I was working in the garden yesterday for the first time in seven months! Oh my how my back is hurting now (2:45 a.m.). It’s stiff all the way to the tail bone and the bottom of my left foot is numb. I must have pinched a nerve.

I hope I didn’t hurt myself too badly because I’d like to get back out into the garden later today to finish up my work. Well, ok, I got half of the flower beds in the back yard garden finished, I’d at least like to finish the other half of the backyard today. I’ll still have some planting at the side of the house, the front garden and the boulevard to finish after that. One task at a time.

I actually felt pretty good while I was outside working. My stomach wasn’t bothering me and I was happy puttering away and getting my hands dirty. It’s always that way when I’m in the garden though. I don’t know that I might be hurting myself until later. Actually I’m like that with a lot of things – when I get a sunburn it doesn’t come out for hours, often when I’m out of the sun and that’s when I go oh oh!

Several years ago when I first got my roses I was busy trying to plant all of them at once. digging holes, amending the soil and planting each rose one at a time. I think I had something like 25 roses to plant and it took me a whole day to do it. My heel kept hurting as I worked. I thought that I might have had a blister but I kept working. It wasn’t until the next day that I discovered that my left foot and lower left leg were black and blue and totally swollen up. I’d ripped a tendon from the middle of my calf to the underside of the middle of my foot! OW. It took a full year to heal! (healing took a long time because I was doing 12 hour nursing shifts- always on my feet!)

So while gardening might be good for me mentally – it’s a stress release and it makes me happy – it’s not good for me physically because I don’t notice that I’m injuring myself until it’s too late!

Please cross your fingers that my back is only slightly strained and is back in working order about 12 hours from now.