A few things I'm surprised wasn't mentioned yet... One they will need a suitable place for hibernating. If there isn't already a place you can be fairly sure of. In texas where you say you live it don't have to be quite as involved as it would have to be in the far north. I know in the north you'd actually need to dig a hole semi deep and fill it with large rocks. Large enough to leave crevices and small caverns to get down into the earth where it stays warm. Use your own judgement or someone else may can give you better advice just how much protection they will need in the winter where you live. Second most important issue you may have is to be sure there aren't a lot of invasive predation. The two very worse are going to be fire ants for one. They kill a lot more baby reptiles and amphibians than a lot of people realize. And the worse you can have would be a cat outdoors. An outdoor cat can rent havoc on your immediate ecosystem. If you think about what they do all day long is hunt. They will not only kill the snakes themselves but they will kill the snakes food supply. A cat will kill anything that moves. I seen a special on animal plannet about the top ten killers. And the house cat ended up number 1. They kill purely for fun and entertainment. And they estimated a cat that lives it's entire life outdoors can kill up to 300,000 living creatures within it's lifetime. I promise you will not have gartersnakes in your yard if you have a cat. Good luck. I hope your pond works out well for you.

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