Earthly Delights :: Home and Garden

Earthly Delights
by author Shari-Lynn Sare

The most important gardening tool is the human body. Proper body positioning, well-designed gardening gloves and tools, along with frequent rest breaks are the keys to healthy gardening.

Thirty minutes of yardwork, planting, or raking gives great general health benefits, such as preserving flexibility, increasing mobility, and building strength and endurance. However, aches, pains, sprains, and sometimes even a fracture can result from overuse of specific muscle groups, poor gardening technique, and working harder and longer than needed.

Whether you’re a master gardener or a budding amateur, the Canadian Physiotherapy Association recommends you follow these safety tips for tackling gardening chores.

Begin With a Warmup

Start with easy raking, or go for a five-minute walk to warm up your muscles. Stretch all major muscle groups to help prevent injury, emphasizing your back, neck, hands, and fingers.

Be Aware of Posture and Body Mechanics

Move your feet rather than twisting at your waist when sweeping, raking, mulching, or potting. If you can’t avoid twisting, tighten your stomach muscles to protect your back.

Use Ergonomically Correct Tools

Buy tools with long handles for weeding and use a potting bench that is high enough to prevent unnecessary bending. Wear gardening gloves to protect your hands from blisters, cuts, and dryness.

Pace Yourself

Don’t try to do everything all at once. Take breaks throughout your work and do some gentle stretching to keep limber. Because repeated actions that use a specific muscle or muscle group can cause pain or injury, try to vary tasks.

Raking or Hoeing

Keep your tools close to your body and your back straight to reduce strain. Use long-handled tools suited to your height and avoid twisting your trunk. If you need to bend over or reach too far while raking, consider using an ergonomic rake (available at garden centres).

Weeding or Planting

Instead of bending from the waist, squat or kneel on a kneeling pad. If you have difficulty getting up, use a bench with a support handle for assistance. Give your back, legs, and knees a break from stooping and kneeling by using tools with long handles.

Digging or Shovelling

Choose a shovel with a weight and handle length appropriate for your size and for the job you are doing. Inserting the head of the shovel vertically into the ground, step on the blade and lift small amounts at a time, bending at the knees and using your legs - not your back - to lift the load. Avoid twisting. You can give your back a break by using a smaller shovel, reducing the temptation to lift large amounts of soil.

Lifting or Carrying

Know your limits and lift properly: bend your knees - not your back, avoid twisting or reaching, and keep the load close to your body. Use a wagon or wheelbarrow to transport supplies and/or to move or carry heavy items. (A four-wheeled cart is sturdier and easier to use than a wheelbarrow.)

Pruning or Trimming

Match the size of the gardening tool handle to the size of your hand. Choose tools that you can hold so that your hand remains positioned in line with your forearm. Hold your tools in a loose, comfortable grip since holding too tightly may cause injury, then get as close to your work as possible; don’t stretch beyond your reach or past your stable footing.

You can find more information on gardening without injury by visiting the “Gardening Tips” page found on the Canadian Physiotherapy Association’s website physiotherapy.ca.

Shari-Lynn Sare is the Media Relations and Marketing Coordinator for the Canadian Physiotherapy Association.

Source: alive #273, July 2005

Mulch Time!
With the excitement of Christmas dying down, the avid gardener gazes out the window at the wintry scene, yearning for spring to arrive so he can get his hands in the dirt. Don't despair! There is a gardening chore that can be done at this time of year.

Indoor Winter Gardening
During the winter months, maintaining indoor plants can be as rewarding as outdoor gardening. The following are some rules to observe to help keep your houseplants healthy. Reduce fertilization. During the cooler temperatures and shorter days of the winter months, the growth rate of most houseplants slows.

Stretch Your Way to Better Health
Can you spare 10 to 20 minutes a day to improve cardiovascular function, reduce back pain, help ease osteoarthritis, and prevent tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome and increase flexibility? All those benefits can come with a regular .

Watching Weeds Grow
Weeds are an index of what is wrong, and sometimes what is right, with the soil. Or at least with the fertility program. In every field on every farm there are different soil types and each has a potential for producing certain weeds.

Take Back Control
Open Letter To: Right Honourable Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister Right Honourable Joe Clark, Conservative Leader Federal Opposition Leader, Mr Stockwell Day, Canadian Alliance Bloc Québécois Leader, Mr.

Prepare for Your Garden Now!
There's nothing more enjoyable for a gardener in January than curling up on the sofa with a hot beverage and perusing nursery catalogue.

