10 Ways to Easier Gardening
Desert Gardening Doesn’t Need to be Backbreaking
A little foresight and planning can help protect you from aches, pains and fatigue.
It’s mid-summer and you are already cleaning out your spring vegetable garden. Flowers need to be deadheaded. Plants need to be watered and mulched. More debris needs to be removed from the bases of plants. At the end of the day, you’re headed for the medicine cabinet for some over-the-counter relief.
Take heart, ye hardies! There are some easier, softer ways to garden and protect your body, muscles and joints from overwork.
- Want to cut down on weeding? Use ground covers and mulch. There are about as many types of mulches out there as your imagination can produce.
- You might be using carts, wagons or wheelbarrows to move heavy loads such as bags of soil, mulch, large pots, etc. Sure, they can help you carry something heavy for a fairly long distance. However, consider the task of picking up that load and heaving it into the cart. Got a dolly around? Then use it instead. Rather than picking up the object, all you need to do is slide the lip of the dolly under the load, tilt it back and roll it wherever you want.
- Raise those beds! Anytime you can ease, rectify or eliminate the process of bending over while doing garden or yard chores, the better you’re going to feel. A simple way of doing this is to raise your garden beds. Even six inches to a foot higher will make a lot of difference in the strain on your back, legs and arms.
- Don’t sit on the ground. Get a small stool. Or use a turned-over bucket or tub. Another alternative would be one of those seats with little wheels on the legs, allowing you to scoot around your garden while seated.
- Is the old arthritis acting up? Getting some hand cramps from holding and using your gardening tools? There are tools you can buy with handles that adapt to just about any grip. Alternatively, bring out your creative flair by fixing the handles yourself with some plastic foam or bubble wrap and duct tape.
- Got that pain in the small of your back from too much raking, hoeing, sowing or other garden work? Do what professional athletes do and change the type of work you're doing for a while. If you're raking, try pruning for a while. If planting, try hoeing. Other muscles will come into play, relieving overworked ones. You can work longer, get more accomplished and have less pain if you do this regularly.
- Don’t rip open those huge plastic bags of mulch, soil, compost or whatever. Although you might not notice it at the time, ripping those bags puts a lot of strain on your fingers and hands. Get a good pair of heavyweight scissors instead and use them to cut open the bags.
- Walking on unleveled ground can take its toll on knees, ankles and thighs. One of the most overlooked areas of unleveled ground is the pathways between beds, especially in vegetable gardens. There are several ways to remedy this. One way is to level out the paths. Another way is to use old carpeting, used straw swamp cooler filters, pine straw or other types of mulch to provide a more level walkway with better traction. Turn the carpet over and walk on the bottom.
- Use a wagon or cart to carry gardening tools, seed containers, smaller bags or containers of fertilizer, or any other implement you are using in the garden. That way, instead of carrying things to one spot, putting them down on the ground, picking them up when you move and carrying them to another spot, you can simply use the cart as a parking place for all your tools and supplies you need.
- That push mower getting too much to handle. You might try reducing the size of your lawn by adding more beds, mulch and plants that use less water and require less maintenance than your lawn. If you simply cannot give up that expanse of green, try a riding lawnmower or hire one of your own offspring, or a neighbor’s offspring to cut your grass. Either way, spending a few dollars extra can save you a trip to the doctor, hours of soaking in a hot tub (although that is not always a bad thing) or having that nagging back pain.
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The copyright of the article 10 Ways to Easier Gardening in Desert Gardens is owned by Robert Dailey. Permission to republish 10 Ways to Easier Gardening in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
