05/31/06 Getting Fit for the Garden

Getting fit for the Garden. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. It's garden time and many weekend warriors will be tackling home and garden projects on the weekends while during the work week, they tend to be inactive. According to Steve Love, University of Idaho Extension horticulturist, gardening can be one of life's joys but it can be a real pain. LOVE: The biggest problem we have with gardening and personal injury is probably related to our inactive lifestyle and then we all of a sudden want to get out there and do a bunch of things and our bodies just not used to it. And so then you hurt knees and elbows and hands and probably the biggest thing is backs. We're just not conditioned to the kind of activity we get involved in when we work in the yard, garden and landscape and that kind of thing. Or even a lot of the other things we do. Recreational activities can be pretty strenuous sometimes and we're not ready for them. But with all the sunshine we really want to get out in the yard and get busy. How do we keep from straining something? LOVE: The way we combat that is to develop a better lifestyle. Do some active things all year even in the winter time when it's hard to get out. Do things that will condition, strengthen and stretch and keep us in a little better condition. And then after that, there are still some things you ought to consider when you get into the garden. If you are doing repetitive motions, take breaks away from them because those can create chronic, long-term tendon and joint problems that we really don't want to have to deal with. And if you'll take a little time away from them then it may avoid that. Take a few breaks. Get a drink of water. Don't get dehydrated. Don't lift things that just aren't capable of lifting to begin with, or if you are lifting things make sure that you use the proper motion. Get your legs under them and don't try and lift with your back. All those kinds of things. Protect yourself. Love says that you should be careful while using all tools but there are some that need more attention than others. LOVE: You need to be careful with lawn mowers. They need to be well maintained, all of the guards need to be in place and if you are going to do anything with the lawn mower other than grab the handle and push it around, you need to make sure it's off. Period. Basically you can almost repeat those same words with garden tillers. And then the other one that can be fairly dangerous are the hedge trimmers. And also the time with those you just have to be careful with them. Just keep your fingers out of them. Finally, Love says that a good pair of gloves, long sleeves and pants can help protect you from a lot of pokes and scrapes. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.