Photo Credit: Tom Myrick

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“Turtles are common garden visitors where water is nearby, but they are not always pest creatures — they consume a variety of troublesome insects and generally do very little damage to gardens” (sfgate.com) [1].

In the early morning hours, this female Eastern Box Turtle makes her way across the Veggie-Bed’s grounds.

Photo Credit: Tom Myrick

“Sadly, like many other wild animals, box turtles increasingly find themselves marooned in a sea of suburbs. Populations of the reptiles in fragmented habitats may be composed mostly of seniors or nonreproducing adults, putting those groups on long, slow slides toward extinction” (nwf.org) [2].

Here at the Veggie-Bed, we created a box turtle haven. Turtles (aka Testudines) found on roads are removed and released on our grounds. Delightfully the box turtles are thriving on the Veggie-Bed’s grounds.

Photo Credit: Tom Myrick

We found these hatchlings in a flowerbed. They were hand-raised and released on the grounds a year later.

As for our morning inhabitant, she found a safe place to lay her eggs and start the life cycle over again.

Photo Credit: Tom Myrick

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Sources:

[1] https://homeguides.sfgate.com/stop-turtle-eating-tomatoes-garden-46078.html

[2] https://www.nwf.org/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2012/AprilMay/Gardening/Box-Turtle