"If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful roses, what might not the heart of man become in its long journey toward the stars?" G.K. Chesterton

I woke up today with achy muscles and hamstrings that felt stretched to the max. Too much time at the gym? Too many miles on my bike?

Nope. Just lots and lots of gardening.

This week I joined hundreds of others who, pulled by Spring Fever, sunshine, and fresh air, flocked to nurseries and garden centers in search of the perfect annuals, shrubs, planters, and garden ornaments. And boy oh boy, did we find them. We came in droves, fellow gardeners and I, driving way too many miles in this gasoline-crisis-environment of ours, looking for the best prices, the best selection, and the best accessories.

And you know what I mean by garden accessories, right? It's a business reaction as befitting this gardening frenzy as hot dog buns are to hot dogs. And we're not just talking planters, birdhouses, and birdbaths anymore, either. We're talking benches, arches, baker's racks, shutters, statues, sundials...with bunnies and roosters in all shapes and sizes to boot. Do you want those in bronze, black or antique white? Distressed? Shiny? Whatever your fancy, they're yours for the buying.

And buying them we are. What with cocooning becoming the "in" lifestyle of the 90's, it's no wonder that we've attacked our yards with passion. And our wallets. Americans spend just under $40 billion-yes, that's a "b"-on lawn care annually, according to the National Gardening Association. And the annual rate of growth in the industry has been at 8% for the last five years. In fact, eight out of ten households in the U.S. actively participate in indoor and outdoor lawn and garden activities of the do-it-yourself nature in one way or another, a degree equal to the highest level of participation in the last five years. Sales of bulbs to consumers have nearly doubled within the past five years, too. And retail sales of floral products come in around $13 billion.

We can hardly help ourselves. Researcher Mike Steven established in a research project in Australia entitled "The Congruent Garden: An Investigation into the Role of the Domestic Garden in Satisfying Fundamental Human Needs," that gardens have the potential to satisfy nine basic human needs, including, in addition to subsistence, affection and creation, which resonate most closely with my own experience there.*

Gardening allows me to forget the troubles of my everyday world and become immersed into creating something of beauty. Gardening allows me, as I mindlessly pull weeds, arrange potting soil into containers, and pat dirt gently around freshly planted flowers, to sift my thoughts through a filter energized by sunshine and fresh air. It gives me the freedom to enjoy the wild songs of the birds, the bubbling of the brook....and the humming of the lawnmower of a neighbor I hadn't previously recognized.

Gardening forces me out of my comfort zone behind the computer screen at which I stare seven days a week, and into the world of perennials and annuals, the names, sunlight requirements, and bloom cycles which continue to escape my memory. It forces me to get my hands and fingernails dirty (I hate wearing gloves) and celebrate the tactile pleasure of running damp soil through my palms and pressing it into the earth. Gardening stretches me. It helps to illuminate my innermost thoughts. It forces me out of the cerebral nature of the work that I do, and pushes me into the physical nature of work in which I feel so incompetent.

As we celebrate Spring....and fight the Fever together...engage in work of your hands by working the earth beneath your feet. Allow yourself to become intoxicated by the beauty and aroma of flowers. For as it was so aptly said in the TV show A Gardener's Dairy: "What grows in the garden, so lovely and rare? Roses and Dahlias and people grow there." Yes. People grow in gardens. Robert Ingersolll wrote: "Every flower about a house certifies to the refinement of somebody. Every vine climbing and blossoming tells of love and joy."

And growing in love and joy is, after all, what growing in one's garden is all about.

*Note: Mike Steven, Lecturer in Landscape Studies, University of Westen Sydney, Australia