Photos of Our Outdoor Russian Tortoise Enclosure and Garden

Oxalis

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So I have this mysterious yellow flowering plant in our garden. My husband wanted to pull it. I had planted wildflower seed in the spring. Thanks to you I now know it is hawkweed! You never know where you will learn something.
I'm glad to hear that helped!! :) The Tortoise Table also has some great volunteers who can help you identify plants as well: https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/siteassets/forum/ I have a flower I'll need to post on there too (I have no idea how it got in my yard...).
 

Oxalis

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Stevie's garden is pretty much a jungle now, at least for him it is. I have not yet weeded since I've been so busy this year. Steve just needs to eat his plants faster. :p I've already pruned the Spiraea but it could still use another prune.

enclosure_garden18.jpg

Here's Steve by some blooms. The lighter purple is a native phlox; the darker purple is a small geranium; and the yellow is a coreopsis. The giant leaves by the flamingo are from our many gourd seeds that we threw in the compost bin.

phlox_and_geranium.jpg

My native hibiscus is pretty tall now and has a few buds. :) Every other bit of space is filled with asters, primrose, dandelion, and clover.

hibiscus_and_primrose.jpg
 

Oxalis

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I have the umbrella out to provide Stevie with lots of shade today! We've had temps in the 90s all weekend with high humidity. I've also been watering the garden every so often through the day. Steve has been awesome doing his natural thing: resting in the shade until the temperature has dropped enough to walk around his enclosure more. This is a nice benefit to having a solitary pet; he doesn't need to learn this behavior from others in his species. Although I need to weed (when it cools down!) the plants provide a slightly cooler environment for little Steve too, since they lose water when they "exhale." Hence why our world needs more trees!

steves_enclosure.jpg
 

Maro2Bear

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Stevie's garden is pretty much a jungle now, at least for him it is. I have not yet weeded since I've been so busy this year. Steve just needs to eat his plants faster. :p I've already pruned the Spiraea but it could still use another prune.

View attachment 242472

Here's Steve by some blooms. The lighter purple is a native phlox; the darker purple is a small geranium; and the yellow is a coreopsis. The giant leaves by the flamingo are from our many gourd seeds that we threw in the compost bin.

View attachment 242474

My native hibiscus is pretty tall now and has a few buds. :) Every other bit of space is filled with asters, primrose, dandelion, and clover.

View attachment 242473


You are hibiscus are looking pretty good there. Should be blooming soon!
 

MrMarg&me

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More trees!!! A neighborhood with trees is more comfortable because of the shade and the exhalations of the trees. I think the term is transpiration. Not to mention the beauty they provide. Steve’s garden looks very inviting.
 

ShirleyTX

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I found this thread today and read all 12 pages! It was fun to see you start with a BF, move on to fiancé, and then tie the knot.

The one year you had trouble with Stevie pacing the northern wall. Did that stop? Do you have a theory why?

Thank you for a great great thread!
 

Oxalis

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We have either all red or all white growing around here. I like what you have,very pretty. Your whole garden looks Great.
Thank you!! The pale pink color should come from a native genotype of the Hibiscus moscheutos species. I purchased it from Wildtype Native Plant Nursery, which offers a great deal of native Michigan genotypes. :) It's so nice to have a unique, natural color.
I found this thread today and read all 12 pages! It was fun to see you start with a BF, move on to fiancé, and then tie the knot.

The one year you had trouble with Stevie pacing the northern wall. Did that stop? Do you have a theory why?

Thank you for a great great thread!
Thank you for the kind words! We've both worked so hard to give Steve an awesome garden. :<3::<3::<3: Steve does still pace a little bit, but we've noticed that he tends to do this less when the plants are fuller, such as during this time of year. This may just provide more sight barriers, but we're honestly still a bit lost on why he does this. Just this year, he's started pacing along the eastern wall, which is under his giant Spiraea bush. Maybe he just doesn't like fences. I also don't think he paces every time he's outside; it's selective and may depend on the time of day. When it's hot out, he does rest in the shade and doesn't overexert himself. He doesn't seem stressed to me, but I am no zoologist. Nevertheless, he is getting plenty of exercise, eating and sleeping well. This is the one thing he does that truly boggles our minds. :confused:

So we just came home from a weeklong vacation to an utter jungle:

crazy_garden1.jpg

The squash plants are out of control and will need to be trimmed lest they kill the thinner weaker plants, like the asters, which they're clinging to. Their giant leaves are blocking out a lot of light for shorter plants. It's quite cramped in there! I have so much weeding to do. :eek:

crazy_garden2.jpg

It looks like we'll have some nice aster blooms this fall. Still time for a bigger garden! :p

crazy_garden3.jpg

I luckily did not miss my hibiscus blooms! Steve sure has an awful lot this year. And a tiki light.

two-hibiscus.jpg
 
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Romeo Serback

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Good thing I got some photos in the sun yesterday; it's quite cloudy now. Tortie and flower comparison:

View attachment 184183

Lots more buds!!

