I went away for 5days and returned late last night. My friend/neighbor agreed to water my garden and containers. It appears she forgot.
Most of my baskets and container plants are wilted, dried up and resemble burned weeds more than the beauty I left. I know to some it seems trivial but to me and my husband we feel so sad. A lot of these plants were grown from seed and were so fruitful, like a "tree of life". We nurtured them, and they repaid us by providing endless supplies of cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, flowers, fragrance and beauty. I loved drinking my morning coffee on my deck surrounded by such beauty. This morning however I feel more like crying. Thankfully, the garden I created over winter and spring is still thriving; things planted in the ground tend to withstand neglect.
So after all of that, does anyone have any gardening tips for me? Should I cut back the dried out leaves and pick the fruits so that the plant can maybe recover? Maybe Miracle grow would help? I've water deeply last night, and I'm going to move a good amount of them into a shaded area...at least the ones I can.
Here is a list of the plants I have in containers and baskets.
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Green Peppers
Jalapenos
Cayenne
Sweet Potato
Wave Petunias
Ornamental Grasses - these seems to be okay
Vinca Vine
Sweet Pea Vines
Sensitive Plant
Hibiscus
Palms - different varieties
Herbs - Basil, Thyme, Lemon Grass, Cilantro, Garlic Chives, Lavender, Sage, Mints
I know there are more out there but right now this is all I can think of.
So if anyone has any ideas or helpful tips please pass them on. It really saddens me to have lost these plants. I'm willing to try anything. I cannot replace them however; I already spent a small fortune in my backyard this year.
Thanks for any help
~Kim
Back from vacation...my friend didn't water.
oh my gosh what a loss. I would do as you are doing - water deeply and see what response you get. I had this problem one year so I installed an automated watering system. Cost about $100 including hoses etc - highly recommended. So devastating to come home to a dead garden. Hope it recovers.
I wouldn't feed them when they're stressed. Moving them to shade is a good idea. Some of the things you've listed like petunias, the vinca, sensitive plant and some of the herbs are very to extremely drought tolerant and will probably pop right back when you water them.
In fact, a lot of the things listed I'm surprised reacted so badly when you were only gone five days. I'd say the heatwave last week probably did more damage.
Palms I don't know but I would imagine at least some of those are drought tolerant too. Some of the vegetables will probably recover as well.
You might want to trim some of them back and continue to baby them in the shade until they recover.
No advice from me..just sympathy. I'm so sorry. I know just what you mean about sitting outside and how it made you feel to see things you care for blooming. : (
I had the same problem with a few planters when I went away in May/June~ not much heat to speak of but the girl that was looking after the house, did not water anything higher than eye-level, I cut them all back, watered heavily and they started coming back! Also, my tomatoes on the deck suffered recently even with heavy watering, when it got so hot, I cut some of them back and today I see they are growing like crazy, I still water heavy and spray with messenger! Have ya ever seen tomatoes on growth hormones~ I had one plant that reached over 8 ft!!
Sorry to hear about your plants. That is part of the reason that I do not have many containers, though I do always seem to have a bunch of plants growing in pots. If I will be gone for less than 4 days I usually move my containers to a shady spot and water them well before leaving. For longer periods I have a timer ($15 or $20...from Home Depot) and I will move the containers together and set up a sprinkler to run every day or two.
I agree with hart about not hitting them with Miracle-Gro. The best line that I have heard is "fertilizer is food, not medicine".
- Brent