| A VW hubcap . . . Dibble |
| Enough old bricks to build a
small garden shed
. . . Shirl |
| A little gold ring I lost over
10 years ago in
my veggie garden . . . Marilyn |
| Charred brownies.
Apparently my husband
tried to cook again . . . Heather |
| I once made bread which didn't
rise. I put the
loaves out for the birds but found them later -- my dog thought they
were
bones and buried them . . . Laurel |
| False teeth upper plate in very
old veggie plot
-- probably thrown on garden from garbage pail which old-timers used to
do with compost . . . Buffalo Woman |
| A perfectly shaped heart made
of broken glass
. . . Kokliko |
| Really, really large boulders
that made great
borders for beds. Also a collection of partially chewed rawhide bones,
and mismatched gardening gloves which our new dog randomly buried.
Obviously
thought if Mom can dig and bury things - why can't she do so as well! .
. . Jill |
| A can full of pennies from the
1940s . . . Linda |
| Fund raising candy bars were
snatched by our
dog Ellie. She buried over 9 candy bars throughout the backyard -
all with the wrappers still intact . . . Willie |
| Picture it - 2001, George the
Fifth, the Georgettes,
Woofie-gard-n-dog, and me -- happily mucking in the dirt, the
Georgettes
spy something bright and shinny -- they scratch -- I dig, Woofie digs,
George flaps enthusiastically - it got bigger, shinier; bigger,
shinier;
soooo big it was huge, it was the bumper from an 18 wheeler -- in the
herb
garden . . . Joan |
| Preparing for spring -- with a
pitchfork -- armed
for battle -- tilling all the gopher mole tunnels (thought I would end
up at Sheryls). I finally found the destructive rodent that I had named
Bin -- and annihilated him . . . Pat
|
When I was a small child, I can
remember vividly
digging in the garden space that was allotted to me. One day I
was
digging a big hole to plant something, and it was soooo deep that I
imagined
that I was digging down to Australia. Not five minutes later I
dug
up a small charm -- it was an Australian map charm! It was such
an
impact as a child and I often think about it now (some forty years
later)
when I'm digging a deep hole in my garden
. . . Sue |
| I unearthed a fragment of china
from a lovely
Victorian teacup. I paused and wondered -- was I doing gardening or
archaeology
or both? . . . Cathy |
| My mothers wedding ring . . . Elaine |
My sanity! I have a very
hectic job and
I find that my gardening time brings me back to a calmer, more relaxed
state. I wouldn't trade my time with nature for a spa any day.
. . . Shannon |
| Marbles, 131 years of lost
marbles. All colourful
like the flowers and saved in an old canning jar, one or two a year . .
. Dan |
When I was digging in the slope
behind our garage
(where I'm planning to do terraces for rhododendrons) I found a
multitude
of things, among them: parts of bicycles and lawn-mowers, a bucket of
tar,
whole (!) clay pots, odd shoes, a mug, a silver spoon, an old washing
mashine...
When the excavating starts again this year I expect to find a lot more!
. . . Anna |
| Found an entire 11 man team
from a table-top
soccer game buried up to their knees in a pot in a dark corner of the
garden.
Punishment for losing too many games or unwilling participants in a
bizarre
experiment? . . . Nick |
| Found fragments of the family
china and a lovely
lady's brooch in a 150-year-old boxwood parterre of a historic house --
Like a trip back in time! . . . Susan |
I find golf balls everywhere I
dig -- the price
I pay for raising a pre-teen golf fanatic
. . . Susan |
| Once when I was digging a new
vegetable bed I
found a lawn chair and about ten beer bottles buried under the ground .
. . Christine |
| When we first moved in and
started tilling the
untouched soil here, I found a stirrup and what appeared to be a large
knee joint. We quickly quit digging for fear of finding the rest
of the horse, or the rider . . . And, since the house's previous owners
hung out with motorcycle gangs, the fear of digging deeper was a REAL
one
. . . Auntie Canuck |
| A friend of mine had just
bought a house and
we were poking about the backyard and I found . . . a driveway . . . Jenn |
| A barbie arm reaching out of
the soil, used as
a plant protector for years after the original sighting 'til perhaps a
dog ran off with it . . . Kitty |
| In a remote corner of the
garden bed I found
a pair of pantyhose. Makes me wonder about the previous owners and
their
Soiled Reputations . . . Bev |
| The skull of a horse. Never
found the rest of
the body so I often wondered if the Godfather was around . . . Patricia |
| I found an old stove that
someone had buried
and used to landfill. We lived on the lake and I guess the previous
owners
were trying to level their land. We decided we didn't want it that
level!