View attachment 184182 View attachment 184185

And another cute tort photo:

View attachment 184184

Here's the entire garden now. The evening primrose is out of control! Steve loves eating the flowers as they fall to the ground. We're excited to plant the seeds from it in other places in our yard when it's done flowering. :)

View attachment 184187
Great thread and a fabulous setup! Through this, I have gotten a bunch of ideas. The thing I might do differently is to (if possible), segregate the different plants and weeds so it could look organized. I recently purchased the African grazer seeds from Tortoisesupply.com and I hope to separate the seeds and plant them in rows. I would also put the larger growing plants towards the edge and I might put pavers in between for separation so my leopard tortoise Lerato can walk in between and trim his nails in the process.
 

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Oxalis

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Great thread and a fabulous setup! Through this, I have gotten a bunch of ideas. The thing I might do differently is to (if possible), segregate the different plants and weeds so it could look organized. I recently purchased the African grazer seeds from Tortoisesupply.com and I hope to separate the seeds and plant them in rows. I would also put the larger growing plants towards the edge and I might put pavers in between for separation so my leopard tortoise Lerato can walk in between and trim his nails in the process.
Thanks! It has been quite the learning experience. It was easier to start off with the plants organized but nature takes over pretty quickly!! For example, the birds enjoy eating the primrose seeds, spreading them everywhere in our yard. We're in the process of converting our yard to mostly native plants, so the primrose generally isn't too much of a concern. It's definitely in our plans (for our next house) to get a much bigger yard. This will allow Stevie a lot more space when he roams around outside. I would like to put a paver path back in too; I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I also tried the Tortoise Supply Broadleaf Testudo Mix, which provided a ton of seeds; and plants that grew very quickly! I ended up pulling most of them out as they aggressively crowded out other plants. Now Steve has much more variety in his garden, and I've been able to see him eat new plants on his own. It's very satisfying. :)
 

Romeo Serback

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Thanks! It has been quite the learning experience. It was easier to start off with the plants organized but nature takes over pretty quickly!! For example, the birds enjoy eating the primrose seeds, spreading them everywhere in our yard. We're in the process of converting our yard to mostly native plants, so the primrose generally isn't too much of a concern. It's definitely in our plans (for our next house) to get a much bigger yard. This will allow Stevie a lot more space when he roams around outside. I would like to put a paver path back in too; I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I also tried the Tortoise Supply Broadleaf Testudo Mix, which provided a ton of seeds; and plants that grew very quickly! I ended up pulling most of them out as they aggressively crowded out other plants. Now Steve has much more variety in his garden, and I've been able to see him eat new plants on his own. It's very satisfying. :)
Yes. Seeing how your enclosure became a little jungle (and quick), I wanted to avoid that. Lol I mean it wouldn't be too bad if I had two or more tortoises in there to thin it out, but it's not the case. I'm in your shoes as I just have one tortoise, my leopard (Lerato). I would love to do my enclosure like yours, but I have no carpentry skills. Lol But planning ahead, I will definitely research which plants grow the tallest and plant them accordingly. I also ordered the seed mix from tortoise supply. I assume that all the seeds are mixed together so when you planted them, you didn't know which was which. Well, I'm going to try to painstakingly separate them. Lol I'll let you know how that goes.
 

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Oxalis

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Yes. Seeing how your enclosure became a little jungle (and quick), I wanted to avoid that. Lol I mean it wouldn't be too bad if I had two or more tortoises in there to thin it out, but it's not the case. I'm in your shoes as I just have one tortoise, my leopard (Lerato). I would love to do my enclosure like yours, but I have no carpentry skills. Lol But planning ahead, I will definitely research which plants grow the tallest and plant them accordingly. I also ordered the seed mix from tortoise supply. I assume that all the seeds are mixed together so when you planted them, you didn't know which was which. Well, I'm going to try to painstakingly separate them. Lol I'll let you know how that goes.
No carpentry skills needed. ;) On page 3 of this thread, you can see we basically dug some holes for the posts, and then screwed the cross beams together. I also included the sizes of the lumber I bought, which have held up great in the past few winters.

Weeding has still been necessary as seeds travel on the wind or via birds, and some of those plants aren't good for tortoises, so I like to play it safe and remove them. I use The Tortoise Table to research plants: http://thetortoisetable.org.uk

It would definitely be hilarious to have one Aldabra tort visit and just take down all the excess plants. :D Stevie is just too small, but at least he won't run out of food!
 

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