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Notes From the Garden
Notes From The GardenCreak, Stretch and Sigh with Pleasurable Garden Pain
By Madeleine Wilde
Hellebores |
We all know that we should act with moderation and approach our garden work with slow stretches that allow our bodies to regain their strength correctly. But it is still frightfully cold and there is so much to be done that all rational thought is left behind. Aside from cleaning up winterIs detritus, the roses need pruning, the apple trees need to be shaped for this yearIs crop, and of course the fresh spring weeds have settled into their prodigious seasonal growth.
Then there are the vegetable beds, looking oh so rumpled. They need to be freshly dug with liberal amounts of aged manure incorporated and then the cat-screens need repair and re-staking. It is still too early for setting out the seedlings or to sow directly into the ground except for peas which like cool soil. It is important to remember to lay down a 2-3 inch layer of mulch after digging the vegetable beds, for regrettably we still have the pounding rains of March to endure.
And so that brilliant orb we saw briefly this past week has drawn us all out to our gardens. I hope you revel and are thrilled with this yearIs potential for pleasurable enjoyment. Of course, a good series of stretching exercises to warm the muscles should be executed before you start to work in the garden and then again at the end of your work. This will create the necessary strength and endurance needed for tending your garden. Take a lesson from your cat or dog for they always stretch themselves thoroughly before setting off.
Be sure to drink plenty of water before you get thirsty. You need that water just as your plants do! When you are digging, please keep your knees bent. When you are lifting and/or hauling use the strength in your legs, not your back. At first you may feel a bit self-conscious trying to remember how to keep your body in flexible positions while doing your gardening work, but eventually it all becomes second nature. Remember how awkward you felt at the first session at the gym or the first piano lesson?
Gardening is a solitary activity so we often sustain back injuries or become sore because there is no one nbarkingi at us to keep the knees bent, donIt over-reach, gently stretch the correct way! Now that we have all endured our first brush with aching limbs and backs, perhaps we will get smarter. Also, do get a tetanus shot if you havenIt had one in 10 years. They have made those booster shots almost pain-free and it brings such peace of mind. I kept putting it off for years because I had heard about how painful they could be and I worried constantly about how my working the soil could jeopardize my health. Now I look with impunity at those bits of rusty nails that always seem to find their way into our gardens.
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