# Watering plants while away on vacation?



## CMF (Jun 27, 2007)

I have a couple of tomato plants in pots, a bunch of outdoor hanging plants (flower baskets for the most part) and various other plants growing in containers.  What do you do to keep your plants watered when you are away?  If you pay a neighborhood teen - what's the going rate?

Charles


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## Elan (Jun 27, 2007)

I'm going to put our potted stuff (flowers on the back patio) out where the automatic sprinklers will hit them.


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## CMF (Jun 27, 2007)

So sad - I ain't got one of those  

Charles


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## xzhan02 (Jun 27, 2007)

Elan said:


> I'm going to put our potted stuff (flowers on the back patio) out where the automatic sprinklers will hit them.



Great idea just in time.  I was planning to move the heavy pots to friend's house this Friday.


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## Ekaaj (Jun 27, 2007)

We have a pet sitter come feed our animals, and she charges $20 per visit.  (That's feeding 3 horses, dog, cat, fish, water plants, get mail, etc.)

I'd say $5 or $10 per visit for a teen to water your plants would suffice.  You could set up an auto watering system with drip line hooked up to a water bib, but that might be more effort than it's worth!


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## kjsgrammy (Jun 27, 2007)

We pay $5.00 per day for our "cat sitter".  She comes in everyday and provides our cat with fresh food/water, empties out the litter box daily, picks up our mail, puts out our trash on trash day, and waters any outdoor plants that need watering.  She is 14 yrs. old and VERY reliable, and our cat loves her.

I usually give her extra if we are gone longer than a week.


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## fnewman (Jun 27, 2007)

You could build yourself a cheap watering system using a faucet mounted timer and sprinkler system drip piping just laid on the ground and routed to the various plants.  It mighty cost just a bit more than paying someone to do it, but the bonus would be that you could continue to use it after you return to make your life easier.:zzz:


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## CMF (Jun 27, 2007)

*I decided to give this a try . . .*









Supposedly, I can rig this to slow drip for 10 days. We'll see.

Charles


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## Blues (Jun 27, 2007)

You can buy drip watering kits tailored for potted plants.  You can also buy cheap timers for them.  You hook up the timer to an outdoor spigot, and hook up the drip system to the timer.  It turns it on & off on a schedule.  Would probably be cheaper than paying someone to come in every day or two.


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## falmouth3 (Jun 27, 2007)

kjsgrammy said:


> We pay $5.00 per day for our "cat sitter".  She comes in everyday and provides our cat with fresh food/water, empties out the litter box daily, picks up our mail, puts out our trash on trash day, and waters any outdoor plants that need watering.  She is 14 yrs. old and VERY reliable, and our cat loves her.
> 
> I usually give her extra if we are gone longer than a week.



Boy, I've got signs at work and at the senior centers in my town and the town we're bordering.  I'm offering $30 a day to have someone come by 3 times a day for my dogs - or to stay at my house and I haven't even had any curiosity calls.  I may have to call the professional dog sitter who hits me for $60 a day - or the girl in the vets office does it for $75 a day.  And they just need to open the door to the fenced in yard - no walking the dogs at all.

Sue


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## hibbeln (Jun 28, 2007)

We're leaving tomorrow for 2 weeks in Hawaii.  We have a teenaged boy coming in - $5/day to water the plants (all outside, and what was inside we moved outside) and $25 each time he mows the lawn.  $5 seemed like a reasonable thing to pay to make it worth his while to walk over here and water.  And it will be great to come home to a freshly cut lawn!

Visits from pet-sitters (pros) here are $10-15/visit.  So the dog is off to the kennel for 2 weeks.  Poor guy.


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