dsglass' photos
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Hanging out in the shade of the mesquite just outside the tortoise garden, watching Rango go about his morning rounds. :)
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Phase One of Rango's garden. He was a surprise tortoise; i didn't have a lot of time to plan, and anyway it's been way too hot for outdoor construction projects, and so I went with a quick and dirty post-and-rabbit-wire fence. The pots and boards and things lining the perimeter are partly to block his view - if they can see through the fence, they'll keep trying to stick their heads through, or to climb it - and partly structural support. ;) While he sleeps through the fall/winter, I plan to build a solid wall (probably 2-3 cinderblocks high, with a top half (wood? wire? a bottle-fence?) high enough to keep Sophie and her friends from trying to jump over) around his expanded garden - a bit past where we were sitting over on the right, and another 8-10 feet out at the sunny end (out of frame off the bottom edge of the pic), and then all the way to the wood fence out of frame off the left edge (for now, I'll be keeping the pre-existing wire-fence at the back (running just in front of that tree trunk)). And it will have an actual gate, so I won't have to climb over every time. ;)
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Desert honeysuckle, one of his favorite flowers. :) He didn't want to soak in his water dish today - started squirming even as I was setting him down in the water, eager to get back to his snacks - but he was happy enough to munch on some mulberry leaves while I misted him (and the tree, and the rest of the garden) with the hose on one of the gentle settings, and so for at least a few minutes his shell was less dusty and you could see all the lovely patterns. :)
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Sedums are among his favorite kinds of plants - I reserved a couple of clumps from the original plant in a pot out of reach, and I collected all the leaves that had popped off in transit - some of which already had started putting out roots by the next morning! - and planted those in pots as well, for a longer-term food source; he hasn't yet found all the clumps I planted around his garden, but he's eaten several almost all the way to the ground. :)
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Mulberry leaves are another favorite - and he likes them dried just as much as fresh; I set out a bunch of leaves right off the tree, he ate a few then wandered over to a pile of dried leftovers and crunched on some of those before continuing on. :)
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I've been bringing him the pale desert willow flowers every day since he moved in two and a half weeks ago, and he's always ignored them; he's also ignored other white/pale flowers, instead going for the brighter/darker ones. And so when I was shopping for new trees for his little corner of the world (i've transplanted baby volunteer desert willows from elsewhere in the garden, but it'll be years before they're big enough to provide any real shade, if they even survive) I decided to get a darker-purple flowering desert willow (they also come in a medium-lavender). And so of course this morning of course he finally "discovered" the pale flowers (i scattered a handful of both kinds at the entrance to his burrow), eating them before going to check out the purple ones... :)
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I've been bringing him the pale desert willow flowers every day since he moved in two and a half weeks ago, and he's always ignored them; he's also ignored other white/pale flowers, instead going for the brighter/darker ones. And so when I was shopping for new trees for his little corner of the world (i've transplanted baby volunteer desert willows from elsewhere in the garden, but it'll be years before they're big enough to provide any real shade, if they even survive) I decided to get a darker-purple flowering desert willow (they also come in a medium-lavender). And so of course this morning of course he finally "discovered" the pale flowers (i scattered a handful of both kinds at the entrance to his burrow), eating them before going to check out the purple ones... :)
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Ghost is fascinated by Rango's emergence from his burrow, but once he's out and about she seems way more interested in the garden, and all the new butterflies who've been coming by to check out some of the new flowers I've been planting... The butterflies appeared the morning after I brought the plants home; I suspect the bees have been spreading the word. :)
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Ghost always runs over to watch Rango emerge from his burrow... When she's not watching from his "roof", or perched in the mesquite overhead (when the bees were busy elsewhere)...
