No one to water plants while away, any suggestions please?

[whatkungfuthat]

I have quite a few plants in containers, geraniums etc. We are going away soon and the forecast is suggesting its going to be hot. My DM would normally water for me but has some mobility problems at the moment and my neighbours are also away. I was going to give them all a good water before I go and move them to a really shady spot. Will this work or is there something I can cheaply buy to help while we are away?

How long are you away for?

A week. Am I mad to worry as most of the stuff is going to die off at the end of the summer anyway I would have thought? I'm new to gardening (as if you couldn't tell )

Line growbag trays with some capillary matting (from garden centres and about £1 per meter but it is very wide). they hold a lot of plants. Soak the capillary matting and keep the plants in a cool place.

Do you have a bath? Again, line bottom of bath with the capillary matting, soak and the plants should be fine for a week.

Have you got time to make a few of these?

Could you move to one spot and have a sprinkler on a timer plug?

I put them all in the bath once, with a couple of old towels underneath & the tap dripping

unfortunately the plug had closed itself (pop-up) & when I got back the bath was full of dirty water & drowned plants

Thanks for the replies. I don't think I'll get them all in the bath. I have a week and lots of empty plastic bottles so I can get the drill out and make the self-watering things. I wonder if those sports caps just pulled out slightly would work too?

They will survive a week if you do exactly as you planned. Put them in a shady spot out of the wind and soak them before you go.

We got 'watering balls' which are like a plastic tennis ball on a thick straw. You fill up the ball and the water trickles down. That should be fine for a week.

We tried the 'gel' too but the cats decided that it was fun to ping them around, so they didn't last long enough to test.

No suggestions but we were away in July for over 3 weeks and most of our plants in containers died although not the geraniums. The upside is that we have now replaced the dead ones with new plants that should last until October so our autumn/winter planting got done earlier than planned!

I've just been out in the garden and I think the slugs might finish them off before I go