The Olla experiment

I'm constantly on the search for really great lazy gardener tools. I've been reading about Ollas but thought that the cost seemed prohibitive. I decided to try to fashion some of my own. I don't have a pottery wheel or a kiln so I went to Home Depot for some terracotta pots. They were $.98 each. I also bought some silicone sealant for about 5 bucks. So, for around $11, I built 5 ollas.

I've read that you should drill out the top hole a bit so that you can see when they need to be filled. I worried that I would shatter the pot if I tried to enlarge the hole. Plus, then they'd be more likely to fill with soil and stuff once planted. I left the hole as is but added a chunk of styrofoam inside the olla. I'm hoping that once filled with water, the foam will float to the top and it's whitey whiteness will be easily seen. This should make checking the water level rather simple (I think).


I picked all of the green tomatoes and pulled out the old tomato plants. I removed all of the soil from the galvanized troughs and moved them closer to the patio. I then refilled them. They hold a surprising amount of soil those things. I made the mistake with the first one to remove only most of the soil and my back is sore today. I also began to move the brick path AGAIN. I just can't quite figure out the perfect route. It'll come to me soon.





Into the newly moved troughs will go some new plants (I'm off to the nursery today) and the new ollas. In one trough, one medium olla. In another trough, 2 medium ollas. In the third trough (a shorter one) two small ollas. I'll keep an eye on the plants for the season to try to determine the ideal olla placement.

I've also been wondering about moving the sunset maple I planted 5 years ago. I have a friend with an array of excavation equipment and I think I'll call him to see if it's even do-able. I realized that it's the perfect tree for the back corner where the neighbor removed all the trees last week. Plus, moving it means that we could expand our gate to include a driveway dip in the sidewalk. This would make motorcycle movement a whole lot easier. We're still working on restoring my old Honda but there's a bike for Jonathan and a bike for the boy (when he's ready) in the shed. You just never know when you might need a set of motorcycles! Now I need to squirrel away some gasoline for them. hee hee, I've lost my mind.