App, how do you keep a turtle just in your garden?
Hubby has a real thing for turtles
and we talked about getting one for the backyard but I wasn't sure what we had to do to take care of him. A box wouldn't eat any of your veggiesl? Just the bugs?
Do they need any sort of pond?
Do you leave him out at night?
We'd have to bring him in for the winter I guess but that would easy enough to set up for us
. We live right near the river & I'm sure we could convince one of the local residence to come visit us so if it got away it wouldn't be a big deal.
Ultimately, we'll (1) let him roam off and hopefully find a good habitat in our property (wooded areas along back fence, rain garden/rice paddies, and new pond on property -- DH is afraid of accidentally getting him with his lawnmower but he doesn't mow the back yard, I do with the push mower so he'll be safe as long as he stays there) or in the swampy wooded area on the other side of our back fence, (2) release him by a nearby pond -- two ponds connected by a drainage/sewer tunnel and connected to a stream -- that are still surrounded with some wildly wooded areas (beavers and green turtles live in those ponds, often visited by Herons as well as various ducks and geese, fox, etc. in the area), or (3) release him behind my parents' property where it's also very wooded and my Dad has said that he used to have box turtles wonder into HIS yard (groundHOGS, deer in the woods).