Winter Tortoise Gardening

Status
Not open for further replies.

Neal

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
4,967
Location (City and/or State)
Arizona
The winter greens are starting to flower and soon they will die off, so I wanted to snap a few pictures before they're gone.

This winter was a bit warmer than usual, which was really good for our garden. I think with all 30+ tortoises we have, we spent about $20 at the grocery store on food this whole winter. The rest came from the garden!!

It's hard to tell from the picture, but these mustard greens are HUGE! The plant is about 4 ft tall, and the leaves are about 10 inches in width.

019-5.jpg


Misc. greens and plants. Newly planted tomatoes on the right.

020-3.jpg


We named this mallow plant Big Bertha, she produced a lot of leaves for us this winter!

018-7.jpg


Misc. greens.

021-4.jpg


A big task, for a big tort.

012-7.jpg


No problem.

013-6.jpg


Finger lickin' good!

014-5.jpg


017-4.jpg
 

Jacqui

Wanna be raiser of Lemon Drop tortoises
Moderator
10 Year Member!
Joined
Aug 28, 2007
Messages
39,941
Location (City and/or State)
A Land Far Away...
Show off! :p :D Are your winter greens going to die off now because of heat?
 

dmmj

The member formerly known as captain awesome
10 Year Member!
Joined
Aug 15, 2008
Messages
19,695
Location (City and/or State)
CA
Isn't it great not to have to spend a small fortune on feeding them?
 

DesertGrandma

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Apr 30, 2011
Messages
2,131
Location (City and/or State)
Arizona
Nice!! What a savings in the grocery bill. We just got our raised bed started last weekend. Just waiting for the seeds to start to sprout. Next weekend it's replanting the opuntia from pots to the ground. Can't wait to start harvesting like you. :cool:
 

Neal

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
4,967
Location (City and/or State)
Arizona
Jacqui said:
Show off! :p :D Are your winter greens going to die off now because of heat?

I'm a big time show off! :)

Yeah, most of it seems to die off soon after flowering. If they don't die off we just harvest the seeds and replant.
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,264
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
Nice work. I haven't gotten quite that far yet.
 

Jacqui

Wanna be raiser of Lemon Drop tortoises
Moderator
10 Year Member!
Joined
Aug 28, 2007
Messages
39,941
Location (City and/or State)
A Land Far Away...
Do you ever try not allowing them to go to seed, so they last longer?
 
M

Maggie Cummings

Guest
I spent $20 every 3 days to feed my animals. Bob especially even tho he eats hay he still eats a lot of produce. I can't grow a winter garden here because it rains and rots and freezes and snows and rots. I will be so glad when everybody can graze again. I made 2 new outside pens for my 3 yr old tortoises and planted a Sulcata seed mixture from Carolina Pet Supply, they haven't started to sprout yet it's too cold I guess. But the pens are nice, I've redone all my outside pens and I'm thinkin my animals are gonna be very happy. Queenie will be in my Rose bed for the first time. It's loaded with grass now, if the temp would ever get over 50 I would put the bigger guys out. Maybe I'll post some pix
 

Neal

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
4,967
Location (City and/or State)
Arizona
Jacqui said:
Do you ever try not allowing them to go to seed, so they last longer?

How do I stop them from doing this?
 
M

Maggie Cummings

Guest
Neal said:
Jacqui said:
Do you ever try not allowing them to go to seed, so they last longer?

How do I stop them from doing this?


Trim from the top, can't you harvest from the top down instead of pulling off the bigger lower leafs?
 

Neal

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
4,967
Location (City and/or State)
Arizona
maggie3fan said:
Trim from the top, can't you harvest from the top down instead of pulling off the bigger lower leafs?

Wouldn't it still flower though?...or stop growing?

Either way, we let it flower so we can harvest the seeds for future plants, and this years crop was enough to get us through the winter pretty well.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top