How to Prep Your Rise Garden for Your Summer Vacation

It is inevitable that during the growing season of your Rise Garden (which is year-round!), you will possibly go on vacation or a business trip.

Now, if you have a young garden without a lot of water-loving plants such as basil, tomatoes, and pepper plants, your garden can go approximately 4-5 days without having to be refilled. If your vacation or trip is on the shorter end, simply fill your garden and complete your care for it prior to leaving.

If your vacation is a little longer, you are going to need some help. Don’t fret, though. With some simple planning, you can leave your garden in the care of a kind neighbor, friend, or relative and return home to fresh produce, all while introducing your caretaker to the joys of indoor, hydroponic gardening!

Let's get started! Before you leave, here are a few steps:

1. Step 1 For ease, make sure you don’t start any seeds in the nursery two weeks before you leave.
2. Step 2 Wipe down the garden surface to remove dust or spent blossoms that have fallen off.
3. Step 3 Try to complete a harvest for your meal in the few days before you leave so food does not go bad (or, harvest before you leave and surprise your caretaker with a bounty of fresh produce on the first day they come to check on your Rise Garden!)
4. Step 4 Label your plants if you need your caretaker to harvest or pollinate while you are away.
5. Step 5 Place nutrients, pollinating paintbrush, scissors, and water container in an easy-to-find place. I move them to the top of the garden so my caretaker doesn’t need to search at all for what they need.
6. Step 6 Make sure you tell your caretaker which water source to use if they need to refill your garden.

Sample Note to Caretaker:

Dear Friend,

Thank you for taking care of my Rise Garden while I am away. They are very easy to use; I don’t imagine there will be any problems at all.

Daily — Please do a quick check to harvest any vegetables and/or hand-pollinate the blossoms of ___ plant.

• Feel free to enjoy any produce or herbs you harvest for your own meals as a thank you! On ____ plant, the fruit is ripe when it ____; you can cut fruit/leaves with the scissors I’ve provided. The herbs are ready to enjoy! Simply cut off what you need for your recipe; they grow very quickly!
• The ____ plant needs pollination. Simply take the little paintbrush and dip it into the center of any open flower, moving from flower to flower as if you were a honeybee.

Weekly — On ____ day — Add nutrients and water. There are three nutrients you will need to add—PH Balance, Thrive, and Blossom or Sprout). Like I showed you, these will be added to the bottom table, by the pump pipes to the left, simply open the service door to add nutrients and refill the water tank.

1. Step 1 Add ___ squirts of PH Balance.
2. Step 2 Add 4-6 cups of water.
3. Step 3 Add ___ milliliters of Thrive.
4. Step 4 Add 4-6 cups of water.
5. Step 5 Add ___ milliliters of Sprout/Blossom.
6. Step 6 Add enough water to fill to the “Max Fill Line” in the water holding tank in the cabinet. Do not fill above the Max Fill line. You should see the blue lines on the front right of the cabinet light up all the way. Sometimes it will show red lines for a day after filling. As long as you didn’t fill above the max fill line, that is okay. It will go back to blue soon.

That’s it! Thank you so much for your help!

As you can see, going on vacation with a Rise Garden is a stress-free experience. Happy Hydroponic Gardening!