Box Turtle Enclosure: Progression Thread

[Nanci]

The sweet potato will take over EVERYTHING!!!! My parents have it in their yard, and it completely overtook the little island between the ponds and streams, and started choking off some of the streams. Granted, the largest sweet potato I pulled out (after the bloom) was close to 10 lbs, but these plants are EVIL!!!!!

Truer words were never spoken...I should have torn them all out last year, before they got established!!!

 

[jenneses]

I love when you update this thread! You have such an amazing back yard.

 

[RobbiesCornField]

I REALLY have to get out there to visit you. Those are some great shots!

 

[Nanci]

It's pretty cool out there...I love sitting in the rocking chair, watching the anoles. They go up the umbrella, into the tree, back on top of the umbrella, ending up on the spines. They walk around and threaten each other. Then there are the comets. They are getting big. Fish are relaxing to watch. Oh- when I went out last night, something in the pond squirted water straight up in the air, like a foot high! I looked very carefully and found a dragonfly nymph. I tried to get a picture of him, but he was gone when I went back in to get the camera. And a trio of cardinals came and sat on the trellis right by me! I think they were looking for water (I had the drip irrigation on, which fills the tortoise water, birdbath, turtle pond, water garden, as well as waters all the plants and trees). The trees are big enough now that birds actually sit in them. I can't wait till someone nests! I'd put a bird feeder out there, but I don't want to attract predators right to my tortoises...

 

[Nanci]

This is my pet wasp, Wilbur. I didn't want a pet wasp. I don't _mind_ wasps, out in the garden, but this one made a home six inches from where my head is, when I sit out in the rocking chair.

 

[Nanci]

See how close his home in the LED lantern is? So I chased him out, removed his little thing he was building, and hoped he'd find a better place. But he returned. I chased him out a few more times, but he was persistant.

 

[Nanci]

So, I hate to say it, I considered killing him, but settled on moving his light fixture far away. As I was carrying him, I noticed he only had five legs instead of six. As my vet says, I love the cripples, so I gave Wilbur a reprieve. Here he is, sleeping in his rebuilt home. Wilbur, my wasp.

 

[Nanci]

Speaking of cripples, here is a picture of Mrs. George's first leaf to reach the surface this spring. I thought she had died of the cold- she's very tropical, but when I removed her pot to throw her away, I thought I detected signs of life. I moved her up closer to the surface, and waited. I hope she has time to mature and bloom outside a greenhouse. She's the most beautiful of the waterlillies, the night-blooming one that is bright pink with a deep red center. She only bloomed two or three times last summer.

 

[Nanci]

What I did today:

Planted a tomato, a yellow and an orange bell pepper, two yellow squashes, and two blueberries in the boxie pen!

 

[Nanci]

Made a new mini-water garden with a dwarf cypress and some water lettuces.

 

[Nanci]

To Bella's left the new cone flower and wooley thyme, and to her right the couple of new salvias. I think that area to her right needs to turn into a patio. It used to be Sweet Potato Jungle...

 

[Nanci]

How we relax in the evening: (I'm sitting on the deck behind Bella in a rocking chair, with my feet up on the water garden ledge!)

 

[tricksterpup]

Damn, that is a nice looking place, its getting better and better every year Nanci.
Build a shed out back and rent it out for visitors. I would visit.

 

[RobbiesCornField]

Damn, that is a nice looking place, its getting better and better every year Nanci.
Build a shed out back and rent it out for visitors. I would visit.

To heck with the renters, just charge admission as a botanical garden!

It's looking lovely, Nanci!

 

[ZoologyMajor]

I wish my thumb was as green as yours. I Love Wilbur! I wish I had a "real" yard.

 

[snakemom1961]

Once again, awesome pics Nanci. I'd so be one to pay admission to have the opportunity to come see you yard.
Thanks again for sharing your wonderful place with us.

 

[Nanci]

The babies are here!!! I saw my second toadlet last night!

 

[Nanci]

Here's a very new one that isn't dried out yet:

 

[Nanci]

A really cute one!

 

[Nanci]

I'm doomed to spend the rest of my life digging up sweet potatoes. This is from ONE plant...