Lurking in a window box near you... is deep pain

I HAD an odd and rather unpleasant experience the other day.

I was out on the patio helping my wife empty window boxes, hanging baskets and planters that were full of summer bedding plants past their prime.

I plunged my hands down the inside edge of a large planter to remove a clump of dying lobelia and felt a sharp, pricking pain in the little finger of my right hand.