Photos of Our Outdoor Russian Tortoise Enclosure and Garden

Romeo Serback

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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!
Nice! I like your comment about the 8 ft height and how you didn't want to restrict the growth of plants. Lol Hindsight is 20/20. Did you chicken wire the top as well? And what kind of wire. Size and type, that is.
 

Oxalis

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Nice! I like your comment about the 8 ft height and how you didn't want to restrict the growth of plants. Lol Hindsight is 20/20. Did you chicken wire the top as well? And what kind of wire. Size and type, that is.
The chicken wire should be the standard size, which you can see here. I have a small amount of bird fencing around the very bottom of the walls just in case of rabbits. I picked it up at True Value, but stores like Lowe's and Home Depot have it too.
 

Romeo Serback

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Good deal! I'll keep you updated next spring when I try it. I might just go 6 ft as I'm well below that height and should be able to walk about freely without hitting my head. Lol Thank you!
 

Oxalis

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Good deal! I'll keep you updated next spring when I try it. I might just go 6 ft as I'm well below that height and should be able to walk about freely without hitting my head. Lol Thank you!
It is nice to have some headroom. Good luck! :)
 

Oxalis

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The asters have been in bloom again. Lots of native purples! :<3:

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The Malva is still in bloom too; a nice color as the cooler temperatures approach.

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Pearly

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The asters have been in bloom again. Lots of native purples! :<3:

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The Malva is still in bloom too; a nice color as the cooler temperatures approach.

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@Oxalis, I love your Tortoise Garden and envy the parts of your climate where things grow big and robust in the Summer and you don’t have to worry about where to plant your things so that your heat-tender plants don’t get beat up by the afternoon blaze in June/july/august. Over here it’s always a guessing game. That is unless you go with all the Texas natives... which are beautiful... but I do miss the beauty and fragrance of lilacs, peonies, jasmine, Poets’ Narcissus, apple tree blooms in a Spring, and those BIG asters and chrysanthemums (flowers size of head of cabbage) in a Fall. Here we are kind of in the middle, can’t go with tropicals either, due to those 3-5 days of freezing temps we typically get each Winter... and I hate dragging my big heavy pots in and out! Too much work. Too heavy... so I will just enjoy reading your threads and looking at your garden pics. Your Stevie is one little lucky tortoise:)
 

Oxalis

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@Oxalis, I love your Tortoise Garden and envy the parts of your climate where things grow big and robust in the Summer and you don’t have to worry about where to plant your things so that your heat-tender plants don’t get beat up by the afternoon blaze in June/july/august. Over here it’s always a guessing game. That is unless you go with all the Texas natives... which are beautiful... but I do miss the beauty and fragrance of lilacs, peonies, jasmine, Poets’ Narcissus, apple tree blooms in a Spring, and those BIG asters and chrysanthemums (flowers size of head of cabbage) in a Fall. Here we are kind of in the middle, can’t go with tropicals either, due to those 3-5 days of freezing temps we typically get each Winter... and I hate dragging my big heavy pots in and out! Too much work. Too heavy... so I will just enjoy reading your threads and looking at your garden pics. Your Stevie is one little lucky tortoise:)
Thank you for the kind words. I always enjoy hearing from you, @Pearly! :)
 

Oxalis

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Gasp! It nearly hit 75°F today! And it was sunny! A shocker for Michigan. Steve got to play outside for several hours; I was impressed. We still may have more snow in the forecast. I spent much of the afternoon pulling out the dead sticks from last year's growth. ...So many primrose stalks!! :confused: It's much cleaner now; ready for some new plants to grow. My new step will be to remove a good chunk of the red clover (Trifolium pratense) since it's very aggressive compared to my native plants. Then, depending on what grows back, maybe I can add a few new plants.

Steve getting some vitamin D:

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Oxalis

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Happy Earth Day!! :cool: We just enjoyed a couple days of solid rain so the sunshine today was just lovely. Steve got lots of exercise while I got lots of work done. I'm feeling old this year so I wanted more stepping stones. Steve makes it hard for me to find him under his plants, so I needed more space to more around. I put most of the pavers in spots where the ground was low; hopefully this prevents some future flooding.

I removed some red clover and put in a couple plantains I found hiding in the yard. I moved his rose "tree" out to another part of the yard since the "trunk" died but the roots are growing new branches (and thorns). I planted a couple pansies a week ago and pruned the spirea bush. I also put in a couple small terra cotta pots, one with calendula seeds and the other with artichoke. If the seeds don't sprout, no big loss. I'm planning to get a couple new plants next month: campanula/harebell, geranium, and one coneflower (Echinacea sp.). If I need more space, there are plenty of primrose or aster plants I can remove. I think Steve approves. :)

Looking north:

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Looking south:

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Oxalis

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Steve is spending some time outside in intermittent sunshine, 70°F +. Not bad for May. We just got a ton of rain so the plants are growing well.

