After having no luck finding any traditional ollas locally, I found these unglazed terracotta vases (photo below) at Hobby Lobby for $4.00 each. Ollas MUST be unglazed so that the water can seep through the clay and out into the soil. These met the requirements, and the management swore up and down to me that there was no lead in them.
Here it is, below, buried and filled with water, along with my spindly tomato plant. (I completely forgot to bury the tomato much deeper - I was way to enthralled with my olla.)
And here it is (below) with the lid and a rock weight. I just used clay saucers for the lids - to both keep mosquitoes out and to prevent the water just evaporating straight up into the air. More soil was added, up to the lip of the olla.
Here, below, is a traditional olla - one I bought later when I discovered that Whole Foods sold them locally. In the photo I've planted it too high, so re-did it and lowered it down to that narrowest part of the neck. I forgot to take a photo of the olla itself, but its bottom is bulbous, looking a bit like a water balloon would look if you held it in your hand by its top. This is a small olla - probably holds about a quart and cost me $12.00. I put a very small saucer on the top as a lid and then weighted it with a rock. You don't need to do a saucer if you've a nice flat rock. But I wanted to be sure I kept the mosquitoes out.
Here are a few links of interest:
- This link shows photos of some large 1 and a half gallon sized ollas being planted in a raised bed garden at The Urban Homestead. They also sell ollas here.
- This link shows a few more photos of different-shaped ollas. (I don't know anything about this "High Country Gardens" company.)
- Here is a YouTube demonstration from the folks at The Urban Homestead.
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