The first three pictures are of the pen after it was asembled and placed. The last two pictures are of the pen once it was filled with a mixture of wood humus, leaf mold, coco peat and some sand plus some actual forest soil to introduce the worms and milipeds and other critters.The plants in there so far are two frasier maples (red maple x silver maple witch are very common in the area), a pin oak, a Yucca filamentosa, a royal fern, and a poke weed. The litter is a mix of bald cypress, magnolia, frasier maple, tulip tree, holly and sweet gum. There are a few sweet gum tree logs that are in there that are fairly well colonised by fungus of different kinds. The pen itself is framed with pressure treated 2x2's, the screen is 1/2" hardware cloth which is to help protect the turtles from things like raccons, and rats though the raccons have never bothered the turtles. The black stuff on the bottom and side is industrial strength landscape fabric (like the kind used in commercial landscaping). The lid is hardware cloth and I have to built the frame for it (I ran out of wood I had to change the design from the original one), It will have hinges and locks. I'm planning on adding more plants in the spring.