. . . Pat |
| Once while gardening I found an
old sneaker.
It looked like it had been there for quite a while. I also found a shot
glass . . . Cristina |
| Found a beautiful salamander .
. . waited 5 minutes
for it to move before realizing it was plastic. also found a pair of my
sisters undies . . . John |
| While roto tilling the
garden, found an
O-l-d, very old lady's garter, just a single garter from a garter
belt.
After rubbing the dirt off, it was rusty silvertone, with the rubber
now
a dingy, dirty white. It was at least 50 years old. It made us wonder
how
in the world this came to be in our garden spot. What was the
lady
like who wore it? Was this from her "Sunday-go-to-meeting" clothes, or
from a frisky, fun loving lady who loved to kick up her heels? It was
fun
to take a step back in time, wondering about the person we never met.
Letting
our minds wander about her -- was she married -- any children -- did
she
dance -- was she a prim and proper lady? All kinds of questions played
in our minds that day, and opened all kinds of dialogue . . . over
something
so simple and plain. But we had such fun! . . . Darleene
|
| A cable snatch: a steel rope,
mesh sleeve thingy
for pulling power, phone, etc. cables in-line and rigging them to poles
. . . David |
| The skeleton of a dog with a
cat's skull in its
jaws, and a mouse's skeleton in the cat's jaw. Guess they played a
deadly
game of "menage a trois", but we don't know what killed the dog. My son
took several parts to his class's "show and tell" day, and managed to
make
a couple of his classmates woof their cookies. Needless to say, we were
a hit with the kids, but not with the custodian . . . Ellen |
| I found turquoise, crystals,
red and amber jasper,
petrified rocks, iron ore . . . the old owner did lapidary and had a
pile
of rocks he wanted to cut and polish behind the garage . . . got a lot
of cool stuff from there! Oh, and all the lannonstone (indigenous
to this area) under all this . . . Robin |
| The strangest thing ever found
in my garden was
a forgotten shovel. It had been covered by some weeds, and accidentally
hit by the tiller the following year . . . Jennifer |
| My dad had found a just
hatched, feather less
raven in the mountains and my mom fed it every two hours for
weeks.
It eventually became a 2ft tall bird that was never caged or tethered
but
lived in our backyard. It thought it was family and wanted to do
whatever we were doing. It would instinctively grab anything it
could,
fly off and bury it in various places. In the rose garden we have
found Mom's sunglasses, many of dad's tools (nuts, bolts, screwdrivers,
etc.), paintbrushes and garden tools . . . Lisa |
| Not strange, but a shocker
nonetheless!
In the process of digging new flower beds, I unearthed all manner of
electric,
cable, etc. wires. Why, oh why, in my garden when I had such
visions
of my dream Eden?! . . . Lalita |
| My children and I were doing
some weeding and
we located several real old fashioned slot machines with buffalo
nickels
still in them . . . Cheryl |
| My husband dumped cigarette
butts along with
my snuffer in the garbage to burn, unknown to me. I found it at garden
digging time . . . Carol |
| When we moved to our present
home (about 25 years
ago) the yard was a mess. Every time I put the shovel in the
ground
I would unearth something. Glass, bottles, cans, bones, toys,
tools,
horseshoes. But the one time I spotted a wheel sticking out of
the
ground in a flower bed I was preparing. I went over to it and
gave
it a yank, wouldn't budge. Took the shovel and started digging around
the
wheel, gave it a few more yanks, still did not move. I finally
called
my husband, who dug for half hour or so. We both pulled and out
of
the earth came a kids battery operated car. The kind they can sit
in a drive around. The other strange item I found, several years
later and in a new flower bed was my wedding ring I had lost a couple
of
years before . . . Barbara |
| Under about a pickup truck load
of weeds I found
about a pickup truck load of rocks. I'm still in the process of
removing
the rocks . . . Maren |
| A schoolhouse stapler, that was
a handful of
rust. Cleaned it on a wire wheel, and got it to work. The
problem
with it was a jammed staple. Probably from the 20's . . . Frank |
| An entire brick patio.
And underneath that
a whole bunch of broken china and porcelain doll arms and legs . . . Audra
|
| Peace and quiet, a wonderful
thing for a person,
who works two jobs . . . Sharon |
12 years ago we moved into a
new subdivision
- built on old riverbed. Every yard of topsoil had to be trucked
in, and to save some money we decided the first loads could be
unscreened,
and the more expensive screened loam would be saved for beds and top
dressing.
