This time of year, many gardeners are going away on vacation worrying about how their well-meaning but black-thumbed neighbor, or maybe the 11-year-old down the street, will handle watering their precious flowerbeds, veggie gardens and containers while they’re gone. Linda Radin-Damon says she can set their minds at ease with her new garden sitter service.

Radin-Damon runs an interior landscape business called The Plant Lady for both businesses and homes, plus she’s worked in garden centers for more than 20 years. She’s heard customers say they’re nervous about leaving their plants, which can be quite an expensive investment, to go on vacation. So she’s added the garden-sitting service to her roster.

“People can relax with me on board. They go away and know everything will be alive when they come home,” says Radin-Damon, who uses her trained eye and a moisture meter to assess each plant.

One of her garden-sitting customers in Narragansett, she said, is typical: besides a lot of perennials in her yard, she has numerous annuals in flower beds, containers of flowers such as hibiscus and geraniums, and some exotic tropical plants that are brought outdoors in the summer.

So far in this new venture, Radin-Damon, who lives in Narragansett, has been garden-sitting in Newport and South counties and charging a minimum of $25 per hour. She’s willing to consider other areas of Rhode Island. Call her at (401) 783-5824.

Bargains will abound at the annual Wayland Square Sidewalk Sale this week on Providence’s East Side, which runs Thursday through Saturday. On Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. it will feature a new event: Taste of Wayland Square. Seven of the square’s restaurants and food suppliers (from the Japanese Haruki to the cheese monger La Laiterie at Farmstead) will sell samples of their food under a tent on Wayland Avenue, which will be closed off for the event. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Rhode Island Food Bank, which will collect donated food there too. Many stores, ranging from Southwest Passage and its Native American goods to Books on the Square, will also offer discounts on regular-price items inside the stores, and each customer will receive a sheet of event coupons. There will be children’s activities too.

In celebration of Bastille Day, Wayland Square’s Wendy Brown Fine Linens is offering 20 percent off the entire Yves Delorme collection of bed, bath and table linens, plus giveaways and raffles Thursday through next Monday. During the rest of July, you’ll get a free $65 spa robe if you purchase a set of sheets. It’s at 183 Wayland Ave., Providence; (401) 455-2337; www.wendybrownlinens.com.

The French Source Factory Store in Middletown is holding its first annual Tent Sale Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Marketing manager Ann Arnold says customers will find up to 75 percent savings off regular retail on luxury French soaps, home fragrances (including room sprays, candles, diffusers by Durance of Providence), Provençal pottery and table linens, gourmet gifts, and wooden toys by Vilac of France. The sale will be held outside the Factory Store at 1037Aquidneck Ave. (behind Oasis Salon). See www.frenchsource.com or call (888) 511-7900.

This column rounds up local news involving stores, services and products. Send items three weeks in advance to What’s In Store, Sunday Lifebeat, 75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902.

— PAM THOMAS

Hazardous waste collection

It’s prime clean-out-the-garage season, and you might find you’ve got hazardous waste, i.e. oil-based paint, weed killers, or old propane gas tanks. If so, make an appointment for Saturday’s Eco-Depot collection, now being scheduled by Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Central Landfill in Johnston. Call (401) 942-1430 x 241 or visit www.rirrc.org and click on the EcoDepot logo. We’re talking trash that’s too toxic, explosive, volatile or poisonous to be tossed in with your other stuff; for more information on products, visit the Web site, which also has a schedule of upcoming collection days.