Growing Winter Greens
Long before the first crops are available from local farms and gardens, many people are longing for fresh produce and it's possible, even in the depths of winter--right from your own kitchen counter! Sprouts..

Natural Gas Crisis
An important part of gardening is getting to know your soil type and how to maximize it. Soil consists of 50 per cent mineral solids (clay, silt, sand) and 50 per cent water, air and organic matter. A good mixture provides a well-structured soil.Clay soil is dense.

A Good Stretch
From infants to the elderly, stretching the body after waking happens by instinct. It's also excellent therap.

Purr-fect Stretches
When you're rushing around trying to get everything done and you're so stressed out that your shoulders are hunched up and you've forgotten to breathe.

Worm Power Composting Made Easy
"Worms make great pets. They're quiet and all they do is eat and reproduce. In fact, they eat their own body weight in food waste every day. Worms are a wonderful symbol of the power of one.

Guerrilla Gardening
Gardeners are a resourceful and determined lot. Even with a small plot of soil, a patio, balcony or windowsill, you can create a tiny garden that will bring you beauty and food.

Wisdom of the Human Body
Are you stiff when you get up in the morning? Do your knees and joints click or clunk when you bend them? Are you suffering from backache, or muscle aches and pains? If you answered yes to these questions, most likely you are inflexible..

Year Of The Home Garden
Howard-Yana Shapiro, PhD, vice-president of agriculture for Seeds of Change, the largest certified organic seed company in the United States, says, "The key to the future of the world lies in gardening.

Companion Planting
When we fall in love, the phenomenon is referred to as "chemistry". So it is in the plant world. "Allelochemics" is a field of ecology that researches transmission of powerful chemical substances between plant species. Plant organisms "connect" and "communicate" either good vibes or bad.

Short On Gardening Space?
You want a garden, but your space is limited: a patio, balcony, window box, windowsill, hanging basket or just indoor pot.

Have a Ball!
Body rolling is taking off in North America. Using balls of varying sizes (15 to 25 centimetres), body rollers apply pressure on the body to release muscle tension, stimulate tendons, increase circulation, and transform body structure and alignment.

An Appetite for Flowers
Pick the blossoms from the stems, removing the parts that contain the pollen. Rinse them in cold water, remove the petals, and pat dry.Snip chive blossoms into your favourite vinaigrette recipe for added punch to your salads and marinades..

Summer Dreams
When winter keeps me out of the garden, I seek refuge inside, perusing the latest gardening books and dreaming of the upcoming gardening season.

Bands of Resistance
Want to stretch out your workout this fall? Rubber exercise bands are a simple piece of equipment that can enhance your workout at home, at the gym, or on the road. Exercise makes you look better and, of course, it makes you feel better, too.

The Gardener's Gold Rush
Many Canadian municipalities are expanding their organic waste diversion programs. Compost-savvy plant lovers are choosing instead to hang on to their humus, treasuring the properties of this rich, black soil.

Forever Young
All of us want to have longer and healthier lives, and while some of us are dealt a better hand than others in life's genetic lottery, there are many ways we can maximize the potential we are born with.

Cultivating Beauty
We're surrounded by the pinks, yellows, and fragrant purples of summertime - and much of this comes courtesy of a green thumb. Unfortunately, that thumb might eventually sport a painful and unsightly callus or two.

The Art of Wild Harvesting
Individually, many of us have little ongoing direct experience with plant life. However, big business is quickly recognizing the huge profit potential in selling herbal medicine. At the very least we may say that herbal medicine is re-emerging as people discover its many positive qualities.

Starting Your Own Seeds
March is finally here, the month to start your own seedlings! Most seeds should not be started earlier as they will grow tall and lanky and may not survive. Read each seed packet to find when the best time is to start the seeds. The packets will also advise if the plant does not transplant well

Dazzle With Basil
Carnadians love basil for its tantalizing, pungent scent and flavor. To the ancient Greeks and Romans, the herb was a symbol of malice and lunacy. In other cultures the herb is associated with love rituals.

Prepare Your Soil Organically
Soil consists of 50 percent mineral solids (clay, silt and sand) and 50 percent water, air and organic matter. A good mixture of clay, silt and sand provides a well-structured soil. Clay soil is a dense soil; although quite fertile, it drains poorly and can turn to near concrete when dry.