That unscreened loam was a treasure
trove of
found items. The most notable was a silver whiskey flask, dented
but intact, still containing the most potent home brew I have ever had
the misfortune to sniff! . . . Mona |
| Old glass bottles from the
20's/30's - it was
then that I realized my garden site used to be a dump . . . Kerah |
| in my fathers old garden spot
was a large gem.
No ring, just the stone. It's the size of a garter. Is it a real
diamond,
don't know . . . Linda |
| I live in a townhouse and had
to replace some
plants planted before we moved in that had died. Trashed supplies
from building the townhouse were buried. Not a wonder the plants died.
Not as strange as a shame for the environment . . . Marge |
| A ton of safety pins - the
previous owner said
that trees need iron too. One diamond ring (no joke) . . . Anne |
A fossilized rock with an
animal's (probably
a lizard) skeleton, lots of fossilized sea shells (property is now
nearly
3 1/2 hrs. from the ocean) and several fossilized seed pods
. . . Marlene |
| My favourite watch that I lost
last year . .
. Shirley |
| Most interesting find: A
huge carpenter's
screw clamp. The wooden handle wasn't even rotted much. A
wire
wheel, some oil, lots of patience, and it works just fine! Now,
if
I
were a carpenter (and you were my lady) . . . Tom |
| While digging a hole to plant a
Weeping Willow
last year, my husband knew we would find many old bottles and shells
(someone
told us that that part of our property used to be a dumping ground).
What
we didn't expect to find was an iron headboard! We dug up as much of
the
headboard as we could, and then sawed off the part we couldn't (or
should
I say wouldn't) dig up. As our landscaping progresses, we are awaiting
new and interesting discoveries! . . . Val |
| A carpet partly decomposed. I
was pulling up
carpet fibres for years after the initial find. Maybe someone wanted
the
lawn to look like a carpet . . . Wayne |
| We dug up an old bottle of
sewing machine oil
and a bottle that had the words vaseline and a company name on it . . .
Patricia |
| Mine isn't what I found buried
in my garden,
more like what I RECEIVED. My one year old Red bone hound, Lucy-
bringing
up the 12th potato that I had just planted the day before! She brought
the last one to my feet and dropped it, waiting for me to throw her new
*ball* . . . Carrie
|
| This is not now, it is the
future. My husband
gardens with surgical rubber gloves and drops them all over the garden
when holed. What will the future gardener think when he keeps
digging
up the things? . . . Gay |
| Someone lost their marbles in
my garden... and
I found them. Must have been someone with a 13 year old daughter!
. . . Nona |
| Favourite find: a fist
sized oval rock
that amazingly resembled the potatoes I was digging. Into the
sack
with the spuds it went, and there it remained until last week when my
wife
went down for potatoes . . . Tom |
| While creating a new garden bed
I found an engine
block . . . Janice |
| In autumn I found an egg on
which was written:
"EASTER MONDAY". (The neighbours had dated the eggs of their wild ducks
and the marten had stolen them and lost one of them under my hedges) .
. . Lucia |
| While digging under a very old
lilac tree I found
several empty bottles. They are the very old apothecary bottles. All of
them at one time contained some of that old fashioned medicine that
today
would probably be illegal for all the opium it contained . . . Catherine |
| I live in a very old
house that my husband
and I have been "fixing up" for many years. While digging up the
dirt to put in some flowers around an old shed near our home, I
found
an very old iron. Not an electric one, but one much older and
very
heavy. I guess someone in the past got real tired of
ironing.
