Vegetation come to Forward Zone Alpha!

[errantember]

You may recall the Angry Remake of Forward Zone Alpha.

God knows I do.

I've had about 14 plants staring at me balefully from on top of the mailbox for about three weeks or more now. Evidently they're getting tired of their tiny 4" pots, and are ready for dirt. Every day, as I walked outside, they would say "Hey pigfucker! Where's the dirt?"

They actually used the word "pigfucker," which is a first for me.

Well today, *finally*, they got some dirt.





The wall you see is one I've been painfully laying over the course of the past month. Every foundation stone has been hand-leveled, and it currently has no mortar. The section shown here is less than 1/4 of the final result, but I wanted to get *some* plants into the ground as soon as possible, so once I had 3 fully built walls to contain the soil, I put the fuckers in.

Some people may be wondering what the hell the little terra cotta things sticking up out of the soil are. This is what they look like *before* the addition of dirt.



These are the Pod People I promised to talk about earlier. They're called ollas, and they are very effective, low-tech way of irrigating plants. The water seeps slowly out of the terra cotta, and the plants grow their roots hugging the walls. Most of the the water goes just to the plants you want, and not to nearby weeds.

Figuring out the placement was total guesswork, since I've never used them before and don't know how much the water will soak out sideways in my custom mix of my compost, the fairly good topsoil that I dug up laying the wall, and the Natural Gardener's Hill Country Garden Soil. Considering they're made out of two 6" flower pots, the ollas hold a shitload of water, probably 3/4 of a gallon each. I have several upgrades planned, including funnels and or plugs and/or bobbers that tell me how full they are. In their current state, they cost about $5 each.

This has been a much bigger project than I first envisioned, and I haven't even started on the constructed wetland yet. So far I've zorched the existing bushes, hand dug-out all 200 sq. ft. of grass and weeds one root at a time, hand-laid about 1/3 of the wall, purchased and moved 1400 lbs of soil, hand-built the ollas, and put together the section you see here and a little more. I'm getting better at everything, but I'll be lucky if I get the bed fully populated before fall.

I went with my friend trippedbreaker to pig out at the Cheesecake Factory in celebration.

All six plants seen here are peppers. The tomatoes are next.

Comments

[worldmegan.livejournal.com]

Oh, Jesus calls people 'pigfucker' all the time. I heard him. When his mic was off.

[errantember.livejournal.com]

It's been too long.

I just made ice cream with my ice-and-salt setup.

The short review is "too much fucking honey."

There is no way I'll possibly be able to eat it all before next time you come, so you'll get to try some.

[lorelein.livejournal.com]

So you're saying that the way to motivate you is to call you a pigfucker?

[errantember.livejournal.com]

That would depend on the pig.

[lorelein.livejournal.com]

This totally reminds me of the lyrics to House of Pain's "Jump Around."

[shadow-nite2.livejournal.com]

If you ever need help with yard work and landscaping let me know. I miss doing this kind of stuff, I used to do all kinds of cool designs back on the ranch in California, but have been mostly apartment living in Austin.

[errantember.livejournal.com]

Thanks for offering! I may take you up on it sometime soon. Once I get the plants I have in the ground, I may want help laying the rest of the wall.

[gailmom.livejournal.com]

So the terra cotta things are kinda the same concept as Garden Boxes? Only not plastic....or is this taken from the south american "let's take our potter and smash it into the soil to improve it" thing?
either way, cool.

[gailmom.livejournal.com]

oh good heavens, i meant "pottery" not potter. never smash your potter into the soil...

[errantember.livejournal.com]

They're called ollas, and they are irrigation devices. They have holes only in the top. You fill them with water, which seeps out through the terra cotta slowly to wet nearby soil. The plants grow their roots around them, so only the plants you want get water.