Take Some Thyme
Thyme grows well in most climates and prefers a light, sandy, well-drained, dry soil in full sun. It is one of the easiest herbs to grow in containers on an apartment balcony, but is quite susceptible to root rot and fungal disease if grown in soil that is too moist or heavy.

Tasty Tubers
Why bother growing potatoes when they are so cheap at the supermarket and they store so well? The best reason is that by harvesting potatoes from your own garden you safeguard your health. Potatoes may cany residues of any number of pesticides. Another reason is that many potatoes now being sold are genetically engineered to produce a soil bacteria that kills pests such as the Colorado Potato Beetle.

A Facial Workout

The Dirt on Soil
An important part of gardening is getting to know your soil type and how to maximize it. Soil consists of 50 percent mineral solids (clay, silt, sand) and 50 percent water, air and organic matter. A good mixture provides a well-structured soil.

Life in the Great Indoors
Winter can be a challenging time for the plants in our homes. Dry air, temperature fluctuations, and reduced lighting send some indoor plants into a state of semi-dormancy. Others thrive in winter's feeble light, adding vibrancy to the indoor landscape while purifying the air in our homes.

From Garbage to Gold
When bacteria, fungi, worms, and insects break down organic material in the presence of oxygen, the result is compost. Also known as black gold, compost is the perfect ingredient for any soil. It lightens heavy clay and helps absorb moisture in even the sandiest of soils.

Say Goodbye to Unwanted Garden Guests
Gardeners need a supply of remedies in case unwelcome guests get out of hand. Before heading off to the garden centre, though, look to your pantry for solutions. Organic gardeners have long used home-made preparations to ward off unwanted insects and diseases.

Pulp Mill Sludge
For most of us, the thought of eating food grown in pulp sludge is unappetizing. But the BC Liberal government and the pulp and paper industry have teamed up to push new regulations that will allow the use of pulp mill sludge, fly ash, and mill waste water to be used as a "soil enhancement product.

Fruitful Fertilizers
Organic fertilizers have low solubility and rely on micro-organisms and organic-matter acids to release their nutrients. They actually activate microbial life, and their nutrients become available when the plants need them. Working slowly, organic fertilizers encourage long-term fertility rather than the immediate fertility that synthetic fertilizers provide.

Warming up means burning more

Tend your garden and your bones

To walk or to jog?

Digging a Deeper Hole

Fall Into Composting

Preparing Your Garden for the Growing Season
Preparing your garden in spring doesn't have to be complicated. Enjoy a sunny afternoon by donning your gardening gloves and taking these easy, basic steps for gardens big or small, perennial or vegetable. Your first step is to clear the clutter.

Homegrown Savoury and Sweet
In spring and summer, we enjoy the wealth of herbal diversity at our local produce market. Planting our own herbal gardens will not only provide us with fresh fodder for our summer meals but will also bless our home with aromatic scents.

Flourishing Florals
A tisket, a tasket, a beautiful hanging basket. Find these at your local nursery selling for top dollar or, with a little patience and imagination, you can create a fantastic arrangement of colours and scents to suit your garden decor.

Tilling Togetherness
Hot town! It's time to shake off the dust, bust out of your tiny-but-affordable apartment, and join the steamy chaos of summer in the city!

Going with the Flow
Watering is one of my least favourite garden chores. In the heat of summer, it is an interminable task, requiring hours of dedication and returning nothing but a day's reprieve from the constant threat of desertification.

September Spectacular
As the blooms of early summer fade, gardeners stave off shorter days and evening chills with warm floral displays. It can be the showiest time of year-when temperatures are less intense and the air is crisper.

Gardening By the Moon
The idea of gardening by the moon may elicit images of dancing naked around your blueberry bushes, asking goddesses for special favours. In fact, lunar gardening is actually based upon the moon's gravitational effect on the flow of moisture in soil and plants.

Grooming Your Grounds
Natural lawn care is not simply a choice between good and bad gardening products. It is a philosophical shift to a new relationship with your lawn, working with, rather than against, the ecosystem of your garden.

Fall Garden Maintenance
As the days get shorter and the air develops a chillier nip, why do all the work yourself? Let Mother Nature help you take care of your garden.

The Organic Picnic
Eating alfresco surrounded by nature makes us realize how much we need to take care of our precious planet. We can start by packing an organic picnic—its positive impact can go much further than just the foods we choose.

Be Flexible
Stretching is an important part of fitness, and each stretch may be considered an exercise. Follow these instructions to increase your range of motion.