I have recently been working on making garden ollas. Ollas (pronounced "oi yeahs") are used as an ancient irrigation system that delivers water directly to a plants roots. The shapes that you see in the above picture are made out of terra cotta clay and they are only bisque fired. Since these pots are not glazed they are still quite porous. This allows water to slowly seep out of them. The idea is that you bury these pots up to their neck in your garden then you plant your favorite garden plants around them. Keeping your ollas filled with water ensures that on those hot days during the summer, your plants will have a nice steady water supply. The roots of your plants will eventually wrap around the ollas so that the water seeping from them is delivered directly to the roots.
The lids on these pots are to keep bugs and dirt out. Ollas are not meant for; bushes, shrubs, trees or any "wooded" plants. The best time to plant them is in the spring when you are planting everything else. Summer is almost over, so this is probably the worst time for me to be making ollas because it will be raining like crazy soon and they will not be needed. But, by next spring I will have a bunch of these fine pots and they will be ready to go in the ground. It may be a bad time to be making them, but that is okay with me because I find that I really like throwing these shapes on the wheel. It's fun! In the picture above I am working away in my studio making ollas while using my truck as an extra work bench (since my studio is kinda small).
My sister (who gave me the idea to start making ollas) sent me the following youtube clip about how to garden with ollas:
