Shade Table/Raised Planter Box Combo

[Tom]

Jacqui planted a great idea in my head on another thread and I need some tips for bringing it to fruition. I have a shade table built and sitting in my juvenile sulcata pen. Jacqui suggested a raised planter bed that was high enough for a tortoise to get under and use for shade. This is a perfect idea for my area. My enclosure could use a bit more shade and there is never enough room to grow enough food. Keeping it up off the ground will also keep the critters out of it. So I have a few questions for the people who have done this before...

1. What materials should I build it out of? I was thinking 2x12s with a plywood base. I have leftover pressure treated 4x4s for the legs.
2. What should I treat the wood with?
3. How tall should the sides be and how tall should the soil level be?
4. What should I do for drainage?

I've got a 4x4' table in my juvenile pen and I'm planning a 4x8' for the big pen. Maybe a few of them if it works out...

 

[Jacqui]

First couple of questions... are you wanting this total shade or dappled? Second, do you want the soil actually on/in your table or would you rather use "pots" to hold the dirt?

 

[Tom]

Well it will be full shade under the table and I was planning on filling the whole table with soil/dirt for maximum growing area.

 

[Jacqui]

okay, next thing to decide, what are you visualizing growing there? That will help you decide how deep the soil needs to be for the plant's root systems.

 

[Tom]

I would imagine a variety of things. Some tables will have a pasture mix with grasses and clovers and others will have various lettuces and veggies. Remember that it gets VERY hot and dry here, so I was thinking on going fairly deep with the soil to try and prevent everything for cooking in the hot summer sun. A little heat inertia...

This will also solve my enclosure height problem. I've been using slumpstone blocks with a 2x4" and wire frame over them to grow my stuff, but that only gives me around 10" from the ground to the wire top. Some plants are hitting the ceiling pretty quickly, but if I remove the tops, the bunnies and squirrels will decimate my crops. Having the crops off the ground should keep the critters off of them but still give them unlimited height to grow.

 

[Jacqui]

I would imagine a variety of things. Some tables will have a pasture mix with grasses and clovers and others will have various lettuces and veggies. Remember that it gets VERY hot and dry here, so I was thinking on going fairly deep with the soil to try and prevent everything for cooking in the hot summer sun. A little heat inertia...

What you use for soil will help retain the moisture too. Think about the weight of the soil in your building plans. Remember as the season goes along, your soil will compress more, so have the soil a little higher then you actually want it to end up being. You will need to drill a few holes in the table bottom and have either a thin layer of gravel, old terra cotta pieces from broken feed dishes, or even a meshy material over entire table or only over the holes to keep the soil from leaking out with drainage. Make certain the dirt level allows for watering without pouring off the top and taking soil with it. Basically, think of your table as a large flower pot and treat it as such.

 

[Tom]

So if I use 2x12s for the sides and roughly 10" of soil, will that be enough?

 

[Jacqui]

I would say more then enough.

 

[Tom]

I would say more then enough.

Sweet!

Okay, now should I just prime and paint the wood? Or is there some other treatment I should use?

 

[Jacqui]

Back to the dirt depth, because your in CA so I have no first hand knowledge, do things potted in the more shallow pots not survive? Like in my plans for ones here, I knew things like the lettuces are very shallow rooted, so I could go with a small soil depth. I also know here, with daily maybe twice during the heat, watering will work for shallow potted plants. Which I would be doing any way for the tortoises and to refill their mudbath, so no big deal. So I could go like with four inches of soil here.

 

[Tom]

Its a challenge to keep most things alive here. Plants just burn up in the summer sun or die off in the winter night freezes. The stuff that I planted in the ground last summer did okay, but I think it will all be subjected to greater temperature extremes when it is raised off of the ground.

 

[Tillasaurus]

Hi Tom,

I am wondering if you have begun construction on the planter boxes for your tortoise table. In the Florida summer - when it is not raining - all crop plants seems to struggle with the heat - especially those in containers. I was having some success with the sulcata seed in concrete mixing tubs with holes drilled in the bottom but the overwhelming amount of rain we have had on the gulf coast in the last three days may have done some of them in.

I am redoing Tilly's enclosure this summer and we have had such relentless rain here in the last few days that his pen enclosure was almost entirely flooded on Sunday afternoon. While this volume of rain is uncharacteristic, I was horrified to find him stranded in water halfway up his shell inside his house and never want to see him sitting in water with no where to go again. (I remain horrified). He had to spend the last two nights in my den inside a large dog crate (with the appropriate lighting). He has been in the enclosure for more than a year and it has never happened before and he seems to be fine; he is a hungry as ever). Nevertheless, I am going to raise the soil level of his entire enclosure area and I have already lifted his sleeping area off of the ground on double - and in some areas - triple stacked pavers which I ripped out of my walkways the second I found him in the water.

