Forget "What I Did For Love," It's What I'm Doing For Gardening That Might Kill Me!

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Permalink Reply by Michelle W. Flannery on June 4, 2009 at 8:32pm

Okay, so I'll start with this one. A few weeks ago, my husband brought in a number of old, long pvc pipes to cut up and use as stakes in the garden. He left them laying on the back driveway near the garden gate. I knew they were there, and John didn't get around to using them right away, so several days passed. I didn't think anything of it because the route I usually take to the garden got me past them without a problem. But this one day I was working in the garden, I decided to stop and clean up. Lots of those little peat pot collars and plant trays laying around needed to be gathered up and put away or trashed. So I was moving in different directions. I moved toward the garden gate without thinking about the pipes. I went to step over them, but my legs are short, and there were many pipes on the ground. As they rolled back and forth beneath my feet, I danced for a mere second or two, praying to stay upright, before I landed face down on the asphalt drive. Skinned both knees, my right arm, and my ego. Kneeling in the garden was difficult for a while after that, and even now, I'm still picking at the scabs on my knees.

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Permalink Reply by sandra anderson on June 4, 2009 at 8:33pm

You come up with the greatest topics!!
I might be the biggest clutz here...so I'll go next!
I garden either barefoot or in my flip flops almost all of the time.
One day, last year I was coming down from the veggie garden. It is about 8 steps up from the level part of the yard.
I had in my hands a huge bowl of cherry tomatoes.
Either mesmerized by the bounty, faint from the heat or unsteady in my footing, I slipped off the step and landed bounce, bounce bounce down the steps on my butt. If I had tossed the bowl, I would have been able to catch myself. However, how could I have? I hurt my back, bruised my bumm and saved every cherry tomato!!!! This scenario is played out many times throughout the year, loads of laundry on the back steps, arm loads of rhubarb and the edge of a rock wall...it's comical in it's tragedy!

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Permalink Reply by Michelle W. Flannery on June 4, 2009 at 9:20pm

Sandra, I kept thinking you were going to tell us the toms flew into the air and everywhere! I could see it happening in slow motion as you bounced down the steps, your face a big wide laughing grin (the only image I have of you to go by). Thank God you saved the toms!

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Permalink Reply by Diana on June 4, 2009 at 8:57pm

it's not a project unless I bleed for it - my personal mantra.
The last memorable time I had a project in the garden was moving the chicken tractor from the nice level lawn through the roughly cleared brush stubble to the new area behind the vegetable garden. This thing is heavy, and supposedly movable. Right. The birds are upset, I'm getting frustrated. It keeps hanging up on invisible stumps and rocks. Then the chicks get loose during one heave-ho. I had to then catch the upset, now afraid of me birds, and put them somewhere. Somewhere turned out to be the screened patio (took me 2 days to clean THAT mess up). Then I really got ticked at how stuck the thing got, so I got out the riding lawnmower and hitched it up. So far, I'm hot, sweaty, scratched up and bug bit. That worked for a bit, but despite it all it spun tires in the chips and loose dirt. I had by this time totally lost it, my shoulder/neck wrenched and aching. So I got my big pickup truck, tied the poor tractor to the hitch and hauled it across the rest of the space. Surprisingly it held together. But my shoulder didn't! It's been weeks and it still hurts! The specialist said I've a pinched nerve...
My DH asked what in the world did I do to mess up my shoulder again. He hasn't seen the bent hitch on the lawn mower.
- and how many times in summers past have I run to the house shedding clothes as I go because of a few dozen fire ants doing their little synchronized attacks in my undies?
- or how about the time I scuffed blisters on my butt through my pants while hugging the shed roof laying shingles?
- or getting knocked off the top of the ladder on same shed by a long 2x4 to the head?

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Permalink Reply by Michelle W. Flannery on June 4, 2009 at 9:19pm

Oh my gosh! I'm laughing and crying at the same time. Full of pity for you, and hysterical with laughter at the same time!

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Permalink Reply by Diana on June 5, 2009 at 6:35am

Oh Michelle, I've got more, lots more if I include what my DH has done on home improvement projects. Just imagine what an even more warped sense of humor plus a high pain and blood threshold can do!

And are we going to include the harmless but Really Embarrassing?

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Permalink Reply by Michelle W. Flannery on June 5, 2009 at 6:53am

Oh do Diana, do! Tell all! Get it off your chest! Set your inner gardener free! All the stuff, ya know? Tell it all!

