What's your worst allotment injury?

Last night I spend an hour on the allotment and managed to be bitten on the wrist by some kind of insect: the result is an egg-sized, angry, itchy bulge on my hand. It makes a contrast to the bruises on my fingers from a couple of days back caused by putting the same hand on the frame of a door which then blew shut in the wind.

I also quite literally grasped the nettle while weeding last night, resulting in a sting that's still a little tender on the tips of one of my fingers (yes, same hand) nearly 24 hours later.

Thinking back, this isn't the first time my allotmenteering has resulted in injuries - from the "gardener's triangle burn" - caused when you forget to put suntan lotion on the stretch of skin on your back between the top of your shorts and the bottom of your T-shirt, exposed when you bend over to weed or water - to various scratches, stings (bumble bee and nettle mainly), scratches, bites and bumps.

I'll open the floor, if I may, to ask you: what's your most serious allotmenteering (or gardening) injury? Come on, there must be someone out there who spiked their foot with a fork or got hit on the head with a rake.

Comments

[Girl Gone Gardening]

Thats opening a can of worms....

I cant tell you HOW many times i've ended up in the ER from gardening (mainly because I am a clutz...)
But my worst- Broken back falling down a hill in my garden in CA, and in that same garden a few years later I broke an ankle by stepping into a hole the dern dog had dug behind me while I was putting up pea netting.

[David L]

And I thought mine was going to be impressive. Perhaps not. Loss of end of little finger as a result of a pruning incident several years ago.

[clodhopper]

Can't compete with the above but I seem to remember Cherith breaking my heart between the brassicas and the mangetout many years ago. It hurt like hell.

Further back I remember as a child accidently spearing my brothers hand with a garden fork while digging. It went right through his palm! It still makes me shivver thinking about it to this day...

More recently She Who Must Be Obeyed drove a very sharp rake up into her toes while gardening in opentoe sandals. very messy. we now have a well stocked first aid kit in the shed and always a mobile handy.

[Podchef]

The last issue of Organic Gardening had a horrific tale of a dim-witted lass who turned her compost while barefoot and at some point speared her own foot.

[OyaDancer]

I definitely keep a first aid kit on the plot, and some antiseptic. I know where the plantain and yarrow is if necessary as well. Injuries with no safe running water or other facilities is no joke. I wish people would stock a first aid kit and keep their mobiles on them, even if the ringer is off, at all times.

[tilly]

Something hit my greenhouse roof and shattered three pains while I was in the greenhouse resulting in some nasty deep cuts on the top of my head and blood all over my cucumbers and tomatoes.

[Jess]

While squatting in my cucurbit patch, doing some weeding, I managed to accidentally sit back on a bamboo cane stuck in the ground behind me. While not quite an Edward II injury, it was an uncomfortable moment that caused me some difficulty in sitting down for several days.

[Jane Perrone]

Well, thanks everyone - you really have made me go weak at the knees at the thought of all that sheer agony.

In the light of this I think I am going to include a small section in my book about safety on the allotment. It's clearly an issue for people ...

[Kaye Cossar Stokes]

Jess, I'm on respite time away from caring for my husband who has Motor Neurone Disease. Up in north Queensland at Mackay from Melbourne in Victoria. Fascinated to read all your blogs about accidents and as a retired nurse just want to advise you all to keep up to date with your tetanus vaccinations. Check when you had your last update with your G.P.it is an awful disease and still out there in the soil.
Worth mentioning in yourbook?Kaye

[C.C.]

I always remind myself and others to keep the rake tines earth down. The couple of times that I have inadvertently stepped on the rake to have it catapult towards my head makes me think I am the fourth stooge. Furthermore, I end up looking around to see how many people are sniggering at my stupidity while rubbing my sore head.