Olla Project

At the Earth Fair last Saturday, I introduced a new way of watering.  Unglazed pots buried in the garden are called ollas and are an ancient way of irrigating.  However, they are very efficient and so I felt they would be worth a try. 

You can purchase ollas ready made and they run between $20 and $30 depending on the size.  Or you can make your own by using unglazed clay pots that you can pick up at the nursery or craft store.  They come in a variety of sizes and are very inexpensive to make.  I will do a separate post on how to make one and include pictures.

Jerry and Jeremy were good enough to make me a couple of acrylic boxes so that I can see how the olla is working.

While I will be putting ollas in my own vegetable garden, I thought it would be fun to see how the plants in this container do.  Obviously it is not an idea container since it has no drainage holes, but it is for studying purposes, so we will just do the best we can with it.

I will post pictures of the ollas I put in my garden as well, but that is a few days off.  In the meantime, we will follow my planter here at the water district.  I will be keeping track of how often I have to fill the olla and how well the plants seem to do.



Acrylic planter box with two marigold plants and one olla made from two unglazed clay pots.



Close up of olla in the ground and filled with water.

You can see where the dirt is moist.