Garden irrigation - olla pots in place.

It was @riverflows that brought these to my attention (thanks 😬) via a few posts during her garden updates that mentioned olla pots earlier on in the year. From her success using them and a little bit of research i decided i wanted to utilise these in my garden. Not only will they help save on watering but will hopefully increase the time between the watering needed.

Good for the environment and my productivity, win win!

Olla irrigation pots are unglazed clay pots that when filled with water and buried in the soil allows the water to seep through providing a constant water source for plants nearby.

With a little be of work these can be made cheaply or in my case for free from bits i had lying around.

repurposing clay pots to make olla irrigation pots

I had 4 tall clay tomatoe pots that to be honest dried out to quick in the sun, so re-purposing them was a smart move. only issue was the hole in the bottom.

sealing the hole in the pot to make olla irrigation pots

The first on i taped on the outside then realised it works best if you tape from the inside.

sealing the bottom of a clay watering pot

I then put in about 1cm of postcrete which is a rapid setting concrete i had on hand from building the greenhouse beds.

It was then wetted down and left to set.

I still have lids left to make to stop to much evaporation but i've got the materials set aside to do this, these olla pots have been in over 24hours since filling up and still have water in, as the soil starts to absorb more water the rate at which the olla pots empty should start to slow down.

This is only part of the greenhouse watering system i have planned but i needed a quick and hassle free solution, ill be planting tomatoes, bell peppers, aubergines and cucumbers around as these less forgiving than the chillies when it comes to bit variations in watering.

This little drawing shows how it will be in a few weeks once the automatic watering system is finished, ill be doing posts on that as i go to.

no doubt itll change from this also as it gets closer to completion.

Well that's it for this post!

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