The Loring Street Olla Project

My garden went from lush, green, and rioting with color, to dried up and dead. And this will happen in the summer here without a steady supply of water,

The severe drought in California is forcing stricter measures to be put into place for the average citizen while Fracking and big water bottling companies like Nestle are pumping water out of our aquifers at a terrifying rate. We're being told that we can only use 35 indoor gallons per person a day, which isn't bad, yet you can still wash your car as long as you have a nozzle on the hose that you can shut off while you soap up. Its not making sense. Total bullshit. We're watching greed and entitlement in its true colors right now. We gardeners and people really working hard to actually conserve our resources are suffering while lawns are still green, water is being bottled for a profit, our dwindling ground water is being sucked up and polluted forever, and you can still wash your car.

 But aside from all of  that, I'm managing to have a small garden this year because I did some research, thought ahead, and took some action. I discovered Ollas. (Pronounced oh-yah) The pretty, large, round ones are just too expensive for my meager budget, but I discovered how to make them myself using plain  terracotta flower pots and matching saucers. People have been using ollas for thousands of years in arid countries. So why not. I bought some pots at that big box home improvement store, but if you are good at scrounging and have cheaper places to shop at, all the better. I made the first batch by just sealing them together with a silicone sealer that comes in a tube for use with a caulking gun, I should have considered whether it was a food grade composition, but I didnt. I read that aquarium caulk is best. I dont think this is a huge deal, but I will be more careful next time.  I made another batch by gluing them together first with hot glue and then using the silicone sealer. Some swear by using Guerrilla Glue, but we'll see how these work out.They don't last forever, some will inevitably break, but it seems like such a reasonable way to conserve water and not spend a fortune.

 Unfortunately, I had  put my tomatoes and cucumbers in the ground beforehand and the plants really could have benefited from the ollas being planted closer at the same time. . I planted some as close to the tomatoes as I dared  get. You have to dig fairly deep - and of course, it depends on the size of the pot.  I had already set plastic grow pots near their roots, but it didn't seem like they were getting enough water. I hoped that this would help.

The idea behind the olla watering system is that by filling them with water and letting the ground dry out, the roots of the plants will be drawn to the water and collect moisture by pulling the water from the submerged container. It has to be a porous container so that moisture will be able to escape to the thirsty roots. Some people get all fancy by installing an irrigation system that fill the pots, but I just do it by hand with a headless water wand. You just unscrew the head. I went out and bought a funnel to make the system less wasteful as I still end up spilling some.

By trial and error, I am learning how to use this wonderful watering system! Next year, I will plant my tomatoes around  larger Ollas and use the smaller ones for the other veggies. . Ive been covering the holes with rocks and little chunks of found concrete, but next time I'll paint all the tops white and cover them with saucers to alleviate some of the inevitable evaporation. And everything will get planted around the ollas at the same time.

While I was doing my research, I saw a lot of pictures of things newly planted around the Ollas, but not so  many photos of plants as they grow with this system - or the end results. So I'll try to remedy this by showing how my garden progresses over the summer.
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Lets start with the tomatoes. Mine are all mostly Cherokee tomatoes. Ive also got a  Black Prince and an Egyptian somethingorother that appears to be a paste tomato, I started most of them from seed indoors and they just seem a lot smaller than what they should be. They are all producing fruit, but they are tiny as compared to last year. The soil should be fine and I used the same techniques that I used last year. They might need more sun - maybe they don't get enough hours of it. I think putting in a couple of Ollas and mulching with some rotting hay has helped. We have had some hot days, so all in all, the plants seem a lot happier now. Ive got more flowers, so I am ever hopeful.

The cucs, which I never have any luck with, seem to be pulling out of whatever bad mood they were growing up in. Ive been upping the fertilizer - mostly worm castings - seems like they should be bigger, but they look like they might live. I actually got two medium sized cucumbers out of this one. Maybe its just too much to hope for a healthy cucumber plant in my world of mega cucumber beetles (they spread a virus). I have one growing in a more enclosed space out back, and it looks much healthier - no cucumber beetles. I am convinced that they like the Olla watering system.

