spring! forward and oh, my back…

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

Spring is here! So wonderful. And oh, what a complete mess I am.

Where to begin? So I finished up watching my nephew on Sunday, and after my older sister came to pick him up, I got ambitious. Really ambitious. Apparently, decidedly overambitious which is just so typically me.

I set off to the garden store to pick up some organic compost and garden soil to amend my raised beds for the start of the growing season! Well, of course! The weather was in the upper 40s and rather delightful for the first day of Spring! I hefted big, honkin’ bags of compost and soil into the back of the car. On a whim, I decided to buy 4 blueberry bushes for the flower garden, too.

Why? Because last year I attempted to grow from seed all sort of flowers: sunflowers, asters, dahlias, and zinnias. And well, the chipmunks had other plans for me. Only the zinnias came up. And one solo dahlia.

And I just didn’t want to go through that again. So I thought, on a whim, how about blueberry bushes? Even if they don’t produce for a few years, they do flower, and it will look nice!

So 12 bags of compost and soil later, along with 3 varieties of blueberries, I returned home around noon and set out to reclaim the garden beds.

I used the pitchfork to turn the soil in 3 raised beds. I turned and I churned. Then I hauled out the bags of soil and compost and dumped several bags in the beds, making a compost/soil salad. And then I turned and churned again.

In the front squarish raised bed, I decided to throw caution to the wind and plant some late winter/early spring seeds.

I bent over in all sorts of decidedly awkward and contorted positions over my large squared bed in order to plant three rows of carrots, interspersed with radishes and beets. And then I decided to keep going. I planted baby spinach, some lettuces, broccoli rabe, cilantro, and parsley. I planted the entire square bed. Even though it is entirely early.

But I wanted to try something new and see if I really could get these supposedly hardy late Winter/early Spring veggies going.

And then! Not to forget the blueberry bushes! I churned the soil in the side garden, mixing in new organic compost and soil. And more planting: 3 varieties of blueberry bushes—northland, bluecrop, and elliot. I dug and planted 4 bushes total.

Now, the planting instructions say to give each blueberry bush close to 6 feet of space. Hah! I went with about 4 feet. We’ll see how this experiment goes. My goal is to watch these babies grow, and then use the front of the bed to plant random flower seeds. Probably more zinnias. I just love flowers to be able to cut and make bouquets—that’s my goal.

So here it was, this glorious first day of Spring. I was outside digging and planting for 6 hours. Totally in the zone. Totally content. So happy! I even hung my Spring dogwood wreath and put out my new outdoor mats.

I felt great! Accomplished! Pumped! Grateful.

Turns out I was an idiot for not being more conscious of what I was doing to my body. Gardening uses all sorts of crazy muscles. And if you haven’t been doing it for a long while, then you are in for a BIG surprise. I was rather reckless the way I was lifting and bending and squatting and stretching and reaching and whatnot.

Fast forward about 6 hours… I WAS IN PAIN.

Ridiculous, angry, mortifying, humbling pain.

I did myself in. More specifically: I did my lower back in. I did NOT sleep hardly a wink Sunday night. My back was so upset with me. I could not find a comfortable sleeping position in the slightest. My lower back right side was spasming and wrenching, and I felt miserable. I was crying out in pain.

I stayed home from work on Monday, barely able to move. No joke. It was embarrassing. How could this happen? What had I done? When did I get so OLD?

To add insult to injury (literally!), it snowed yesterday. Yeah. Snow. I was so busy diving into the garden the first chance I got, that I failed to consult the forecast. Had I bothered to check, I would have learned that at least a few inches of snow was coming.

Late morning I did finally fall sleep after strategically placing a hot water bottle up against my side as I curled into the most awkward fetal position. When I awoke, this was the scene outside:

Snow-covered lillies in the front garden.

To the left is the bed I had just planted one day before.

Yeah. Kinda funny. And kinda not.

It’s Tuesday now. The snow has pretty much melted. My back is still not too good. I returned to work today, and I’ve been very, very gentle with my back, trying to do all the right things.

I still feel really old.

The funny part about all this, is that instead of being super concerned about ME and making sure that I recover and heal my back real quick, in my mind right now I’m more concerned about whether or not my seeds will make it.

Sheesh.

Tags: baby spinach, beets, broccoli rabe, carrots, cilantro, gardening, herbs, lettuce, lillies, organic, parsley, radishes, raised garden bed, spring
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