I thought that I was doing everything possible to conserve water in my desert garden by harvesting rainwater, using drip irrigation, and heavily mulching my entire garden with huge loads of wood chips from Chip Drop. That was until I attended Julie Knapp's Alternative Watering Techniques class last week at D.I.G. - Desert Institute of Gardening. There I learned that I could reduce my garden watering consumption by up to 50% by using ollas, wicking beds, sub-irrigated pipes, and watering stakes. Wow!
Ollas are clay vessels that you bury underground and plant your veggies around. You keep the olla full of water and the water seeps through the clay and feeds the roots of nearby plants. I am most intrigued by the automated olla system Julie introduced in class. This system can easily be hooked up to a rain barrel!
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| Julie holding small hand-made ollas connected to drip lines for use in an automated olla system. |
You can make your own ollas with some silicone and clay pots as shown above, or you can buy them from a company in Tucson called Cutting Edge Ceramics
Another watering method from class that excites me are the wicking beds made using sub-irrigated pipes. This too could be fed with water from a rain barrel. What a great way to extend the use of my collected monsoon rainwater this summer!
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| Julie Knapp showing the perforated pipe wrapped in landscape fabric, and a container for a wicking bed garden. |
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| Master Gardener and desert forager Kelly Athena starts building her own olla in class. |
Making the ollas was fairly simple. First we used silicone to glue a glass marble over the drain hole in the bottom pot. Then we sanded the rims of the pots to smooth out any imperfections so the rims would lay evenly together. Next we spread silicone around the rim of the bottom pot and pressed the top clay pot down over the bottom pot. The final step was sealing around the outside with more silicone.
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| Students in class using silicone and 2 clay pots to build their olla. |
If you decide to make your own olla, be sure to let it dry overnight, and test it before using it by soaking it in a bucket of water to look for leaks. When you bury the pot, leave a few inches exposed above the mulch and after filling put a rock or pot tray over the hole to slow evaporation and keep bugs out.
Another watering method Julie introduced to class was watering stakes. I had seen these before in gardening departments but thought that they would simply clog with dirt and be ineffective. But Julie pointed out that there is a mesh inside to prevent the pipe from getting clogged with dirt.
You can also make your own watering stakes/pipes by drilling holes in 2 inch PVC pipes and capping each end. Leave the top cap unglued so you can run the drip line through it. Wrap and seal the tube with landscape cloth to keep the dirt out. What a great way to ensure that you are deep watering your trees!
I will be implementing these methods into my garden over the coming months and will be blogging in more detail about automated ollas and wicking beds so stay tuned!
To learn more from Master Gardener Julie Knapp, read her blog -
The Transplanted Gardener.
Another great class from D.I.G. - the Desert Institute of Gardening - is coming up this Sunday May 6th, from 2pm to 4pm - Harvesting Desert Bean Trees for Food & Medicine - Master Gardener Kelly Athena will give you a hands-on experience in becoming a desert forager of the three important bean trees in our area: Mesquite, Paloverde, and Ironwood. You will get to taste the beans and take away recipes for flour, syrup, jelly, edamame, tea, and more!
