The Making of the Olla

I first heard about Ollas when I was reading Tania's blog a while back and I was quite intrigued by them and keen to make some. However, at the time I was unable to find unglazed terracotta pots and then we bought our Watersaver Garden so concentrated on getting that set up instead.

However, on a recent trip to buy strawberry plants at Bunnings, I spied some unglazed terracotta pots on the shelf so thought I would buy a couple and experiment with them to see if they worked before buying any more. 

On her blog Tania has a link to The Suburban Farm where there is an easy step by step tutorial for making an Olla which apparently is pronounced oh-yah but I watched a couple of YouTube videos and the presenters seem to pronounce it more like oi-yah. Tania used Liquid Nails Ceramic to fill in the hole in the bottom pot and to glue both pots together but when I went to the Hardware Store there was none there so I asked what would be a suitable non- toxic glue which would do the job and the very helpful salesman spent some time going through the different glues and thought that the Silaflex-11FC should do the trick. It is drinking water safe as well as potable water safe...whatever that means...but it sounded like it would be okay to use. It did cost $17 or so and I am hoping the Olla will be effective and will be the first of many to make it worth spending that much money on glue as the pots weren't very expensive. Yikes!

   

Yesterday I decided the time had come to stop procrastinating and just make one finally but seeing as I couldn't get the hang of the caulking gun and get any glue to come out, the CEO had to take over :-) Firstly a flat rock was glued to the bottom of one of the pots to cover the hole and then more glue was put on the outside. Then the two pots were glued together and hopefully will seal well. 

The pots were pressed together firmly and then the glue was spread out a little on the outside. 

Then it was left to dry and hopefully will dry in 24 hours or so. The pot on top in the photo will be the bottom pot when buried into the ground. The hole has been sealed so that when the pot is filled with water it will seep slowly out the walls of the pot into the surrounding soil and not gush out through the hole.

Once the glue has dried then the pots will be buried in the garden with the top sitting above the soil level. Then they will be filled with water through the top hole which will then be covered by a rock or something else that is suitable. All being well the water will start seeping out and it will be mission accomplished. On one website it was suggested to soak the Olla in a bucket of water first before burying it so as to assist the wicking action.

I can't find it now but I also read that someone also painted the top of the Olla sticking out of the soil to prevent evaporation in summer. It was an American website and I am not sure what type of paint they used or what would be suitable or available in Australia.

So there you have it...the making of the Olla...at long last! It doesn't look pretty but it really doesn't matter as long as it works. There are a number of YouTube videos available such as this one if you are interested in finding out more about making your own but it is a fairly simple and easy to make project so if you give it a try let me know if it works for you.

UPDATE: You can read more about the Olla here.