This week has been wonderful! After several weeks of above "normal" temps for the last of April and the first of May, we have been blessed with below normal temps. I took this opportunity to get alot more work done in the new beds. I accomplished this yesterday.
I covered the dirt with 4 layers of newspaper and 2 inches of straw. It took 1 bale of straw for this bed.
These are the "Olla" water pots that I found on Pinterest from globalbuckets.org . The directions from Global Buckets said they used Gorilla Glue and then silicone caulk. I opted for aquarium caulk only. Ten 6 inch pots and 1 tube of caulk cost just under $20. This photo is from the second trial for leaks. The caulk takes 2 days to set, so it was about a week from when I put them together to when I was able to put them in the ground.
Pots in the ground. I filled the pots with just under 2 litres of water a piece. They are about 1/2 full this morning, so I figure they will need to be filled every other day while the weather is somewhat cooler. We are getting a very nice gentle rain right now so this schedule for filling is only speculation. I am going to cover the holes with rocks to cut down on evaporation and mosquito larve.
This pot did not get into the ground till early evening. It was filled at the same time as the others. The water had leached 6 inches into the ground when I dug the hole, about the same amount as the water level inside the pot. If all goes well, when all the pots are in it should only take a little over 15 gallons of water a week for the 2 beds. We shall see.
