Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Fall Planting & Homemade Ollas

I finally got around to planting my fall garden last weekend.  Part of the reason it took so long was because of all the rain (over 10" at my house over the last 2 weeks).  The other reason was that I had decided to make some homemade Ollas.  I'm not sure if they'll work, or how well, but I figured that it was like $10 for two of them so it's not a big deal if it doesn't work.

I made mine thusly:

Step 1: purchase an unglazed terracotta pot with a saucer that fits the top.  Also get yourself some permanent craft glue.  The directions I followed actually recommended using permanent craft glue and then sealing around the seams with caulk.  I opted to skip the caulking part and only used the E6000; so again, I don't know if it will work or for how long, but yay! EXPERIMENT!


Step 2: Follow craft glue directions to glue the saucer to the pot.  In the case of E6000, you're to put a thin layer on each piece, let them sit for 2-5 minutes and then press together.

Step 3: After pressing the pieces together, I added a bead around the outside  and then let them sit for a few days.


Then came this last weekend - I pulled out the spring veggies (it was tough - especially since both the tomato and habanero were alive; but neither had any flowers and it's really too late in the season to have expected them to produce anything before the freezes), and buried the ollas in the garden - one in each bed, and then planted the fall veggies around.

I left the herbs in place and I had already planted the Inchellium garlic so I really only needed to transplant the starts I had purchased at Red Barn a few weeks ago.  This year I'm growing the aforementioned Inchelium Garlic, Garlic Chives, Oregano, "Bouquet" Dill, "Bronze" Fennel, "Snow Crown" Cauliflower, "Pacman" Broccoli, "Black Magic" Kale, "Dragon Tongue" Mustard, "Graffiti" Cauliflower, "Romanesco" Broccoli, and "Southern Comet" Broccoli.

1 comment:

Rock rose said...

It is certainly a less expensive way than the real thing. I saw some yesterday and was amazed at the price plus the big hole I would have to dig to put it in. I hope your experiment works. That's quite a planting.