I live in the Vendee (west France). As COVID restrictions are lifting, my wife and I are leaving on 26th September to join family in the Uk. Last minute decision.
There are signs of Spring and some of my Shohin are starting to bud. Question:
In the absence of knowledgeable friends and neighbours do I
1) Put them on my automatic watering setup - don’t want to overwater. Minimal risk of heavy frost now.
2) Remove trees from pots and plant them in empty vegetable bed.

Trees are planted in pumice/zeolite mix which reduces risk of overwatering, I’m told.
What do people advise
Thanks
Hokusaisan

Do you mean February? Depending on how long I would use watering system but not for long. I would have said take them with you, but you can't now

Thanks for that. Yes, sorry, I did mean February. Taking the trees with me is not remotely possible. I’m planning to take my one ‘indoor’ tree with me, but I need to check if that’s allowed by French & Uk customs.
We’re going to be away for three weeks, so I think I’ll probably use the automatic system.
Thanks for your help.
H.

For bringing plants from mainland europe to uk, you need a phytosanitary certificate issued by your local plant protection agency. To bring it back you need the samepaper but from uk authoroties.

I doubt it is possible to bring any plants with you, plus the cost of getting documentation will be prohibitive. No one is importing to UK now from elsewhere in Europe

Like many here, I have tried a number of different watering solutions when travelling. The only one that has worked all the time is finding some ultra reliable person to come and water them.

One watering system broke. Another one seemed to be working fine, but my friendly neighbors saw the water flowing one day and realized we were out of town, so very nicely saved me a lot of money by turning the hose off. That gave me a large supply of pots since all but one tree died. So, I guess it saved me some more money.

The problem is finding the ultra reliable person who will not go out of town. I have a young man, aged 24 or so, who has been coming by since he was 14. Has parents drove him then and now he drives himself, living about 5 minutes drive away. Replacing him will be hard. I dread the time he moves away, or even to a different part of town. He waters the trees and feeds the fish inside. Some areas you can find a local person who will drop by the house and feed animals. Maybe you can find one who will expand their job description to include plants.