in a couple of weeks time I'm going on holiday for a month that's right I'm a gardener going on holiday in the middle of the summer I know it's insane but I have a house sitter and she's gonna be looking after the house and looking after the cats and looking after my plants but I'm still a little bit concerned what if she forgets to water or something especially my tomatoes I really want to have some fruit when I come back in August so I've come up with a DIY solution I've made my own oils now if you haven't heard of an oil before the basically terracotta vessels that you fill with water and then you buried them into the ground the plants around the Oya will actually attach their roots to the sides of the vessel and draw water through the terracotta and up and up and into the plants it's a great solution for really dry climates and also maybe greenhouses that might not get enough water now if you buy them purpose-made the beautiful items but they'll set you back 30 pounds apiece more even so I have an idea and I have basically access to care I cut a pot which is the same material so you need unglazed terracotta and I figured out a way to make oils using just this the basic comes along with and a little bit of white tack and I'd like to show you how to do it too now this project is super super easy all you need to do is take some blue tack it's also called Mountain putty or in my case it's a generic white putty and you take a little bit you put it on the inside of your terracotta pot and you smush the edges around to make a tight seal then you flip it over and you do the same thing on the other side it's my opinion that if you have it on both sides can hold the water a lot better next bury the pot in the soil near the plants you're trying to give extra water to bury it all the way up to the rim and then phillips completely with water it's actually quite cool this project because the wide top of the pot makes it really easy for you to water with a watering can then after this grab the base that you bought along with the pot put it over the top and you're sorted the oil has been out overnight and it's holding water really well so whenever I need to refill it can easily take the lid off pour water in and it's set now with this design you can take that white check out at any time and use it as a plant pot but if you want to make a more permanent solution I have a second way to make your own Oya now the second way is a little bit more time-intensive and you start it off in the same way so you attach that same putty to the bottom of your pot and probably set it down on something like paper or cardboard so that the cement that we pour inside won't come through that's right so nice to mix it it's one part that's the cement and two parts and and then you mix it with enough water just to make it moist you don't need it really that sloppy stir it around with a stick or whatever implement you have it'll be kind of a rough wet sand mixture afterwards just spoon it or get it into the pot however you can it's pretty sick if it's if it is quite wet don't worry about it it will dry eventually shake your pot to settle it as best you can and in the very end you want to compress that concrete to make it as flat as possible so I'm using a vinyl glove but you can use whatever you need to and just look at the moisture already coming out of the pot just that little bit of water so after waiting 24 hours your cement is completely hardened and it's non-toxic you don't have to worry about it affecting your plant set and this will last for ages it is a permanent solution though so this is a permanent now and just bury it like you did the other one into the soil around fill it with water put the lid on and you're set and your plants are going to be drawing that water out continuously and you don't need to really water the soil anymore because the roots will find that moisture source and latch on to it if you enjoyed this video please give me a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe if you haven't done so already I release new videos every Friday on gardening my allotment garden my bees and DIY project thanks so much for watching this time and I'll see you next week