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Gardening

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Please help me solve a garden mystery!

6 replies

Roundaboot · 31/05/2026 14:39

A couple of years ago, I lasagna planted a tub with a variety of bulbs. Although the plants themselves were pretty, I stupidly put them in an ugly plastic tub so the overall effect wasn't great. They've finished flowering now so I bought a pretty terracotta pot to re-plant them into.
I was just emptying the plastic tub and about halfway down found an egg buried. It's intact and definitely an egg as when I shake it I can hear liquid inside. It's the size and colour of a standard hen's egg.
I have no idea how it got there! My original thought was that it might have been in the bag of compost I used when first planting but I'm sure that a) I would have noticed, especially due to the way I planted the tub with layers of bulbs and compost and b) what are the chances of an egg staying intact after being transported in a bag of compost and then planted?
So it must have been out in after planting but by what? Is there a bird that lays hen sized eggs and buries them? We do get foxes in our garden sometimes...do foxes bury food to come back to? I haven't noticed the pot being disturbed at all and I moved it to the shed over winter and brought back out in spring.
I live with DP and 18 year old DS, neither of whom are interested in gardening and neither of them prone to playing silly pranks like burying eggs! So I really don't think it was anything to do with them

Such a weird mystery for a Sunday afternoon! Here are a couple of pics of the egg in the pot. You might notice a beetle larvae too - these are quite common in our garden and I normally just leave them where I find them or move to the compost bin. Just mentioning in case it's relevant!

Please help me solve a garden mystery!
OP posts:
Foxfeeder · 31/05/2026 14:42

Most likely foxes. The ones that I feed in my garden have buried eggs or dog treats in a number of places including plant pots and the compost heap. They don’t remember where they have hidden everything 🦊🥚🐾

GardenTable · 31/05/2026 14:46

I'm a gardener by trade and often find these in the ground and in pots.

It's foxes burying them for snacks later on and then forgetting where they've put them.

Roundaboot · 31/05/2026 14:48

So it is foxes then? Cheeky buggers, messing with my bulbs!

OP posts:
Foxfeeder · 31/05/2026 14:57

They are cheeky, and stash a lot of food but also steal things to play with on a regular basis. Cubs are up and exploring now so they are even more inquisitive.

GardenTable · 31/05/2026 14:59

BTW the larvae is a Vine Weevil Larvae.

They're destructive, eating the roots of your plants and the leaves once they turn into beetles. I wouldn't put them in your compost heap as they'll thrive there and when you use the compost in your garden and pots you're spreading the pest around.

Good ways to deal with the larvae -
Encourage wildlife that eats them e.g. birds, frogs, toads, hedgehogs and foxes funnily enough.
Nemotodes.

Roundaboot · 31/05/2026 15:30

@GardenTable Ooh thanks! I had always assumed they were harmless. I've just put a pond in the garden which I hope will attract frogs and toads so these might be a handy food source for them

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