After I ensure that his enclosure is at the highest point in my yard, I have decided to put an extra pergola-type stucture over his house to block the rain around the perimeter of his "house" (I am re-doing the "house" too). I don't want to create too much shade as much of his enclosure is under the dappled shade of an oak tree but I no longer want rain to be able to hit his house even though it is water-proof (except for the bottom, which was dirt). If you have, or anyone else who reads this post has pictures, of shade tables with and or withour planter boxes, I would love to see them as well as housing photos for ideas.

I envy the folks able to have low tortoise enclosures. Mine must have a five foot wire fence around it so that my dogs won't jump in the enclosure.

Any ideas for enclosures, small sheds/houses will be appreciated. I am now quite afraid of burrows....

Thanks very much,

Kathleen

Its a challenge to keep most things alive here. Plants just burn up in the summer sun or die off in the winter night freezes. The stuff that I planted in the ground last summer did okay, but I think it will all be subjected to greater temperature extremes when it is raised off of the ground.

 

[Tom]

So far I have built three above ground shade table/planter boxes and two planter boxes that rest flat on the ground. We have been having the most perfect weather everyday for two months now. Every day has been in the mid 80s and every night is around 60. It's been really consistent. So far everything I have planted is simply thriving. I have been feeding the tortoises as much as they will eat everyday and it all keeps growing back as fast as I can feed it out. One table has pasture mix. I come through with scissors and cut half of it down. This fills a five gallon bucket and feeds the tortoises for a day. Then I feed other stuff I have planted for a couple day before chopping down the other half of the table. Within a few days the grass regrows so tall that it lays down flat on its self. I fill my five gallon food bucket from one 4x8' table every few days. In addition to the 5 tables, I have have 11 in ground 4x8' plots with various stuff growing in them. I'm about to go all crazy and plant an entire 20x20' covered area too. I have not bought any tortoise food for months now, and I feel SOOOOOO good about what my tortoises are eating. I wish I had discovered this earlier. Eventually the heat of summer will strike in earnest, and we'll have to see if I can keep all this stuff alive or not. I'm hoping that with enough water all day long it will live.

 

[lynnedit]

How satisfying!

 

[Tom]

How satisfying!

So true. That is a good word to describe how I feel about it. If I could find a way to bottle this feeling and share it, everyone would be out planting their own tortoise food. My torts are in heaven lately.

An interesting side benefit: With all the watering, lots of the local weeds sprout up all around the pasture mix pens. These are great food too and basically just a bonus. In years past food has been scarce this time of year, because everything here dries up and the weather turns so hot. I haven't needed to make a mulberry run yet this year, and all my cactus plants are wondering why I'm not cutting into them yet.

 

[shelledfriends]

Tom, I was thinking of doing the same thing to grow some ice plants and portuloca (sp?). I was wondering what you used for the bottom, plain plywood? I was thinking of using pressure treated plywood with plastic on top to keep the soil from touching the wood. For that matter I wonder if I can just use plain plywood and use shower curtain liners on top. Hmm....

Michael

 

[Tom]

I did this as a bit of an experiment to see what will happen. I painted the outside surfaces, but left the inside totally untreated. My wet soil in in direct contact with the untreated plywood and 2x12s. I want to see how long it lasts and what happens. So far I can already see that I should have built it with more framing underneath to support all the weight. I expect the bottom to drop out in the winter when the rains come, but I planned on rebuilding them at that point anyway. This was just a quick thrown together first time try-out for me. Now I know how to build it better and sturdier. Version 2.0 will be built to last.

 

[Jacqui]

I think somebody warned you to watch the weight aspects. Micheal one nice thing about the plants your choosing is they have shallow roots, so you won't need so much soil. How big are you planning on making yours?

---

Just another option I should put out there, because I didn't when I first suggested doing this sorta of combo because Tom wanted a solid top. I have also done ones where I wanted more of a dappled effect under the roof. For these I took the plastic lattice for a top. Then instead of having planters on top, I placed the planters at the legs points. In these, I planted vines like cucumber, melons, zucchini, squash. The vines then trail over the top and some grow thru the mesh, where the tortoises can graze on them if they want. As the early summer turns to late summer with more massive heat, the vines add more and more shade (along with blooms and stuff to feed).

 

[Tillasaurus]

You all have such wonderful ideas! I am on it I have been planning to build raised garden beds and will create at least one shade table/hide/planter box combo. Thanks so very much for sharing. I will post pictures when they are complete.

 

[Tom]

I need a pic Jacqui. Sounds like a great idea.