Preparing an outdoor enclosure.

[hunterk997]

Next year my dad and I will be building my juvenile russian tortoise an outdoor enclosure, and I was wondering if there is anything I should be doing noe to prepare it for next spring? Weeding any bad weeds, or anything along those lines. I attached some pictures of the area we'll be working with.



But I have some concerns. He thinks the fence will be fine as a back wall, but it doesn't go deep into the ground. An inch if anything. And the fence is old and worn and has holes;
Another worry is rain. Our gutter in that spot is broke, I told him and he said it's be fine. And the ground in that spot is sunken in, and it pools.

Also, the enclosure will stretch from where the green post is on the porch, to the end of the fencing on the left side of the kiddie pool enclosure.
So should I clear out the grass and weeds this year or wait until spring? And any advice on the drainage, and should we build a back wall against the fence? I guess it will form a triangle shape.
Any help would be great!


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[hunterk997]

Anyone with some advice? Please?


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[lynnedit]

Don't worry about that one area pooling from the gutter. He will avoid that when needed.
In general, you will need to add a small roofed in hide somewhere in the enclosure, so he can escape from the rain. It can be covered with roofing, or even polycarbonate.

The weeds look OK from the distance in your pics. I don't think you need to remove any of them, necessarily.
However, you could opt to remove one area (the bigger the better), and plant tortoise friendly seeds (Carolina Pet Supply, Tortoise Supply) to add more variety. In this case, you would remove the 'sod' in the Fall, and seed the area in early Spring (depending on where you live in the country).
Another way to kill areas of grass would be to lay down several layers of newspaper, and cover with 3-4" of soil (bagged topsoil would be fine).

As far as the back fence, just get some 10" high cedar boards. Inexpensive (low grade) fencing boards are fine. Nail them along the base to secure the holes and gaps, and act as a sight block. Then, to prevent him digging out, get pavers and line them up along the base of the fence. I like the 8"x16" pavers because they are about $1 at our Home Depot. Line them up in a row along the fence.

I really like the way you are planning ahead! Way to go.

 

[hunterk997]

Thank you so much! I talked to my dad about the gutter and he said he will get a new segment next year so it won't flood. I plan on making a hide box for her too, so at night she goes in there and I can lock her in (my parents think something will get her even with a cover). I have a log hide, and some pots I'm going to use for hides. And I already have a bag of seeds so that'll be perfect,


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