 So far, the pole beans that were planted around the Ollas are the healthiest I have ever had. (this is a photo after a long hot day - they always look a bit wiltie after the heat) They look like they are supposed to and I didn't lose a single one. Not a single one. I had saved up a lot of toilet paper rolls and gave them little collars as they poked their little heads up out of the soil. It works like a charm. There are a few that were planted a bit far out of reach of the water, but I save the watering can or the hose for the ones that wouldn't otherwise make it. More Ollas next time!

Eggplants, Zucchini, Kale, and Cilantro are all doing well. Now that they are established, I water about every two - three days and use so  little water as compared to last year. I have not planted any root crops because I just didn't have all that many pots. But Ive got more space since digging up my garlic. It would be fun to see how carrots and radishes grow around these.

The bottom line is: if you have the time and some DIY skills, you can do this as well. They do take up some room and have to be stored somewhere if you dig them out of the ground, but if you plan it out, it looks like you can actually get quite a bit  out of a small amount of space. Stay tuned.

Thinking of Cabbages

So now that there is actually hope for me and my little garden,  Im thinking of starting seeds soon to plant for Fall and Winter. I want to try cabbages and broccoli as soon as I put my current seedlings in the ground. I also want to look like the girl in this Barbier print - but I would need to lose a few pounds.

I dont know if I'll have time or room for all of these - but some are spoken for. I just start them indoors and they always come up. I put them outdoors instead of under my skylight this year because I have a new kitten. They seem to be doing just as well. Ive got several different kinds of peppers and tomatoes - with lots of onions.

Heirloom Seedlings

 

These tomatoes and pumpkin starts turned out pretty nice. I had enough to pass out to family and friends. (This is just a few of them)

The ones that I kept for myself did terribly. The ones that I gave to friends did not grow or produce well. The ones that I gave to my sister grew and produced like monsters.

The first mistake that I made was to put them in terrible soil. I had put all the compost from my bins into the soil first. I had turned the soil a few times. I had added a few bags of purchased organic garden soil. I added coffee grounds, an organic fertilizer and worm castings before I planted. But soil needs time to be amended and I didn't realize just how bad and depleted the ground really was. Next spring I will have better soil. I'll also add some calcium and fish in the hole before I plant. A woman down the road told me that she adds a dead fish down by the roots and always has great tomatoes. Ive read about it. I'll do it.

An early warm spring fooled me. We had a spurt of great weather and I went crazy with planting things. The tomatoes went in way too soon. When the weather turned windy and chilly, these became stunted. They didn't have a chance in hell to become great producers. But I limped them along all summer and I did get a few tomatoes. What a waste of water and effort though. I learned things. I learned. I'll wait until May next time. I'll start the seedlings later.

I also planted them too close together. I knew this wasn't good. but they did ok up at Sam and Earl's last summer. So I went ahead and did it. Bad Move.

It was not a hot summer. They needed more heat. It was too windy. And I also don't think that they got enough sun. I'll plant them in different places next year. I also may put some of them in Smart Pots and see how they do.

As for my friends, they had neither the time nor the initiative to learn how to grow a vegetable. But it might move them forward for next year. At least they didn't die!

As for my sister, she lives in Napa - very hot in the summer. She had a walled in, protected garden and the soil had been amended for several years with chicken and rabbit manure. Her tomatoes went insane. Her peppers and eggplants were monsters. I would like to live in Napa. But here I am........................I will add some aged manure this winter.

I had lots of rogue tomatoes again this year, and I let them grow wild. Those did fabulously. I had cherry tomatoes again and the neighbors ate them to their hearts content.

To be continued next year.

Guerilla Gardening

 My backyard is too shady for growing much of anything. So Ive been forced to do myself some guerrilla gardening in the lot next door. I did obtain permission from the owner who subsequently put the land up for sale.

Sigh.

But I'm sure it wont sell for a while..

Fingers crossed.

This is my second attempt at growing container vegetables. (not counting all the failed attempts when living in San Francisco) My second attempt here in Crockett where it is  warm and sunny in the summer.

I set them out further into the field where they can get sun. I rigged up a hose to water them with (instead of dragging buckets of water back and forth - oh yes I did.) and this is already helping immensely.

