Hello, I am new to this gardening newsgroup and I thought that I would ask a serious question. My husband and I live in the western part of Tennessee and recently while working out in the yard in the gardens we're building together, we have come across not one, but three very large black widow spiders. Being benevolent and not apt to freak out in spite of the fact that these spiders ARE poisonous, I looked it up on the internet and found out that they're not aggressive. My husband is European and unfamiliar with these things, and he managed to put the first one we found into a half gallon glass pickle jar he'd rinsed out for other things. I poked a hole into it, and put some leaves and a twig for her to hide (she did) and later a piece of screen door screen just to make sure, and eventually she died. But later, while I was planting some hemerocalis rhizomes, I happened across yet another one, this one larger than the last one, hiding in the rhizomes in the soil of the pot I had these growing in. She slipped me. And yesterday, hidden in some rhizomes of iris, my husband, Henry found yet another one of these things! Is this normal? I mean, I realize that they are not aggressive, or at least the article about them says they're not, and yesterday it unsettled me enough that I squashed her good. But the second one is now unaccounted for in the garden that I will be working in come spring time. This area has had a large amount of rain, by the way, and I just thought maybe it was the wet weather. Or am I kidding myself and these are indigenous to this area? We moved here in late spring and I didn't come across any at all at that time, but now, not one but three?
I have lots more questions for anyone willing to answer me about them. I see this newsgroup is pretty informative and there are some who are very helpful with legitimate questions regarding gardening problems. By the way, how do I find out what garden zone I am in? I am very frustrated with the local extension agents here because it's predominately a farming area on a large and commercial scale. Mostly corn, soybeans, millet and cotton. I haven't seen much in the way of unique plantings, yet. But now that we've moved here, I hope to break that common thread I see in every yard. Nandina, crape myrtles, all seemingly the watermelon color or white ones, mums, celosia (a local woman called them c**ks combs) lots of boxwood, Banana plants of all things, canna's, elephant ears and lantana that apparently comes back. So I need to find out how to find the gardening limit zone for growing. Any ideas?
Thank you in advance.
always, Eva Shovelful