Well I have never found a hedgehog which I would enjoy seeing. But lots of wild animals in the garden, frequently scare something up. When in WA cleaning out a garden bed on my daughter's property, I had several high stacks of weeds I was putting in the green cans when she called me into dinner. After dinner I went out to pick up the last pile about 3' tall and put it into a can. Glad it was tall enough I decided to use a rake to scoop up as much as I could and lift it into the can. As I got to the bottom I just started calling 'snake, snake' upon which my daughter calmly walked out, picked up the snake and threw it back into the garden. I told her I wasn't going to clean it out again. This year, she has found so many nests of baby snakes I don't think I will pull any more weeds for her. There were 17 babies 1' long in one nest. My other two daughters and grandsons pick them up and play with them. Can't believe they are my daughters. GLOVES, the best gloves for working with thorny plants are the welding gloves that come 3 pair in a pkg for around $10.00 from Harbor Freight. I put bright glowing orange tape around them so I can find them when I lay them down in the garden or accidentally drop them into the rubbish pile of weeds, otherwise I won't be able to find them. For regular gardening I wear the same as everyone else has mentioned. -----Original Message----- From: Ellen Hornig <hornig@oswego.edu> To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> Sent: Mon, Mar 16, 2020 11:21 am Subject: Re: [pbs] Be careful on garden cleanup! You win, Jim! Sent from Ellen's iPhone > On Mar 16, 2020, at 2:03 PM, Jim McKenney via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > > So, Martin uncovers a hedgehog, Ellen disturbs a bumblebee, I sometimes encounter the small garden amphibians and reptiles. But the "you should have been wearing gloves" experience which I'll never forget because it might have ended my life came in the habitat of the traviat members of my own species: I was down in the inner city when it was dark . It was the height of the AIDS crisis. and I was passing through a neighborhood known for drug and prostitution activity. I was walking along a handsome hedge of some thorny, broad leaved evergreen. with little berries. I decided to collect some of the berries from the ground. I got down on all fours and began to palp the leaf litter on the ground. Suddenly I felt a prick. It was not a thorn, it was not a bumblebee, it was a discarded hypodermic syringe. Stunned, I stood up, asking myself how I could have been so stupid, This was forty years or so ago: back in those days, an AIDS diagnosis was a death sentence. I was confused, I didn't know what to do, As it turned out, I was also lucky. Jim McKenneyMontgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where Magnolia Caerhays Belle is blooming. > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…