 The tomatoes just don't look great despite water and some fish emulsion. I put compost in with the potting soil before planting. But I think I simply have a lot more to learn about this and all the info that I study online is either contradictory or just plain confusing. Too much water, not enough water, too much this, not enough that. Ive got baby tomatoes coming on finally, so we'll see. Maybe pretty plants just are not so important. And maybe its just going to take a lot to turn my thumb green.

 There are radishes and carrots planted in with the tomatoes also. We'll see if this was a good idea or not. I do want to plant a bin of coriander and one of lettuce. Maybe some more beans ...........maybe one for more carrots and radishes. And lets not forget all the herbs that I lust for. But that's a lot of soil and bins to buy. That's a lot of storing bins through the winter. Maybe small is best to start with since I have a tendency to be a homicidal plant killer.

I planted marigolds and wild flowers in the sidewalk also. I pulled up all the weeds and amended the soil with compost and regular old soil from the lot. I carefully put seeds in rows so that I would see where the plants were coming up. Unfortunately , later on, I had a fit of madness and threw in a mess of flower seeds - thinking they probably wouldn't grow - and whats a few more - the birds will eat the seeds, right? Well I was wrong and stuff has come up that I have no idea what on earth it is. So I thin and thin and hope Im actually pulling weeds and not flowers.. It does look like there are lots of  something flowerie sprouting  in there, so I'll continue thinning it out and see what happens. What a mess.

 2012 is the year of WHATEVER for me. So whatever. If it grows and I learn a thing or two, get to gaze on some garden color, and have some vegetables without toxins, I'll be grateful. Already the butterfly's are flitting around this. Ive done my small part to make them happy.

My Garden At Sam and Earl's house

Sam and I are doing a kind of trade right now. I give him sewing lessons - or make pillows - or pull weeds and I get to grow vegetables and herbs in one of the garden plots that he made..

I had a great crop of radishes but then I decided to plant cucumbers and squash once those got all eaten up. At first I thought that I was going to lose the squash starts because they were not looking so good, but then they snapped out of it. I also planted two more tomato plants. The two that I have growing now are an Early Girl - and I forget which one the other is. One is a determinate and the other an indeterminate. They are full of foliage and very lush. Ive got a few little tomatoes coming on and some blossoms. But it seems like they are too perfect looking. I don't trust this. Because I killed my last tomatoes last year. They just failed.

First of all, last year they were in 5 gallon containers, had inconsistent water, and were not getting enough sun. They just didn't produce much. When mushrooms started growing in the soil, I freaked out and tossed them all into a compost pile.  I know now that mushrooms growing in the soil was a good thing - but the poor plants were not doing well any way. It was hopeless. And now, of all the crazy things, Ive got little baby tomato plants growing all over the place. I guess there were a few fruits on the plants that got massacred and those seeds got spread around somehow. Birds, wind..........who knows.  Nature is strange at best and I obviously didn't kill them dead enough...............

So these current tomatoes that Ive got growing up at Sam and Earl's are in soil that has been amended and mulched. They look fabulous and I cant believe that I haven't killed them. I don't have a car yet, so I kind of just get my starts where I can get them  - these came from Home Depot. I'm not promoting Home Depot at all. I'm just letting you know where they came from if that makes a difference to you. I would rather have purchased them from an organic nursery, but we just have to do what we have to do, don't we. I'm sure they are just fine. So hopefully they will continue to be healthy plants with lots of produce! Perhaps living next to a bee hive helps them grow better. I don't trust myself with container growing, but I do have a container garden over by my house right now with varying stages of growth. More will be blogged about that later.

Ive also got a row of lettuce and carrots growing in the ground. Ive been eating lots of salads now and I swear that this lettuce tastes better than any lettuce Ive eaten from a store.

In the plot next to mine, we planted 4 tomatoes for Sam and Earl - and pole beans. I'm sure they all came from a local nursery as Sam is a gardener by trade and very concerned with organics and the environment as well. With any luck, we will have tomatoes and zucchinis coming out of our ears.

There is that mama jay again protecting her nest.