combine the services.

Alternatively, you may find it possible ot ask a neighbor to water your plants, with the promise that you’ll take them out to lunch, pay them a set amount of money, or return the favor when they travel in the future. 

One thing you’ll want to remember is that you probably won’t need to ask them to come by every day. So, realistically, you’ll only be asking them to swing by a few times a week, at most. Many friends and neighbors will happily water the Ficus plant in your living room a few times in return for lunch.

Invest in a Slow-Watering System

If you’ve ever seen those glass globes sticking out of the soil near plants, you’ve probably wondered whether those decorative objects had a purpose. They’re actually meant to hold water that slowly drips into the soil and keeps the plant hydrated over time.

These globes are an ideal option for houseplants, but it’s absolutely possible to use these globes outside, too. In fact, some people utilize them in the hot summer months when plants get really thirsty and need a little water all day long.

If you have a flower bed, you can also consider investing in a drip line, which you can hook up to a timer to water your plants at set times. Not only are these drip lines helpful for travel, but they’re also convenient in your everyday life since they keep plants evenly hydrated at all times.

Give Your Plants a Big Drink Before You Leave

If your trip won’t last more than a week, you can take the chance that your plants will fare just fine with a healthy drink of water before you leave. Plants do respond best to consistent watering schedules, but a change here and there won’t cause too many issues in the long run.

The one thing you want to avoid is drenching your plants with water so much that they end up sitting in a pool of damp soil for the entirety of your absence. Most plants don’t enjoy sitting in water (there are exceptions, of course), so make sure you don’t over-water your plants in an effort to keep them hydrated while you’re away.

Simply watering them one extra time before you leave – preferably in the early morning – should give your plants enough of a head start with their water that they’ll survive when you’re gone for a long weekend or even up to a week. If you’re gone any longer, it’s best to consider additional watering plans, like a water globe or help from a friend.

Southern California Plants That Don’t Need a Lot of Watering

You can ease the worry you might experience when you travel by choosing plants that probably won’t miss a few missed watering sessions. Not only are there several options available to you, but many are native to Southern California, which means they’re right at home in the natural weather of the region.

One excellent option is verbena. Not only is the verbena plant easy to grow and happy in Southern California, but it also produces flowers in all sorts of colors, so you can almost always choose a beautifully matching color for your home’s décor. 

Verbena is one of those plants that needs watering a few times a week when it’s young, but it fares just fine with a single weekly watering when it’s mature. You can stretch that by a few days with a water globe, which means you can leave for almost two weeks and not worry about your verbena.

Other native plants and Southern California-loving plants that will have no issues with your absence include California lilacs, yarrow plants, hummingbird sage, and manzanita shrubs. With established plants, you can often depart for up to a month and not worry about them.

Green Thumb Nursery: Let’s Make Beautiful Gardens

Green Thumb Nursery is here to help you plan your next gardening project, whether that’s a new herb garden for your kitchen, a new bed of beautiful flowers for your front yard, or some cheerful houseplants for your living room. Get tips and advice on how to keep your plants happy and healthy from the experts at your friendly Southern California Green Thumb Nursery.

Do you like what you see?  Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get content like this every week!
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP!