Hello all- Kip is our rescue Russian (female) whom I intended to keep in a large outdoor enclosure in a part of our yard. She had a RI when we picked her up from the vet though, so for a little over a month she has been living in her indoor enclosure with constant heat, light, and moisture control. (for Kip's story, you can see this thread) She's been going out daily (on days that aren't too rainy) for real sunshine and grass, and I learned quickly that the intended enclosure was certainly not suitable for her- too many places that were too easy for her to escape, and a few plants that I have learned are not tort-safe.
So I set to work building this 48 sq ft enclosure, which will also serve as a kind of raised planter for her foraging food and flowers, on the fenced, concrete floored, back lanai. Even if she escapes her new home, she can't get out of the wooden privacy fence or dig her way out through the concrete; about the worst she could do would be to invade my raised tomato garden and decimate the veggies.
I worked hard on this, but I want it to be right for my new shell-baby, so any suggestions would be very welcome.
First I purchased the raw materials from Home Depot:
25 2x4s (so that I'd have extras)
a few 4x4 posts which I had cut down and notched at the Home Depot
one piece of 4ft x 8ft birch plywood
one piece of 4ft x 4ft birch plywood
twenty 4ft 2x2's for supports
(all the wood was boreate treated for outdoor use)
1 large roll of weed be gone garden mesh
Once all the hardware was home, I could start the fun part!
First I slid the 2x4s down into the notches on the posts to build the 2 sections of the "L box" framework. I did the long, 8ft x 4 ft "leg" of the "L" first, and then attached the shorter, 4ft x 4ft "leg". I specifically chose this nail and screw-less method for the walls so that I could easily add more posts and 2x4s at a later date and increase the size of the enclosure if and when I decide to do so.
then I used my cordless drills to drill 2" holes (for drainage, since this is essentially a planter full of dirt and greens, and we live in a very rainy part of the world) liberally throughout the sheets of ply wood. Those sheets of plywood are the floor of the enclosure.
Next, I used my drills to drill small pilot holes and then attach the plywood sheets to the posts that comprise the box frames with 2 1/2" wood screws (aka- the big ones) *
Then I began to attach the 2x4 supports directly to the ply wood. I used a nail gun with 2 1/2" brads for this portion, since I wasn't interested in attempting to drill through 2x4s with my little cordless jobs.
Next step was attaching the short "leg" to the big one with more wood screws through the plywood and posts and by sliding the ends of the 2x4s on the small leg into the notches on the posts of the "big leg"
Then I flipped the enclosure over and fitted it into the corner of the lanai.
Next, I unrolled the Weed be Gone Mesh and lined the bottom of the enclosure with it. I used tiny little wood screws (3/4" I think) to fasten the mesh in place.
The mesh is to keep all the soil from draining through the irrigation holes I put in the floor at the beginning of the project.
As you can probably see, it was getting late at this point, and since I started around 9 am, I was ready for a shower, dinner and bed. The planting would have to wait!
The next morning, I was raring to go and began filling the pen with plain, non fertilized top soil- 10 dollars per 2 cubic feet from Home Depot. I used about 16-18 cubic ft of soil.
Time for the grass seed! I used Bermuda grass since it's cheap, safe for torts, and grows well here.
Last step was to add the plants, hides, basking rocks, and water dish.
I used a bag of rocks I collected with my son up near a friend's house in Diamond Head (Diamond Head is the big, famous, volcanic crater here on Oahu- very dry and desert-y, lots of great volcanic and no volcanic rocks. I used only non-volcanic rocks, mostly slate and granite, since I don't want Kippie getting cut up on Volcanic Glass)
The flowers are zinnias and marigolds, since I read that they are safe for our little shelled friends. Some are from Home Depot, and some are transplants from elsewhere in my gardens.
This log hide has nasturtiums planted on either side and some Manoa lettuces and chard plants along the wall behind it.
There's a rosemary plant on the back wall to help keep the bugs at bay along with a little zoo-med tortoise playpen and "house." A friend gifted the little pre-fab playpen to us when we adopted Kip. It's too small for our full-grown Russian to use by itself, but with the end taken off, it seems like a perfect hide and grow lattice for the petunias!
After about 5 days, the pen looks like this- another week of growth and of monitoring Kip's condition in her inside-table, and then the grass will be established and Kip will be done with her prescribed antibiotics. I can't wait to introduce her to her new palace!
Thanks for taking a look at my first real attempt at constructing a tortitat from scratch. Suggestions and criticisms are super welcome. Seriously, I'd hate to think that I did something that could be done much better; or worse, that I did something potentially dangerous for my new baby.
