“Too late and too hot to plant strawberries,” says the man at the nursery. Back home though, last year’s plants are making a comeback, despite an invading army of weeds.

While using a small trowel to dig up the roots, a wolf spider appears with a perfectly round, marble-sized egg sac.

Shielding the sac from whatever a lanky biped might do, she gently climbs on top, waiting for the novice gardener’s next move.

The human steps out of sight (not easy with eight eyes watching), so mama crawls over the sphere and attaches it to her spinneret. Next, she drags it to the side of the bed, then begins digging face-first into the soil.

Unbeknownst to the submerged, the human returns with small reeds, marking the area like an endangered piping plover or loggerhead nest on the beach.

Another wolf spider (family?) stealthily emerges from the underground towing respective luggage,

then skitters across the topsoil looking for an undisclosed locale,

and finally gets to digging.

With her precious orb safely buried, she emerges to find four curious sticks poking out of the dirt.