I can relate to that!! . . . Vickie
|
| I was digging in my square foot
garden and discovered
a brand new loaf of bread. The previous week I was unloading
groceries
out of the back of my car and when everything was in the house I
discovered
that I did not get my loaf of bread. It seems that my wonderful
big
dog named "Black dog" had stolen the loaf of bread and buried it for
hard
times . . . Debra |
| I bought my grandmother's house
in the country
in 1998. While excavating the land behind the house to start a
perennial
garden,
my husband and I unearthed her crockery history. There were pieces of
plates,
cups, bottles, and odds metal objects . . . Patricia |
| The strangest thing my wife
ever found in our
garden is:- ME!!!!!! . . . Robert |
| I keep finding marbles (maybe
the ones I've
lost over the years). But the strangest thing would be the
remains
of the two holed biffy that was there many many years ago . . . Elaine |
| Our first year at our new
place, we were putting
in a Hosta nursery near an old coal bank and I found the remains of an
old moonshine still. I still have the intact copper worm on the
wall
as a reminder! . . . Brenda |
| When making a new flower garden
behind the shed
at my mother and father's house, to surpass them when they returned
from
vacation, I unearthed a small box -- lo and behold it was a pet mouse I
had buried there when I was a child. Very well preserved . . . Ruth |
| While transplanting a larch
tree along our river
in the backyard, I came across a very old cod liver oil bottle, 2 feet
underground, cap intact. Probably left by someone camping from an
earlier
day . . . Karen |
| Shards of Victorian
inkwells. We live in
an old stone schoolhouse . . . Pat
|
| Dead Bodies . . . Argh |
| While digging new garden beds
on my old schoolhouse
property I unearthed children's rings, inkwells, pieces of rubber balls
and metal object . . . but no money! . . . Judy |
| I have found a set of wheels
for a Volkswagen
and a garden roller in a compost heap . . . Judith |
| A horseshoe . . . Devon |
| As a child I attempted to dig
to China with a
trusty dinner spoon. It only took me 52 years to get there. I taught
English
in China in 1999! . . . Beth |
| |
| A few summers ago, on a hot
summer morning, there
I was sweaty, on hands and knees, back aching, trying to whip my garden
into shape. When my gentle hoeing produced a clunk, I dug out the
offender. Not a bone, not a stone or rock, but it looked like a
relic
from bygone days. Obviously, it had once held a wooden handle,
and
that was no longer there. What kind of implement was it? I
asked my know-it-all husband, who had farming in his boyhood
background,
but he offered only a few guesses and no concrete name for my mystery
whatzit.
It even travelled with me to the local historical or is is hysterical
club
for advice. No luck. Some day, I hope to put a name on my
whatzit.
. . . Liz |
| When I began my organic garden
near the back
of the property there were lots of rocks - which is not unusual -but
over
time I came to really hate the sound (not to mention feel the back
wrenching
impact) of my spade hitting rock whenever I turned new soil to enlarge
the planted area.
I was quite proud of the amount
of rocks including
two "boulders" I dug out and managed to roll to the corners of my front
lawn where I left them as ornaments because they were testimony to the
hard work I had done. My wife always wanted a pool but I convinced her
the upkeep was too much effort and we joined the local community
facility
instead. In exchange for the concession I agreed to build her a nice
flower
garden in the lawn space closest to the house with a gazebo she could
use
for tea or entertaining her lady friends. When I began working that
ground
I found what I thought was a blob of left over buried concrete.
My
spade scraped and scraped as I worked hard to dig all the way around
this
third (man-made) boulder of sorts. Three weekends later I finally
did. Two MONTHS later I shovelled out the last of the fill dirt
the
previous owners used to hide the built-in concrete swimming pool!
Needless to say we fixed the
cracked bottom and
drain, re-tiled the sides and filled the refurbished pool. My
wife
loves it and often needles me because I "found a way to get out of
building
her that Gazebo and rose garden I promised"... as if it was LESS work
than
moving all that earth! My garden beds now all have raised beds for
obvious
reasons . . . Lazlo
|
'Twas the night before
Valentine's, when all
through the trailer
Not a creature was stirring, not
even the jailer
The beer cans were snug on the
carpet with hair
In hopes that a Valentine soon
would be there
The children were nestled in
protective custody
beds
While visions of hard stuff danced
in my head
And me in my kerchief, where the
hell is my hat?
Had just settled down for a
nauseous nap
When out on the lawn there arose
such a clatter
I crawled from my bed to see what
was the matter
Away to the window, I fell with a
smash
Tore open the shutters and threw up
the sash
When what to my wondering eyes
should appear
It's the ex! And he thinks
that his car
is a beer
With a little screw driver, so
lively and quick
I disabled the car and then really
got sick
Now dang you, now dern you, now
blast you, you're
vermin (we're from the south).
On holidays, on birthdays, on May
Day, you're
blitzen
To the top of the porch, to the top
of the wall!
Now get the hell away, get the hell
away, get
the hell away y'all (I was seeing double)
With the stumps of his teeth, he
held his pipe
tight
As he rolled in my petunias, both
left and right
But the smoke from his pipe, it
curled to a point
In the midst of my pansies was a
revealing li
|
See entries from previous contests here 
