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Watering while on holiday: pots, vegetable garden and restrictions

Published on November 10, 2026

Summer holidays fall in the middle of the heat, often in the middle of a restriction period. The aim is not for the garden to stay perfect, but for it to get through your absence with little water, without breaking your commune's decree.

Before leaving, check the decree

  • Check the level and the hours on your commune's page on J'arrose ?: whoever waters for you and your timer must follow them.
  • The level can change while you are away. A decree can be tightened during the summer if the drought gets worse. Ask the person watering to check the commune's page from time to time.
  • Leave the lawn out: the national guide bans watering it from heightened alert onwards. An established lawn turns yellow but usually greens up again after rain (see the guide on drought-resistant plants and lawns).

The best solution: someone who waters

Leaving the garden to a neighbour, a friend or a family member is still the most reliable option. Give them priorities, in this order:

  1. Pots, window boxes and hanging baskets, which dry out much faster than plants in the ground;
  2. The vegetable garden;
  3. Recently planted trees and shrubs.

Explain the permitted hours and the right way to do it: with a watering can, at the foot, early in the morning or in the evening (see When and how to water).

Pots and window boxes

  • Move them into the shade, at least out of the afternoon sun: full sun greatly increases water loss.
  • Group them tightly: together, they create a small humid spot that limits evaporation.
  • Water them thoroughly before leaving, if the decree allows it, then stand them on saucers: the excess water stays in reserve.
  • Shade the ones that are too heavy to move, with large branches or taller plants placed in front.
  • Take hanging baskets down for an absence of more than a few days: put them on the ground, in the shade, in a bucket or a large saucer of water.

The vegetable garden

  • Harvest everything that is ripe or nearly ripe before leaving.
  • Water deeply just before leaving, if the decree allows it that day, so that the water goes down to the roots.
  • Mulch thickly: mulching keeps the soil moist for much longer.
  • Fill the ollas, if the decree allows it: depending on the heat, an olla empties in a day or in a week. They help for a short absence, not for a month.

Automatic watering

Drip irrigation connected to a timer waters without you. For the holidays:

  • Set it for early morning or night, when evaporation is lowest.
  • Set a survival ration, not full-season watering, and add a rain sensor: a heavy storm must not drown the plants.
  • Choose hours that will remain allowed if the level rises. A timer does not read decrees. The national guide, for example, bans watering vegetable gardens from 11 am to 6 pm at alert level, then from 9 am to 8 pm at heightened alert and crisis: watering before 9 am therefore remains allowed at all three levels, unless the decree for your area is stricter.
  • For flower beds, the lawn and flower pots, arrange for someone who can switch the timer off: watering them is usually banned at heightened alert and crisis.

When you get back

  • A completely dried-out pot can be rehydrated by plunging it whole into a bucket of water, for about two hours, until no more bubbles rise.
  • Keep stressed plants in the shade for a day or two before putting them back in the sun.
  • Cut off the dead parts: dry stems, browned leaves, faded flowers.
  • Keep an eye on tomatoes: irregular watering encourages the black patch at the bottom of the fruit. Next year, small-fruited varieties will cope better with your absences.

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