The Mighty Odin's first outdoor habitat/playpen

Oxalis

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I'm just falling in love with Odin -- what a cutie! I just love to spoil my baby too. :<3: It's always great to see such loving tortoise families!! I hope some day I have such a lovely variety of flower colors in our garden too! Our seedlings are coming along too, but not as quickly as yours. I'm sure Stevie and Odin would be good friends, if Odin would be willing to share nom noms! :p
 

Odin's Gma

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I'm sure Stevie and Odin would be good friends, if Odin would be willing to share nom noms! :p
There are certainly plenty of noms to go around! The last couple of days while my son and I were crawling around hand-trimming all the grass and weeds in his enclosure (with me getting a mighty blister for my troubles) I kept thinking I wish I could borrow a bigger sulcata to help out until Odin can handle the "gardening" on his own! :D
 

Oxalis

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I doubt even Steve can match Odin's appetite! ;D
 

Odin's Gma

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Road trip!

We took Odin to my folks lakehouse this weekend and put up a travel playpen so he could partake in the sun and fun along with the rest of the family!
My parents have had the place for about 15 years and, like us, have never used any toxic crap on the lawn, so it is a bonanza or clover and dandelion and other assorted weeds. They also have grapes and raspberries bushes growing wild! (I dug up a few more raspberries to transplant into our yard).

Just 4 old pieces of wood border, a big paver over the corner for a cool hide and a water dish and he was pleased.
002.JPG 003.JPG 009.JPG 010.JPG

But there is still no place like home.012.JPG 013.JPG
 

Odin's Gma

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HUMANNNNNNNSSSSS! YOU DID IT AGAIN!001.JPG 003.JPG

(You can just see the top of his shell to the right of one of the front mustard leaves...but you can feel his rage across the miles)006.JPG

Nom..nom..nom....WHAT!?! What is this? An impenetrable petunia wall?!?!?010.JPG


Double back around the squash, eat my way free!!!!!!013.JPG

Hey, I know where I am now!015.JPG

No sun. No Odin! Kiss my cute tort butt, evil humans!018.JPG 020.JPG

BOOO!!!!!!! Where is our sun?
 

Oxalis

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Wow the plants really came up nicely!! I'm super jealous! I'll try to get a photo of mine later today. The Testudo Mix weeds are taking over, so I'll have to pull a bunch out and trim the rest before they out-compete my baby native plants. No pansies, hollyhock, or Coreopsis yet though! :confused: My boyfriend said the natives should grow slowly this first year and then bloom and grow much more the second year. I finally found a native Michigan Hibiscus that should grow a bit taller than pansies, but I still want a rose bush in "tree form" to provide some good shade, like so:
2015-06-17_1114.jpg
 

Odin's Gma

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I was just telling my son yesterday that we are going to have to start trimming the clover before it chokes out all the other tasty goodness underneath it. It is so pretty I hate to do it, but I don't want him eating only clovers when he is out there. The mustard has also grown far taller and faster than I expected so early on, so I think I will be making a lovely salad or something soon so my mini rose bushes can get some yummy sun!
And I can't wait for my mulberry seeds! I know they won't be of much use to Odin this year, but next year should be glorious for him with the mulberries and grape vines and everything getting more established.
 

Oxalis

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Very nice!! It's amazing how often I have to manage the Testudo Mix!! I'd pretty take out a ton this afternoon if the weather's nice because we're going away for the weekend and they could easily kill my natives! o_O I have only "pruned" the garden once so far other than the occasional weeding. Who knew?!
 

Odin's Gma

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Lucky!, we have had to hand prune the grasses, with scissors, about twice a week for the last couple of weeks and now we are going to have to start on the clover too! We have just had so much rain, everything is growing out of control! I didn't expect it to look like this for at least a couple more weeks.
I guess Odin is just going to have to start eating more.o_O
 

Oxalis

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We have just had so much rain, everything is growing out of control! I didn't expect it to look like this for at least a couple more weeks. I guess Odin is just going to have to start eating more.o_O
Same here!! Lots of places for Steve to hide too and he loves that!
 

Odin's Gma

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Same here!! Lots of places for Steve to hide too and he loves that!
Odin's current favorite spot is under the geranium, which is weird to me, because it is not a big one so it only covers about half of him. If he chose to hide under the hostas or the mustard he would be completely hidden.

Of course then I couldn't see cute tort butt sticking out, so I guess it's a win for me. :D
 

Oxalis

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I wonder if it's not just my geranium but they all grow slowly?
 

Odin's Gma

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It's hard for me to say, I pulled mine out of my large pot of huge ones. It was the runt and was getting shaded out by the big boys, but it is doing beautifully since I moved it into the playpen. At the end of the summer I plan to dig it back up and put it into it's own pot for the winter.
 

Odin's Gma

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Well, this morning I "accidentally" ordered a whole ton of seeds that I don't need. 2 pounds each of red and crimson clover, 5000 seeds each of winter purslane, common plantain and English plantain, and 500 seeds of variegated plantain. I don't even know where I am going to plant all of these! Plus I still have like 600 mulberry seeds coming........

Guess I may have to expand the playpen again. Whoops. :p
 

Odin's Gma

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Storms overnight and this morning, but beautiful afternoon and evening! Which of course means hours in the sun and a million pictures!

I spy with my tortoise eye, a rose bud!007.JPG

Pretty!010.JPG

SO many petunias flowering!011.JPG

Making a path underneath the mustard greens012.JPG

Ninja tortoise018.JPG

Are you looking at me?028.JPG

Nasturtium leaves almost as big as lily pads!034.JPG

So many noms!035.JPG 037.JPG

Such a handsome tort!038.JPG

Mr. Robin making sure the tort isn't getting in on his noms.040.JPG

He's a machine!049.JPG 050.JPG 051.JPG 052.JPG 053.JPG 058.JPG
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And look what came in the mail! Back to planting for me!073.JPG

While someone took a cool bath and gave me the stinkeye for throwing seeds around.074.JPG 080.JPG

He seems to only eat the red petunia flowers. Weird dude.084.JPG

But full and happy and STILL outside with my son! I came in to cool off and cut up (and eat) watermelon.:D
 

Oxalis

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Well, this morning I "accidentally" ordered a whole ton of seeds that I don't need. 2 pounds each of red and crimson clover, 5000 seeds each of winter purslane, common plantain and English plantain, and 500 seeds of variegated plantain. I don't even know where I am going to plant all of these! Plus I still have like 600 mulberry seeds coming........Guess I may have to expand the playpen again. Whoops. :p
I'll take those plantain seeds off your hands! ;D
 

Oxalis

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Storms overnight and this morning, but beautiful afternoon and evening! Which of course means hours in the sun and a million pictures!
How is the OutsidePride.com company? We have had some bad luck with seeds in our yard before, but if you have had some good experience with this company, I'd love to order some from them myself!! :rolleyes:
 
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