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The dandelions are in bloom; Steve's favorite treat!

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The native woodland phlox is in bloom now. Steve enjoys its young leaves.

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Oxalis

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The native wildflower additions for this year are in the ground now. We bought them from our beloved Wildtype nursery again. :<3: While I only added a few wildflowers to the inside of the enclosure, my husband helped dig a trench around the outside eastern and northern walls of the enclosure to provide a barrier of tortoise-safe plants. The lawn and some invading wild yarrow have been trying to grow under the enclosure walls and around its buried bricks. While some tort owners are fine feeding yarrow (Achillea millefolium), The Tortoise Table recommends not feeding it due to its furocoumarins. I prefer to err on the side of caution, and Steve has so many other safe treats already available. The yarrow roots cluster together like spaghetti, resembling sod and has even choked out some patches of our lawn. And since I'm not sure what type of grass the lawn is, I'd rather Steve not have access to it. Instead, the Carex genus of grass is safe tort food, so I am hoping the grass roots form a sort of root wall, preventing the yarrow from invading the enclosure. We'll see if it works this summer.

New Plants:

Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia)
Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum)
Wild Petunia (Ruellia humilis)
Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
Muskingum (Palm) Sedge (Carex muskingumensis)

Here are a couple photos of the new grasses around his enclosure.

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Dandelion flowers are in season now, so Steve's been stalking them lately.

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Steve leaned against the wall to grab the last of the sunshine for the day:

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Oxalis

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Here are some more photos of Steve outside in the past few weeks. His plants have really grown since then; the native Hibiscus moscheutos has really shot up recently, especially with some recent heavy rainfall. I can't wait for it to bloom! Some common weeds here that I'm looking out for now are lamb's quarters (Chenopodium album), ragweed (Ambrosia spp.), and wood sorrel (Oxalis spp.), if anyone is interested.

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"All right, crazy lady, you're done with the camera..."

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The geranium is almost done blooming now, but here's a photo of the lovely flowers in mid-May:

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The new geranium plants I put in this spring; they don't seem to mind being transplanted at all!

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It is now "snowing" cottonwood seeds. :confused:
 

Oxalis

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Here's a photo I forgot to post last month: Steve's yellow hawkweed (Hieracium sp.) in bloom in early June.

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Here's most the garden now, already needing to be thinned out a bit more... There's a hollyhock (Alcea sp.) stalk taller than me again. The spirea is done flowering, but the prairie phlox (Phlox pilosa) is still in bloom, and we're enjoying its long bloom time. The Hibiscus moscheutos is about to bloom, yey! And Steve is impatiently waiting for his evening primrose (Oenothera biennis) treats to bloom. Lately I've mostly been pulling out nettle and nettle-like weeds, lambsquarters (Chenopodium album), smartweed (Polygonum pensylvanicum), and a few ragweed.

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MPappagallo

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Here are some of the latest photos, now that some things have grown in!! Our mantids egg hatched too, so we have more babies than just our tortoise and fishies. :D

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Steve has a ton of plants to hide under (and eat!) and most of them are from the Tortoise Supply Testudo Seed Mix—which he absolutely loves.

I'm pretty sure these photos are a week or two old and the plants have already grown more since I took the pictures!! :p
Loks like he is in paradise! I am sure he is loving it!
 

Oxalis

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Loks like he is in paradise! I am sure he is loving it!
Thanks!! Steve is definitely loving being outside rather than inside right now. With so few rainy days so far this summer, he's getting plenty of playtime in his garden.
 

Oxalis

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Here are some updates from Steve's salad bar. Recently it's been way too hot and humid for gardening. Steve's had a lot of access to water, and I've even had to bring him indoors at the hottest part of the day. It's finally cooled off a bit. The evening primrose just started to bloom, and Steve got the very first flower as a special treat.

The wild petunia (Ruellia humilis) bloomed! Here it is next to some geranium and chicory flowers.

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More chicory flowers, my favorite wildflower, with some sedum.

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Steve taking a break. :<3:

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Some of the hibiscus buds; soon we'll have lots of blooms.

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One of the hollyhock stalks, which has grown through the enclosure ceiling. :D

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The big leaf aster (Eurybia macrophylla) has bloomed too, which I thought was early for the season. Maybe the recent heat wave triggered it. Apparently this plant isn't guaranteed to bloomed every year, which makes it all the more special.

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Oxalis

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It's a nice sunny tortoise day. Here's Steve sniffing around:

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The first native hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos) bloom of the season, next to some lovely native American bellflower (Campanulastrum americanum):

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Steve chowing down:

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Mmm... sun...

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