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 cocks 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