Little Urban Greenie: Free Underground Watering System

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This is one of our now and later ideas, which are ways to save money that go in three phases. The first phase is cheapest and easiest, which is the "Get 'er Done" phase. The second phase, which is the "Do It Well" phase, improves upon the first, but is slightly more expensive and may require more time to do a DIY project. The third phase, which is the "You're the Boss" phase, is where you improve upon and customize the idea to best suit your family's individual needs.

Get ‘er Done!

For a free and time saving underground watering “system” (i.e. Olla pot) that can reduce your water use by as much as half, follow the tutorial below.

Estimate watering needs. This is really important with trees and bushes in particular as they use significantly more water. The good news with this watering system is that you can always add more containers if you want to fill them less often or if the plants need it.

Rinse a plastic container well. Two or three rinses does it. (I use 1 gallon plastic milk jugs as that is what we use most.)

Fill the container almost full, with roughly one inch of expansion room. Place container in the freezer overnight if you have room, as this makes it easier to make holes.

Take your container and make holes about an inch to an inch and a half apart, first near the very bottom, then another row 2 inches above that, and then the last row about 2 inches above the middle row.

If you are ready to use, skip to step 7,otherwise let the water drain out and store the “Olla” until ready to use.

When ready to use, bury the Olla within 18 inches of your plants (dirt touching to the bottom of where the lid unscrews). Fill with water.

Check on your Olla pots every day until you figure out how often they need to be refilled. Once you know how often, refill as needed and enjoy your “self-watered” garden.

Do it Well!

Once you have a little more cash and want to upgrade and reduce your plastic use, (See why to reduce your plastic use here.) try your hand at making your own ceramic Olla pots. Follow the tutorial here. To reduce more plastic, plug the bottom hole with a cork and seal any cracks with melted beeswax. Cost is estimated at $5 per Olla pot.

You’re the Boss!

Once you’ve mastered the basic olla pot, you can add other ideas or adapt it better for your circumstances. Here are some other “self-watering” set-ups you can use to save money on irrigation:

You can call local ceramics/pottery studios to see if you can have any non-glazed and hollow pieces that have been abandoned for more unique Olla pots. You’ll want something that has one opening so you can fill it with water. Try your local universities or high school studios and see if they’ll let you have them for free. Some studios have to throw pieces away to make room for new projects.

You can adapt this system to go to your Olla pots underground and Plumb your air conditioner/swamp cooler "waste water" to your garden for “free” water.

You can collect rainwater for under $100 dollars to set it up and adapt the air conditioner system to go directly to your Olla pots. I would recommend adding a two-way valve, so that you can turn the water away from your Olla pots if there is too much rainfall.

You can collect rain water or your air conditioner water in the systems above and feed it to a bucket. You can also just fill the bucket periodically, use the gravity fed drip irrigation system and hook it up to water your garden without electricity, saving water, saving money (if you pay for water), and time.

You can also just fill a narrow necked glass bottle with water and turn it upside down. Rinse an empty bottle, and fill with water. Standing next to your garden, quickly turn over the bottle and push the neck down into the soil near the base of the plant. Make sure the neck is at least several inches underground. The water in the bottle will seep into the soil over several days, keeping the soil evenly moist. This system works great for potted plants too!

You can use mason jars with holes in them as Olla pots too. Just bury the jar up to the neck with the side with the hole in it is next to a plant. Fill the jar with water and cover the top of the jar with a lid to keep water in it. You can prick holes in the lid to allow water to drip in when it rains. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=252&v=lmXTMki8SL8[/embed]

You can also copy the Youtube video above and create a super easy non-electric drip irrigation for less than $10

You can just buy ready made Olla pots, but they’re about 5 times more expensive than the homemade version and it will take time to get your investment back in water savings.