*It's important to note that my enclosure is an 'L' shape, so since I built the box upside down, it was crucial to remember which way I wanted the "L" to "point" once the enclosure was flipped over and ready to be filled.
So I set to work building this 48 sq ft enclosure, which will also serve as a kind of raised planter for her foraging food and flowers, on the fenced, concrete floored, back lanai. Even if she escapes her new home, she can't get out of the wooden privacy fence or dig her way out through the concrete; about the worst she could do would be to invade my raised tomato garden and decimate the veggies.
I worked hard on this, but I want it to be right for my new shell-baby, so any suggestions would be very welcome.
First I purchased the raw materials from Home Depot:
25 2x4s (so that I'd have extras)
a few 4x4 posts which I had cut down and notched at the Home Depot
one piece of 4ft x 8ft birch plywood
one piece of 4ft x 4ft birch plywood
twenty 4ft 2x2's for supports
(all the wood was boreate treated for outdoor use)
1 large roll of weed be gone garden mesh
Once all the hardware was home, I could start the fun part!
First I slid the 2x4s down into the notches on the posts to build the 2 sections of the "L box" framework. I did the long, 8ft x 4 ft "leg" of the "L" first, and then attached the shorter, 4ft x 4ft "leg". I specifically chose this nail and screw-less method for the walls so that I could easily add more posts and 2x4s at a later date and increase the size of the enclosure if and when I decide to do so.
then I used my cordless drills to drill 2" holes (for drainage, since this is essentially a planter full of dirt and greens, and we live in a very rainy part of the world) liberally throughout the sheets of ply wood. Those sheets of plywood are the floor of the enclosure.
Next, I used my drills to drill small pilot holes and then attach the plywood sheets to the posts that comprise the box frames with 2 1/2" wood screws (aka- the big ones) *
Then I began to attach the 2x4 supports directly to the ply wood. I used a nail gun with 2 1/2" brads for this portion, since I wasn't interested in attempting to drill through 2x4s with my little cordless jobs.
Next step was attaching the short "leg" to the big one with more wood screws through the plywood and posts and by sliding the ends of the 2x4s on the small leg into the notches on the posts of the "big leg"
Then I flipped the enclosure over and fitted it into the corner of the lanai.
Next, I unrolled the Weed be Gone Mesh and lined the bottom of the enclosure with it. I used tiny little wood screws (3/4" I think) to fasten the mesh in place.
The mesh is to keep all the soil from draining through the irrigation holes I put in the floor at the beginning of the project.
As you can probably see, it was getting late at this point, and since I started around 9 am, I was ready for a shower, dinner and bed. The planting would have to wait!
The next morning, I was raring to go and began filling the pen with plain, non fertilized top soil- 10 dollars per 2 cubic feet from Home Depot. I used about 16-18 cubic ft of soil.
Time for the grass seed! I used Bermuda grass since it's cheap, safe for torts, and grows well here.
Last step was to add the plants, hides, basking rocks, and water dish.
I used a bag of rocks I collected with my son up near a friend's house in Diamond Head (Diamond Head is the big, famous, volcanic crater here on Oahu- very dry and desert-y, lots of great volcanic and no volcanic rocks. I used only non-volcanic rocks, mostly slate and granite, since I don't want Kippie getting cut up on Volcanic Glass)
The flowers are zinnias and marigolds, since I read that they are safe for our little shelled friends. Some are from Home Depot, and some are transplants from elsewhere in my gardens.
This log hide has nasturtiums planted on either side and some Manoa lettuces and chard plants along the wall behind it.
There's a rosemary plant on the back wall to help keep the bugs at bay along with a little zoo-med tortoise playpen and "house." A friend gifted the little pre-fab playpen to us when we adopted Kip. It's too small for our full-grown Russian to use by itself, but with the end taken off, it seems like a perfect hide and grow lattice for the petunias!
After about 5 days, the pen looks like this- another week of growth and of monitoring Kip's condition in her inside-table, and then the grass will be established and Kip will be done with her prescribed antibiotics. I can't wait to introduce her to her new palace!
Thanks for taking a look at my first real attempt at constructing a tortitat from scratch. Suggestions and criticisms are super welcome. Seriously, I'd hate to think that I did something that could be done much better; or worse, that I did something potentially dangerous for my new baby.
*It's important to note that my enclosure is an 'L' shape, so since I built the box upside down, it was crucial to remember which way I wanted the "L" to "point" once the enclosure was flipped over and ready to be filled.
I just love how colorful it is!!
