I frequently say: Anyone who owns a tortoise needs to be a gardener too…
Over winter I put these new planters together and then planted them late Feb and Mid March. I put them in this location because they are right in the middle of everything, so it will be convenient to keep them watered all summer, and because the gophers never seem to get near this part of the ranch. Well… not yet anyway…
There are three planters. Each planter is about 32" wide by 11' long. The first one is three types of opuntia cactus that I started in pots last spring. I should have planted them last summer, but I was busy with work and procrastinated too long. They got root bound and they turned pale greenish-yellow color. I figured that they were dead or dying, but I stuck them in the ground anyway. To my surprise and delight, they recovered and are now budding tons of new pads.
As we get closer to summer and I have to start watering these cactus a lot, I intend to plant a border of Gazanias around the whole planter. In fact, that is one of the things that is in the pots in the tub next to this planter, along with hollyhocks, and african hibiscus.
This next planer has five sections. I planted Tyler's Testudo Mix, alfalfa, and then three different types of grass mix. All are thriving and I've already taken five cuts from this planter. That grass really comes back fast. You can see how I hand cut with scissors. The tall middle section will be their next meal.
Same planter, but here is the recently cut alfalfa and Testudo mix:
There is still a little bit of mallow trying to hang on…
This is the far left side and I planted it last. On this one I alternated strips of grass with clover, arugula, alfalfa, a variety of flowers to include pansies, gazania, nasturtium and the tall sunflowers you can see in the pic, and more alfalfa on the end.
I feed a lot of pumpkin to the adults every fall and I threw quite a few random seeds into these planters. You can just see two of them to the far right of this pic in the corner of the planter.
One more pic of the middle planter:
I had to replant the middle one because, even though I covered it, the local birds went under the wire and ate most of the seed. I had to build properly fitted screen tops to start these planters and then I remove the tops when the plants begin pushing through the screen. I'm also fighting an assortment of plant eating bugs right now, but these plants all grow pretty fast, so I'm constantly cutting on them. This helps to slow down the bugs.
Questions and comments are welcome.
Over winter I put these new planters together and then planted them late Feb and Mid March. I put them in this location because they are right in the middle of everything, so it will be convenient to keep them watered all summer, and because the gophers never seem to get near this part of the ranch. Well… not yet anyway…
There are three planters. Each planter is about 32" wide by 11' long. The first one is three types of opuntia cactus that I started in pots last spring. I should have planted them last summer, but I was busy with work and procrastinated too long. They got root bound and they turned pale greenish-yellow color. I figured that they were dead or dying, but I stuck them in the ground anyway. To my surprise and delight, they recovered and are now budding tons of new pads.
As we get closer to summer and I have to start watering these cactus a lot, I intend to plant a border of Gazanias around the whole planter. In fact, that is one of the things that is in the pots in the tub next to this planter, along with hollyhocks, and african hibiscus.
This next planer has five sections. I planted Tyler's Testudo Mix, alfalfa, and then three different types of grass mix. All are thriving and I've already taken five cuts from this planter. That grass really comes back fast. You can see how I hand cut with scissors. The tall middle section will be their next meal.
Same planter, but here is the recently cut alfalfa and Testudo mix:
There is still a little bit of mallow trying to hang on…
This is the far left side and I planted it last. On this one I alternated strips of grass with clover, arugula, alfalfa, a variety of flowers to include pansies, gazania, nasturtium and the tall sunflowers you can see in the pic, and more alfalfa on the end.
I feed a lot of pumpkin to the adults every fall and I threw quite a few random seeds into these planters. You can just see two of them to the far right of this pic in the corner of the planter.
One more pic of the middle planter:
I had to replant the middle one because, even though I covered it, the local birds went under the wire and ate most of the seed. I had to build properly fitted screen tops to start these planters and then I remove the tops when the plants begin pushing through the screen. I'm also fighting an assortment of plant eating bugs right now, but these plants all grow pretty fast, so I'm constantly cutting on them. This helps to slow down the bugs.
Questions and comments are welcome.
