For those of you that know me, you are well aware that my passion is gardening. I believe this obsession may have begun when I was in the womb. Wait- probably even before then. There is most likely some genetic code in my DNA that is the root of my addiction. (Root. I know, I know, could I be any more clever?)

My Mom lives to garden and always has. I blame her for my obsession. Only my mother could understand the excitement that is brought on by a new load of dirt with peat moss. Further, only my mother gets the obsessive/compulsive behavior required to keep planting bulbs late into the night with a flashlight and bucket of water. For this, I love my mother.

I didn’t always love digging in dirt. My Mom used to require all of us kids to fill at least one bucket of weeds each summer morning. (I learned quickly to pull really big weeds.) As I grumbled under my breath, I vowed to never subject my kids to such torture. I was going to be a nice mom, a cool mom, the kind of mother that all the neighborhood kids wished they had. I would let my kids play all day and never, ever, EVER make them pull weeds. Further, I would have an entire yard filled of grass and not waste time or money on perennials, annuals, seeds, veggies, or anything else that grows in the ground.

Enter the genetic code.

The addiction is so strong that I wake up in the middle of the night and consider going outside and planting. If there isn’t anything to plant, I think about heading to the nursery… again and again.

A few days ago I got a pretty deep sliver while gardening. Like an idiot, I listened to some sage advice and left it in my finger- thinking it would work itself out. Today, I have a finger the size of a hot dog. It hurts so much that I am pretty sure my entire heart has migrated out of my chest, down my arm, and into my finger. I went to the doctor who attempted to remove the sliver without much success.  I was put on an antibiotic (yuck) percocet (yum) and was told to keep my finger clean and dry.

So, what did I do? Tonight when I was done working, I headed out to my yard and amended my soil. I think I need some serious counseling. Is there a gardening anonymous group I can frickin join?