Ollas

I learned something new today. I happened upon a link, which went to a link, and another link and finally ended up at a neat blog I visit regularly. There, I saw my first pictures of ollas being put in the garden. I had never heard of an olla before. The premise is to bury a clay jar, plant around it, fill it with water and have a natural irrigation system in place. Apparently the roots of the plants grow towards the olla and basically hang out there to take what water they need. This would use a lot less water because you aren't wasting water on soil where there are no roots, and there's very little (or no, I suppose, if it's covered) evaporation loss. Unfortunately, Ollas are pretty expensive. For the same price, I can buy a 55 gallon water collection barrel from the local co-op. The olla is less work though. Decisions, decisions. I've read online about using clay pots instead, but obviously that has some problems since the top is so open. I'm mulling ideas around in my head. The one I like most right now is to use clay pots with the drain holes sealed up, bury the pot up to it's top edge, fill with water and cover with one of the clay dishes that usually set under the pot. In the dish, perhaps I could plant a shallow root herb (oregano?). Like I said, all a very new idea to me that I didn't know anything about prior to today. I'm researching and seeing how feasible/economical it would be for us. I'm thinking we could collect rainwater (which the plants do SOO much better with) and use it to fill the ollas. With less water necessary, we wouldn't need so much storage on hand, so we'd save money on storage containers and a water pump, and have less hassle when it comes time to water. ideas, ideas....

I just found this article out of Austin that talks about improvising an olla by using silicone to glue two pots together top to top. That just leaves a small hole above ground (better evaporation control). I'm definitely gonna have to do some price shopping.