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.

Frugal Friday

As this latest batch of snow melts away, my thoughts are turning to spring.  Thinking of spring naturally makes one think of the garden.  An what does one need for a garden?  Seeds of course.  Well plants are nice, but they are expensive, so since we are being frugal here, seeds are the way to go. 

Now, I will admit I have not had as much success with starting seeds as I would like to have.  However, since they are so inexpensive, I feel it is an area I can afford to have failures and keep trying.  After all a $2 pack of seeds doesn't break the bank like a $50 plant would. 

My biggest problems is that I have no where to start seeds indoors.  So on a few select things, like tomatoes and basil, I will still by the plants.  However, I am going to do some early seed sowing in the garden and make some mini green houses to cover the seeds and see how that method works out.

If anyone out there is good at this, I, and many others, would appreciate any advice you can give us regarding starting seeds.  It all seems easy enough, but last year my morning glories never got past 2" tall.  That is correct.  2 inches tall.  How is that possible?  What am I doing wrong?  I see pictures of morning glories that grow like weeds and envelope a trellis or arbor with glorious green leaves and flowers.  Yet mine, after all summer never really grew at all. 

Hollyhocks are the other plant that elude me.  I see them growing practically wild up in Big Bear. They are in parking lots, coming up through sidewalk cracks and invading yards.   So of course I thought they would do well here and would  need a minimum of water and care.  Wrong.  I got 2 plants out of about 50 seeds I planted last year.   My friend, who lives in Big Bear, was good enough to go around one fall and harvest seeds for me from different hollyhocks and  I still do not have hollyhocks growing in my yard.

So as spring begins to come to Pine Cove, I will again attempt to plant seeds and get them to grow.  After all, spring is a time of renewal and who knows, perhaps one day I will get lucky and something will actually grow!

Monday Musings

Welcome to the last week of January 2011. Time is whizzing on by as per usual. Before you know it, spring will be here. All this nice weather isn't helping either as it is really giving me a whopping case of spring fever. I am trying to control my gardening urges as I know winter is not over and I would be fool hardy to even thing about starting to planting things right now. So I console myself with cleaning out the beds, removing fallen branches and needles and planning what I want to do in the garden this spring. It will be hard to go back to winter after several weeks of such nice, mild weather, but I know we aren't done just yet.

If you really can't resist the urge to get out there plant something, bare root trees can be planted during the winter, however, I do not fancy having to go out and water them in the cold, so I stick to fall or spring for my tree planting. But, if you are brave and don't mind doing a little winter watering, you can go ahead and plant a tree right now. Just be mindful that if you do and we do not receive a generous amount of snow or rain, you will have to go out and water that tree in the cold!

At my house, this creates a problem because I have disconnected my hose to prevent my pipes from freezing. Of course, I could always hook it back up, however, the snow from my metal roof slides off right in front of the hose and it doesn't take long until I have a 4 foot high mountain of snow there. I also do not want to be caught with my hose hooked up during a storm and have to scale that mountain to try to disconnect it after it has frozen. So no hose would mean toting buckets of water out into the yard and frankly, it just doesn't seem worth the effort when I can just wait a few more weeks and not have to deal with the snow and cold in the garden. Once I think the worst is over, then I will do some tree planting.

It is easy to forget that even though the weather isn't hot, that sometimes our trees and plants need watered during the winter. A lot depends on how much snow and rain we get and how good your soil is and how well you have mulched. Now is a good time to do that since the snow is gone and the daytime temps are pretty nice. Just remember to water around late morning or early afternoon so the water has a chance to soak in before any freezing could occur. And remember to disconnect your hose when you are done. Covering you outside faucet is a really good idea as well.

Try to avoid planting trees during the heat of the summer. This is probably the worst time to plant, as they will need an excessive amount of water just to stay alive. If you are like me and don't want to brave doing it in the cold, then just opt for spring or fall planting. While you will still have to water, it won't be as frequently since the temperatures won't be as hot. If you plant in the fall, which is really the best time in my opinion, then it isn't long before the snow and the rain helps you along and you don't have to do so much work. Just be sure to check on them and make sure they are getting enough water and supplement them if they need it.

With a little care, we can help our trees make it through the winter months, nice and health. Healthy trees are better able to fight off diseases and make it through the long, dry summer. Now is also a good time to add some compost to the soil and put on a layer of mulch if you haven't already done so. We still have FREE MULCH just for the taking, so stop buy and pick some up. It will slowly decompose and enrich the soil by making a lovely compost and you won't have to do a thing. Mother Nature will take care of it for you. What could be easier?

Monday Musings

Here we are in December already. Time is flying right on by. We know it is December here in the office because the Christmas cactuses are blooming! Every year these cactuses bloom so beautifully. This year I thought I would share them with you.










We really enjoy caring for these cactuses all year long because we know that every year about this time, we are going to be rewarded with a beautiful show.

Wet Winter Ahead?

The weather station has recorded a whopping 2.52 inches of rain so far for the month of October. Wow, that is great. Is this a sign of things to come for the winter? I keep hearing a drier than normal winter is in our future, but who knows for sure? I sure wasn't expecting this much rain in the past week.

I do hope that we will get at least a normal amount of moisture this winter. With October typically being a bad fire month, I am also hoping that all this rain will at the very least eleviate some of the fire danger that we normally have to deal with at this time of the year.

Another good thing is that if you have done any fall planting this you, you didn't have to do any watering recently. Plants always prefer rain water over tap water, so this is a really nice start to anything you may have planted. I personally transplanted a bunch of cedar trees. I am hoping they take root and grow. They were in an area that was way over crowded with cedar saplings, so I hope to give some of them a chance to grow big and tall by moving them. They seem to have enjoyed the rain as they are all still alive!

Soon the leaves will be turning in full force and the Thanksgiving holiday will soon be upon us. As fall turns to winter, I hope we are blessed with more precipitation, expecially in the form of snow, so that we can continue to be fire free and the trees and wildlife will continue to prosper.