Friday 16 March 2018

How to: Olla Spiral garden


Recently I had a great conversation with my friend who did not have much space. She is my best friend so I had no problem trying to find her a way to have a low maintenance small space mini garden. 
I took the idea of the olla to make a long , slow leaking water basin that will allow the plants to be watered over a long period of time without needing to be watered every day . ( I have busy friends)
 the plants themselves can occupy a large amount of space for they will live in a spiral tower. Therefore you will have a greatly enlarged growing area to what could never be achieved in the same pot without the spiral fencing.
In this example the plants are herbs and destined to be a back door chef garden.

This is the step by step guide on how to make one for yourself!

untreated clay pots are stacked and sealed together ( with cocking, demonstrated in green ) while the very top of the pot Tower is also sealed as to reduce evaporation. The bottom hole is also sealed shut and placed on a good couple of inches of rocks for drainage. This is all contained by a larger terracotta pot. Stakes are lined up and stacked in a spiral around the olla pots and the rest is filled with soil ( in pink) 

Afterwards when filled with soil and plants it will look like the above picture.
Plants should be planted in respects to their best companions.
The top terracotta pot should stick out of the soil and the drainage hole at the top of the overturned pot will be used to fill the long basin with water. After filling with water cover the hole with a large rock or a small plate .

What you will need :
soil
plants for planting
wooden dowels you will use as the support to your spiral tower- you can use sticks from trees provided the sticks are sturdy and straight
drainage stones - any medium stone will do
A even number of small terracotta pots - like the one bellow -



silicone cocking to seal the pots together.like the one below









In the Garden With Lauraetta : Potato Tower 2018/06/16

In the garden today as you can see we have a potato tower that I have going. I didn’t reading up a lot on people with grow bags. The ...