Garden chat & photos for torts and people ♫ ♫

Prairie Mom

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2014
Messages
4,340
Open Invitation for all weeds, grass, flowers, food, and earth! This thread is not a garden competition. We are genuinely interested in what others are growing and HOW they are growing it. Beautiful garden beds to tiny recycled indoor pots are of equal interest here! Seasoned Master Gardeners and beginning "Brown thumbs" are equally welcome to share experiences with open arms!!!
 
Joined
Nov 1, 2014
Messages
58
This is cool. I love to garden and am an excellent landscaping grunt. I'm interested to see what all people grow for their tortoises.
 

Prairie Mom

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2014
Messages
4,340
purslane.jpg
Celery, Onions, and Asparagus in the top corner. You know what else I see?.... PURSLANE!

Purlsane -You can eat it!
I happily allow Purslane to take over where ever it grows in my garden beds. This edible weed is super nutritious (http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/purslane.html). It also tastes good. The whole thing is edible, but we usually eat the young fresh round leaves which taste a lot like fresh celery and lettuce. We add it to soups, salads, and stir fries all the time. Even my young children are familiar with this weed and will pick some out of my garden beds when I tell them to go to the garden and harvest for soup.

Call the police! She lets her tortoise eat Purslane!
I have been allowing my tortoise to graze on small amounts of purslane as part of a varied diet and she LOVES it. It may be one of her favorite foods. Yup! You heard me... I'm going AGAINST the "Tortoise Table," folks (http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plants_19.asp?catID=321), so make sure you do what you feel is right for your tort. Anyone will have a hard time convincing me to stop allowing my tortoise to eat a little Purslane as part of her varied diet, because when I first got my tortoise she was suffering from Calcium deficiency and had soft spots on her carapace. The main complaint against Purlsane is that it may prevent calcium absorption. I gave my tortoise as much sunshine and the biggest variety of natural foods I could provide, and my sweet tortoise's shell began to harden right before my eyes. Yes, she absorbed enough calcium to harden her shell back up, even while occasionally snacking on some Purslane. I'm thrilled she gets the nutrition this weed provides.


About the other veggies:
------------------------------------------------------
So, I tested a couple things out this year...

Celery
I've never grown celery before. It is a VERY SLOW grower, but was a big hit for us. This was more like leafy soup celery, but we still got some decent sized stalks and we enjoyed cutting off what we needed from the outer edges, and letting the rest of the plant keep growing. I read that celery grows in naturally "mucky/ swampy" conditions, so I planted it in a walled off space to allow the water to pool up. Next year, I will plant some celery in Tupperware, so I can easily bring it in the house for a few winter months without having to dig it up and risk the plant going into transplant shock. I will intentionally put it in a container with poor drainage.

Onions
I read that the more you water them, the sweeter they become and it's TRUE! During the summer, I water my garden every day in my dry windy climate. I had two patches of white onions. I watered the patch next to the celery TWICE a day. I saw no difference in size between the two onion patches, but the double watered white onions WERE SLIGHTLY MILDER/SWEETER than the other patch. I plan to do this again next year.
 
Last edited:

Prairie Mom

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2014
Messages
4,340
I wish u where near id make you do a garden for me lol
Ha ha ha! I'd totally do it for you, Shannon! I despise doing the dishes and cleaning house, but I'm quite cheerful scooping dog poop.:D
You must be doing something right since you're mailing out seeds!
 

Prairie Mom

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2014
Messages
4,340
Ha ha ha! I'd totally do it for you, Shannon! I despise doing the dishes and cleaning house, but I'm quite cheerful scooping dog poop.:D
You must be doing something right
That looks like a great page:) Thanks for posting it! I started clicking on the photos and they just keep coming and coming. I'll try not to get lost in garden planning daydreams.
 

phebe121

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2014
Messages
1,098
Ill havecto do a nice garden next yr for my torts ya i stiil have more rose of sharon seeds
 

phebe121

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2014
Messages
1,098
I dont have to deal with dog poo amymore shes been gone a yr and halfstill miss her just dont miss the poo lol so if i. Plant squash you know how it has little pokers ok the leafs the tort can still eat it
 

Prairie Mom

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2014
Messages
4,340
I dont have to deal with dog poo amymore shes been gone a yr and halfstill miss her just dont miss the poo lol
I'm sure you do. I never quite get over the loss of a pet. I still have a medium sized mutt. We used to have a St. Bernard/ Great Dane mix that passed away. When he'd go to the bathroom, he'd take out huge patches of lawn at a time. We were constantly reseeding or we wouldn't have any grass:)

small ajax couch.jpg
 

Prairie Mom

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2014
Messages
4,340
so if i. Plant squash you know how it has little pokers ok the leafs the tort can still eat it
Yes. Tortoises can absolutely EAT poky parts of squash. I posted a photo of Mavis eating a pumpkin vine on a previous page. Pumpkin vines can get just as poky as sharp zucchini and both plants don't even phase my young sulcata. When Mavis was stuck inside, and I'd pick her food during the cold weather, I would have to wear gloves to pick off some of the pumpkin and zucchini leaf stems and she eagerly gulped it all down. After she had eaten all the leaves off of my pumpkin and squash plants, she would work at the thorny vines with no problem. I've even given her some black berry and raspberry leaves which can have small thorns on the bottoms!:)

I saved some of my squash and pumpkin seeds and am going to try to grow small young plants as a little variety for my tortoise to chomp on this winter.
 

phebe121

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2014
Messages
1,098
Wow your tort is spoiled ill have to i have thousands of seeds can they eat bean and pea plants
 

phebe121

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2014
Messages
1,098
Ya i had a big garden and my dog would pee on everything so last yr i just put grass down and no dog so it all looks heathy again
 

Prairie Mom

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2014
Messages
4,340
Wow your tort is spoiled ill have to i have thousands of seeds can they eat bean and pea plants

I wasn't sure about this one, so I looked it up. I'm finding a mix of websites where some say they can eat a few of the beans and peas themselves and some say they cannot. As for the PLANTS (leaves, vines, etc) even the picky Tortoise table says those are OKAY to feed as part of a varied diet!...

The tortoise tables says this:

"Runner Beans: Can tortoises eat Runner Bean leaves?

Answer: Runner bean leaves are considered okay to feed, providing they are only a small part of the diet. The protein content in the leaves are nowhere as high as the bean itself which contains the toxic compound lectin phytohaemagglutinin and should never be fed. There will be no harm if young fresh leaves are fed as a small treat every so often during the short growing season. "
http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plant_questions_69.asp
 

Prairie Mom

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2014
Messages
4,340
It sounds like less vegetation will go to the compost bin when you have a tortoise:)
 

Len B

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Aug 3, 2010
Messages
4,986
Location (City and/or State)
Southern Md - Northern Neck Va
I picked up a few of these a while back, twistergrass.jpg twistergrass.jpg Juncus effusus, Big Twister. supposed to be real cold hardy, (that's one reason i got them) Has anybody grown this ? I have never seen it before, and haven't got the slightest idea if it is tortoise safe. But is neat looking.
 
Top