By Susan Tomlinson (12.08.08)

It may be December, but the weather today seemed too good to pass up the chance to get out there and do a little work on the veggie plot. In fact I’ve wanted to get out there for a few weeks now to put the plot to bed for the winter, which I was planning to do by turning piles of compost and chicken manure into the soil. It was a chore that I was both dreading and looking forward to—the former because it involved a gardening task, digging, that never fails to aggravate my sciatica, and the latter because, well, it was gardening. And if ever I needed to be out in the garden, it was this week.