Advice on my outdoor enclosure setup

[Xyelem]

Hi y’all, so I have a Russian tortoise (her name is Pepper) and I’m in the process of building her an outdoor enclosure. I have this weird little area off of my patio that’s about 12’x11’ that gets full sun until about 4pm. I want to do something covered because we sometimes see large birds like hawks in my area + I wanted something big enough to put a couple of nice chairs in, so I bought a 12.5’x9’ walk-in chicken coupe. I plan to put some kind of retaining wall blocks around the perimeter/ something on the bottom of the door so she can’t see out. I found these dig-guard stake things so she can’t dig her way out of the enclosure. I have a shallow terracotta saucer so she can soak. I have some spare landscaping river rocks and plan to make her a little rocky area and then was thinking of making a white clover patch (I’m unsure of that). I’m also planning on putting in a flagstone path to help with her nails and stuff. I was planning on planting some hostas, violets, and lettuce, but I’m not sure what else I should include so any advice on that would be greatly appreciated. Am I missing anything? Do y’all have any tips on the layout? I’ve attached a photo of my rough idea for the layout. Thank you!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I can certainly appreciate the thought and planning that you are putting into this and I see no blatant issues. But I do not keep Russian tortoises. And my experience comes down to when I babysat one for 5 days more than 15 years ago and he broke into my Redfoot enclosure by scaling up and over a four foot tall plywood wall and was chasing my other tortoises like a sheep dog with rabies.
Hopefully someone with Russian experience will be along soon. But I can say that there will be at least two issues. And those are keeping predators out and keeping him in.
Welcome to the forum!

 

[Xyelem]

I can certainly appreciate the thought and planning that you are putting into this and I see no blatant issues. But I do not keep Russian tortoises. And my experience comes down to when I babysat one for 5 days more than 15 years ago and he broke into my Redfoot enclosure by scaling up and over a four foot tall plywood wall and was chasing my other tortoises like a sheep dog with rabies.
Hopefully someone with Russian experience will be along soon. But I can say that there will be at least two issues. And those are keeping predators out and keeping him in.
Welcome to the forum!

This is the chicken coup that I ordered. It has a latched door and is completely enclosed and then the inner perimeter will be lined with retaining wall stones so she can’t see out+ I’ll be adding these stake things on the outside so she can’t dig herself out, which I imagine would at least help to prevent something from digging under the enclosure to get to her. I suppose if something was REALLY determined it might be able to get through the wire, but I live in a city and while we do see the occasional hawk, we don’t have large predators like coyotes. The natural fauna pretty much just consists of squirrels, raccoons, possums, and rabbits. We don’t even have stray cats in my area (that I’ve seen, anyway, and I’ve lived in this neighborhood for 9 years), and our back yard is fenced in.

 

[Anastasia 22]

Hello!
Look what my Russian boy does when he sees the wired fence....

 

[Mrs.Jennifer]

Hi y’all, so I have a Russian tortoise (her name is Pepper) and I’m in the process of building her an outdoor enclosure. I have this weird little area off of my patio that’s about 12’x11’ that gets full sun until about 4pm. I want to do something covered because we sometimes see large birds like hawks in my area + I wanted something big enough to put a couple of nice chairs in, so I bought a 12.5’x9’ walk-in chicken coupe. I plan to put some kind of retaining wall blocks around the perimeter/ something on the bottom of the door so she can’t see out. I found these dig-guard stake things so she can’t dig her way out of the enclosure. I have a shallow terracotta saucer so she can soak. I have some spare landscaping river rocks and plan to make her a little rocky area and then was thinking of making a white clover patch (I’m unsure of that). I’m also planning on putting in a flagstone path to help with her nails and stuff. I was planning on planting some hostas, violets, and lettuce, but I’m not sure what else I should include so any advice on that would be greatly appreciated. Am I missing anything? Do y’all have any tips on the layout? I’ve attached a photo of my rough idea for the layout. Thank you! View attachment 370710

Well you get kudos for spending a lot of time planning! As someone who has a Russian outdoors for most of the summer in the Northeast, here’s what I’ve learned:
1) You are correct to have the visual barrier.
2) You are correct to prevent digging beneath the enclosure.
3) If the space gets full sun, hostas, violets and other shade-loving plants won’t work.
4) Try liriope for drought tolerant plantings.

Here‘s hoping you pull this off!

 

[Xyelem]

Well you get kudos for spending a lot of time planning! As someone who has a Russian outdoors for most of the summer in the Northeast, here’s what I’ve learned:
1) You are correct to have the visual barrier.
2) You are correct to prevent digging beneath the enclosure.
3) If the space gets full sun, hostas, violets and other shade-loving plants won’t work.
4) Try liriope for drought tolerant plantings.

Here‘s hoping you pull this off!

Thank you! I’ve decided to go the edible wildflower mix route instead of the clover and the shade loving plants. I thought since I’ll have a shaded area it might work, but I think this is a better choice. I couldn’t find one online that contained all flowers she can eat so I decided to make my own mix based on what she *can* eat out of those mixes. I’m doing calendula, cosmos, evening primrose, dames rocket, baby’s breath, forget me not, sweet alyssum, marigold, snap dragon, zinnia, and dwarf sunflowers. I’ll have to fence it off for a little while so she doesn’t mow them down before they can get somewhat established, but she’ll still have plenty of room to roam.

 

[SinLA]

What a great setup! I recommend hibiscus and ice plants as options...