In short, an olla (OY-A) is a clay-pot watering tool, invented thousands of years ago by people who lived in arid climates to water their crops. Unglazed terra cotta pots with small openings were inserted into holes in the ground. Water poured into the pot would slowly seep into the soil around it, keeping plant roots moist. Each drop of water was used with purpose.
I first learned about ollas while watching a YouTube video posted by Tanya Anderson of Lovely Greens. Tanya Anderson is a U.S. born transplant living on the Isle of Mann. Her perspective as a UK gardener is unique as she occasionally makes comparisons and translates for her American listeners. Her easy charm makes her a good teacher, and I watched many of her videos during the first pandemic winter of 20/21. I learned about little frog ponds, how to DIY a planter out of a pallet, and how to build an herb spiral (read about mine here) and I became fascinated by the concept of the olla.
Tanya showed how to make an olla using a large terra cotta clay pot and base. She simply plugged up the end of the pot with some putty, and buried it in her raised bed. She filled it with water and put its base over the top. While this worked for Tanya on the sweeter climate of the Isle of Mann (zone 8/9) I wasn’t convinced that simple putty would withstand my harsher New England conditions. I watched a few more how-to videos, and decided to make mine out of two pots glued together on their large ends with Locktite instead.
I experimented with this technique in the summer of 2021, putting a few ollas on only one side of my raised bed garden. I filled the ollas in the afternoon when I watered my vegetable garden. When I looked out in the morning, the side where the ollas were installed was dark and lush while the other side was dry, with unhappy plants thirsting for moisture. I was hooked.
The next year I made a deer-proof garden adjacent to my barn with long lines of raised beds. Ollas were inserted about three feet apart, but I had learned an important lesson from the year before – once plants increase in size, the ollas are hard to find and fill with water. I asked my friend Mike if he would install a watering system for me in the form of a PVC pipe that would fill all the ollas when I turned on the hose. And so my raised bed vegetable garden was created with the additional luxury of an auto-fill clay-pot watering system. The plants are happy, and I water my garden efficiently with less work.
The only drawback is that in areas where the land freezes, ollas must be removed from the ground or you risk them cracking over the winter. To me, this extra step is worth the trouble for a garden outfitted with an ancient watering technique combined with some modern efficiency.
Karen Brockelbank
November 1, 2023
