Tortoises and Gardening...

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-ryan-

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Just wondering how many of us avid tortoise enthusiasts also enjoy gardening. I made my first vegetable garden last year, got a lot of various types of lettuce, peas, tomatoes, carrots, and cucumbers. This year I rebuilt it into a raised bed using landscaping timbers and increased the yield by a factor of about three. This year the main benefactors have been the tortoises, because I have had enough produce to share the majority of it with them. The weekly food bill that is usually about about $25-30 of produce has only been around $10, and they are getting a lot of good organic vegetation. An added benefit to having the garden (though other gardeners who don't keep tortoises will disagree with me) is that it is somewhat of a weed magnet, which means even more free, wholesome food for the tortoises.

My goal next year is to expand into several gardens and see if I can grow a basically free supply of food for the tortoises throughout the summer.

Anyone else enjoy gardening/utilize their gardens for tortoise use?
 

GBtortoises

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The perimeter fence around my tortoise enclosures share one side with our vegetable garden. My wife leaves extra vegetables on the tortoise side and I throw tortoise poop into the garden side. I think I'm getting the better deal out of it! LOL
 

Jacqui

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:D I used to do a lot of gardening for the family, plus nothing in my mind beats taking a tomato off the bush or radish out of the dirt, cleaning them off and eating them right there in the garden. These days everything is grown with only the tortoises in mind. Well except for those 'mater plants. :p

My goal too, is to grow all my own feed needs during the summer months that I don't need to be buying them until fall (frosts) arrives. Each year I plant a few more grape vines and althea bushes. I am up to about 20 grapes and 40 bushes. Then there is my new group of cactus from a member in here, not to mention all the other plants. :rolleyes::D

My children just shake their heads at me. :cool: I am just glad they haven't saw me out collecting dandelion seeds yet.
 

Madkins007

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So funny! As we re-design our back yard and I make a new outdoor pen, I am hoping to integrate some heavy planting and a veggie garden element too. I may be calling ya for some help!

We have several gardeners, horticulturalists, etc. here- I'd love to see them work together to make a good article on 'tortoise gardening' so the rest of us can follow some simple steps to planting our pens and surrounding areas in smarter ways.
 

Yvonne G

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I have a really nice, clean patch of land just outside my fence and between the street and fence. Its about 25' wide and about 50' or more long. Its also raised up above the street level, so no one walks there. The past couple weeks I've been dumping my horse manure up there. I'm going to outline it with rail road ties, and when it rains this winter, I'll dig all that manure in. Next year its going to be my veggie garden!

garden.jpg


And just because I had to walk by them to get to the garden, April and Mimi say, "Hi!"

april.jpg


mimi.jpg
 

DoctorCosmonaut

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I'm more of an indoor plant person... but maybe because I rent ^_^
My fiance likes to plant flower boxes and we planted some lettuce in a box... pretty pathetic compared to you homeowners!
 

Fireluv007

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We have several raised bed on our property and we grow veggies year round because the weather here never gets horribly bad. And we use the alpaca, horse and chicken poop as manure... it works wonderfully!
This year I've confiscated one of the beds as a tort-food only area. If it's in there, it goes to the Sully! And like ryan said, the weeds from the rest of the beds work really well, too. :)
We also have several large grape vines, mulberry trees and huge hibiscus plants around the property. I'm stocked full of a great variety of foods during spring/summer/fall... winter will still have some home-grown plants, just not as big of a variety. Poor little sully. :D
 

-ryan-

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DoctorCosmonaut said:
I'm more of an indoor plant person... but maybe because I rent ^_^
My fiance likes to plant flower boxes and we planted some lettuce in a box... pretty pathetic compared to you homeowners!

To be fair, I'm not a homeowner... more of a squatter :) Still trying to get things in line so my fiancee and I can move out of my parents' house (especially since it's now less than a year before the wedding day). I was not given permission to build such a large, semi-permanent garden in the backyard, but usually for projects like that (and the indoor and outdoor tortoise enclosures) I start construction when I know the parents will be away for a while :)
 

chadk

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I have 3 torts who have weeding duty in my garden area. They are not allowed IN the garden beds that are raised, but patrol the ground around them for weeds and are allowed to eat any pumpkin or squash vine\fruit\leaf\flower that grows over the edge, as well as the other leafy greens that start to droop over the sides.

I'm starting to think my redfoots or maybe my box turtles would do better though. They would not only eat the weeds, but also the slugs and snails... Hmmmm.....
 

Missy

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I love to garden and grow my torts food in the summer. I work part time at a garden center and part time as an EMT. I get discounts on everything from plants to mulch, I love my job :)
 

terryo

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I've always had a vegetable garden, peach tree, apricot tree, fig tree, grape vine... for my boxies and family. Tomatoes, squash, herbs, peppers, string beans...Now Pio enjoys the friuts of my labor. He loves the squash flowers and grape leaves and of course all the fruit, especially the figs.
 
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