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Permalink Reply by Diana on June 14, 2009 at 12:02pm

I swear, NO ONE used that back lane for the twenty years I lived here until I moved the chicks to the tractor in the back garden, and got in the habit of running out at the crack of dawn in my jammies and barn boots to open the coop house door. I think EVERY person in the subdivision uses that lane at exactly the time I was running out (first thing and no coffee too) and they wave, wave and smile.

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Permalink Reply by Bea Kunz on June 5, 2009 at 9:59am

Hi Michelle,

I've been gardening most of my life and was so proud of my record for "no" accidents, up until last fall.

I consider myself very aware and very careful in the garden without being over-protective. ( well at least I don't think I am )

There are two kinds of accidents, those we can and those we can't avoid.

Last fall I was in the gardens picking the last of the hot peppers. The plants had grown bushy and totally covered the stakes we had to help keep the fruits off the ground. I made a bit of a turn in a squatting position to get some peppers behind me...my world went into a tailspin that is impossible to relay with detail that makes sense.

I wasn't even aware of what I had done for a few moments, then realized I had stuck something in my eye.....I met the end of the stake...a blunt end...right in the corner of my left eye. I could see just a hint from my right eye and in and out of awareness. ( my eyes had swollen shut immediately )

I had my cell in my pocket but couldn't see to use it . I was afraid I was going to pass out and felt certain I would not be able to get inside to a phone that was easier to use in an emergency.

A higher power took over at that point, I started to crawl toward the house and don't remember anything after that point until my hubby was home and putting me in the jeep.

I managed to get into the basement, up a flight of 12 steps and get my hubby on the phone. ( no clue how except by the grace of God )

I spent 10 hours in emergency care. I was in shock obviously...so, so sick after the shock subsided. My blood pressure went haywire ( didn't have high BP before ) I spent 5 months in and out of the doctors office, different treatments to avoid any long lasting damage.

The medication he used to heal and avoid infection triggered cataracts, so that surgery is coming up soon.

I'm so blessed and grateful to have my sight intact, I was a fraction away from being blinded.

Could I have avoided this accident, I suppose...by not using the stakes in the first place, but that isn't a rational "what if"

I used stakes with blunted ends thinking that was a protection...and it was, had it been sharp I don't like to think about the outcome that could have been.

I am one to see the humor in almost everything....but I just can't find any humor in this happening.

Some lesson I have learned from this...either use stakes that are taller than I, or remove them once they have become overgrown. Study the pad of my cell phone to be familiar with the numbers without seeing them.

* something I wasn't aware of...my cell is based in the state adjoining where we live, so, if I call 911 it will connect to that states emergency number and not our local one. So, made changes there.

It was a freak accident at best, and sometimes they happen regardless what we do or don't do.

I just have to say this about going barefoot in the garden...I know it feels wonderful, but...the souls of our feet have the largest pores of any part of the body, anything that makes contact will easily be absorbed into your system...and the best of soils can have bad stuff from time to time or at anytime.

I can understand hanging on to your tomatoes....I bounced down a flight of frozen steps once many years ago and still had my briefcase and umbrella in hand when I landed with a broken tailbone.

Life is like a bowl of ( tomatoes ) you just never know what your going to get from any day.

I do have a safety chart now that I view on a regular basis, just to make sure I stay aware of the things I can avoid.

To our safe and happy gardening~

Bea Kunz

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Permalink Reply by sandra anderson on June 5, 2009 at 10:10am

Wow Bea...I'm so glad you are okay.
Thank you for the reminder to be careful!!

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Permalink Reply by Michelle W. Flannery on June 5, 2009 at 10:28am

This is some story Bea. Thank you for your willingness to share it. Thank you for the caution it provides.

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Permalink Reply by HeronoftheDarkwood on June 5, 2009 at 11:07am

worst sunburn ever and heat stroke are about the badest of the bad in my gardening experience. its not so much the nature part of gardening that gets me but the drive to want to keep on and on and on when i know i should stop and rest a while. except that one year, when this certain bee decided that my biggest sunflower at the garden's edge was his and his alone - i swear that bee knew it was me cause it would spot me and come straight for my face or head until i had no choice but to run. i thought it was my hair at first, but i tried bandanas, putting it up in a tail, changing shampoos and conditioner. that was one wild summer! but in my experience overall there's always one more plant, a few more weeds, some last minute thing i really want to do... oh for the love of that garden! but, in the end, it's worth it.
-heron

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