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Tips for when leaving your holiday home for period of time

Re: when leaving holiday home for period of time

Postby Jan » Mon Dec 16, 2013 5:48 pm

Sandra wrote:I wish that I could switch off the water - but unfortunately I have a garden full of plants - and a watering system!! Someone told me that I could switch the water, to the main house, off by shutting off the stopcock in the downstairs bathroom, - and if I left the main stopcock to the house on (outside) then there was a bypass system to my watering system. Unfortunately, after doing this for a few times I realised that this was not the case!!



Hello Sandra,
We have a row of large Oleanders, a Lemon tree and a Yucca - so not much to worry about but they all flourish with no watering at all for months on end. We used to have a Bougainvillea which became so big it broke the gate posts and twisted the arch across the gate, breaking it off, in a heavy wind - It was hardly ever watered and it didn't stop growing or flourishing - We couldn't wait to get rid of it in the end, as beautiful as it was, as it was such hard work.

We don't even own a watering can, let alone a hose pipe and only throw a bit of water over the plants a couple of times a week when we are there, even in high Summer. We have fantastic lemons off the tree and one of our friends has had no luck with their Lemon tree and it is watered and bug sprayed regularly. I personally do not believe in using insecticides on plants as I think that nature takes its course (good insects eat bad insects and so on!)and a bit of washing up liquid in water thrown over a plant does no harm. Saying that, I am no gardener and I am impressed by a lovely well tended garden but I prefer the easy life while in Spain! :lol:

Jan.
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Re: when leaving holiday home for period of time

Postby Sandra » Mon Dec 16, 2013 10:31 pm

Hi, Jan. I agree with you about being for the easy life! I have a gardener!!

Despite being in a gardening club in England - the title of it might give you some clue as to how clued up I am about gardening - it's called "Gardening for the Bewildered" (a U3A group!)!! It certainly didn't prepare me for gardening in Spain. However, I am amazed at how one of my low growing cacti has taken off - the central flower stem has grown to over 8' tall (no sign of a flower yet!) and I think that it is headed for the sky! My problem is that I have an end of terrace house - with a gaden which sweeps around on three sides! It was one of the reasons that attracted us to the house - talk about rose tinted glasses!! I have a spliced orange tree in the garden (marmalade oranges and tangerine type ones) and I am told that the produce is great - one day I will arrive in Spain when they are ripe - still my neighbours benefit!! :oops:
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Re: when leaving holiday home for period of time

Postby Jan » Mon Dec 16, 2013 11:04 pm

Sandra wrote:Hi, Jan. I agree with you about being for the easy life! I have a gardener!!

Despite being in a gardening club in England - the title of it might give you some clue as to how clued up I am about gardening - it's called "Gardening for the Bewildered" (a U3A group!)!! It certainly didn't prepare me for gardening in Spain. However, I am amazed at how one of my low growing cacti has taken off - the central flower stem has grown to over 8' tall (no sign of a flower yet!) and I think that it is headed for the sky! My problem is that I have an end of terrace house - with a gaden which sweeps around on three sides! It was one of the reasons that attracted us to the house - talk about rose tinted glasses!! I have a spliced orange tree in the garden (marmalade oranges and tangerine type ones) and I am told that the produce is great - one day I will arrive in Spain when they are ripe - still my neighbours benefit!! :oops:



:text-lol:
That's the frustrating thing about growing all these lovely fruits and flowers that we can't grow in the UK - We are not there enough to get the enjoyment and benefit of them. Our bougainvillea looked fabulous, so we heard, we usually just got there when the flowers were falling off and flying around and all we did in our first few days was sweep up the flowers and cut back all the masses of straggly untidy shoots that threatened to poke the eyes out of people walking by on the pavement. Having a gardener is definitely the way to go if you want nice plants in the garden and also want to actually have a holiday in your 'holiday-home'! :lol:

I wonder if there is a giant at the end of that beanstalk?! ;)
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Re: when leaving holiday home for period of time

Postby Laura » Wed Dec 18, 2013 10:52 am

I agree with turning off water when you leave. We always did but when selling our old house I left the water on in case someone left something smelly in the toilet. That would have been preferable to the flood from the upstairs sink which flooded the whole house when we were not there and was only noticed by our neighbours when it was coming out the front door!

As to gardening, our new house has lots of plants and we occasionally use a gardener to spray the palm trees etc He has been very useful to teach us how not to kill our plants/trees by cutting them at the wrong time and thus letting the insects attack. Bad time to cut in summer, can kill a plant / tree. Always better to prune in winter when insects are not around. Only the plants in the smallest outside pots did not survive the summer without water so always buy the biggest size plant pot you can if you are not in Spain all the time.
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Re: when leaving holiday home for period of time

Postby EnglishRose » Fri Apr 18, 2014 8:48 am

:text-goodpost:

From someone who has not had their apartment very long - What a great topic; and so much useful information. I have really enjoyed reading this and will put lots of your advice into practice.

Thanks everyone :D

Gilly (and Peter who has patiently listened whilst I read them out to him! lol)
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Re: when leaving holiday home for period of time

Postby Jan » Fri Apr 18, 2014 9:03 am

EnglishRose wrote::text-goodpost:

From someone who has not had their apartment very long - What a great topic; and so much useful information. I have really enjoyed reading this and will put lots of your advice into practice.

Thanks everyone :D

Gilly (and Peter who has patiently listened whilst I read them out to him! lol)



Thank you for the feedback - I'm sure most of us wish we'd had some or all of these bits of helpful information when we moved in, I know I do!

Even after 8 years I still find things I wish I had known years ago - like the old sheets over the beds, which I am only going to do from now on, as those padded bed covers get so musty and are a bother to wash too often as they don't fit in the washing machine.

Jan
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Re: when leaving holiday home for period of time

Postby Dot » Fri Apr 18, 2014 9:15 am

Hi, another little tip........ when I arrive I put my ever ready hot water bottles in the beds just to get a little heat going through them.... yes even in summer!! :text-lol:
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Re: when leaving holiday home for period of time

Postby Jan » Fri Apr 18, 2014 9:29 am

Dot wrote:Hi, another little tip........ when I arrive I put my ever ready hot water bottles in the beds just to get a little heat going through them.... yes even in summer!! :text-lol:



Good idea Dot! - I often forget I have hot water bottles.
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Re: when leaving holiday home for period of time

Postby Dot » Fri Apr 18, 2014 12:16 pm

Hi ,yes we used to sometimes find things a little mouldy but now buy the dehumidifier tubs and put them in wardrobes or anywhere you have wood that sweats, about 1Euro each they are great.
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Re: when leaving holiday home for period of time

Postby scubydoo » Fri Apr 18, 2014 1:11 pm

Hi all may have been said before but a cheap way is to leave salt in bowls it absorbs moisture an goes hard Aldi have big bags cheap!!

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