In all my years, whenever the subject of gardening came up, I’d roll my eyes and spend at least a minute or two wondering what the big deal was, and why seemingly everybody was into it, at least to some degree. It seemed messy, and far too laborious to bother with...not to mention my lack of a “green thumb.”
Well, wouldn’t you know, I’ve finally lived long enough that gardening has become one of my favorite pastimes. In the rural areas, where I tend to reside, they need a lot of TLC. To begin, I had to start with the mass clearing of weeds. I had no idea how big untended weeds could grow, it was quite shocking, and some of them are even pretty. This is not to mention all the different types of roots I stumbled upon...deep, spidery, shallow, quick snapping, spikey, and some that seemed stronger than steel! Pull, pull, pull, and finally after many countless hours I have my ‘blank slate’ of mixed dirt, and we’re now ready for the next phase.
The shopping and planning portion of any gardening project is definitely fun and exciting. All the beautiful choices, and design possibilities send the mind reeling in different directions. After a few hard decisions, the truck is loaded up and it’s back to the homestead to start working on my blank slate. Ah, yes! It’s time to literally bring my garden to life… And here I thought weeding was difficult...even after all that labor on the front end, there’s still plenty of digging, cutting and yanking!
Anyway, the biggest takeaway I had from my outdoor gardening efforts is how essential it is for me to maintain healthy fingers and hands. Laugh all you want, but just like our parents use to say us when we were children, “wait until you have kids of your own…” well, just wait until you have a garden of your own. There is a serious amount of grabbing, tugging, gripping, and hauling required! More so than most manual jobs usually require. I am thankful to have found a regimen that works for me as I get a little “long in the tooth,” otherwise this beautifully landscaped property would have been nothing more than a distant dream.
To be clear, utilizing FingerWeights in my daily regimens has led to far less complaining about post gardening aches and pains, which unfortunately is not the case for my neighbors. Ok, Ok, I’ll tell them about FingerWeights too, twist my arm why don’t you?
Our fingers and hands connect us to the universe...best to give them a little “love” from time to time.
WRITTEN BY: Felicia Pocius (f.pocius@fingerweights.com)