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The other day, I was surfing around online and saw a statistic that surprised me. Did you know that there are more than 67 million people in the U. S. who are gardeners? I don't mean professional landscaping people, I mean just people who like to get outside, dig in the soil, and watch things grow. As I often do, I started to relate gardening to ADD, and wondered how many people with ADD avoid gardening because they're afraid they'll forget to water or weed their plants. The fear of failure just looms too large, and so they just don't get involved. But here's the deal, right? You can plant things in ways that will allow you to do what you are interested in doing and keep your garden looking great, too, ADD or no ADD.

For example:

* Never plant geometric designs. Ultimately, something in the design will die and you'll be left with a hole. The whole thing will look nasty, and your ADD may not let you remember to fix it.

* Don't try to plant from seeds. It's really hard to do. Seed plants and flowers take a lot of care and concentration, something ADDers aren't very good at. But if you insist that it's something you want to try, start with sunflowers and marigolds, for instance, that practically grow if you just throw them on the ground.

* When you're at high energy, use it to hyperfocus on doing some of the harder chores, like mulching and fertilizing to avoid getting bored. You'll just burn right through it and not have time for boredom.

* If you want color, get some flowering bushes, like hydrangea, azalea, gardenia, or hibiscus, and some flowering trees, like crepe myrtle or magnolia that look nice and smell nice, too.

* Plant flowers that come up year, after year. Crocuses and daffodils are good that way. Irises, daylillies, and hellbores are like that, too. After you plant them, they just keep coming back at different times of the year.

*Avoid plants that need constant watering like the plague. Coleus is one plant, for example, that wilts and dies pretty quickly if it doesn't get a healthy drink every day. Use plants that can go for a week without watering, and don't mind being ignored for a while.

* Get the family involved. Get them to help you plant things, and to remember when to water, or make it one of their chores, providing they aren't ADD, too.

You'll have to see your local garden store person to get more ideas and to see if any of these plants are good for your locale and season. If not, they'll probably have some great ideas for you. There is one thing to remember, when all else fails... Some weeds have pretty flowers, too.