Gardening Tips & Tricks!

Gardening tips & tricks

Stretching before you begin your gardening is an important key in protecting your body from injury. Also stretch periodically during to help alleviate aches/pains.

1. Tall like a tree: feet shoulder width apart. Slowly bring arms above your head, as far as you can, while keeping them shoulder width apart. Sway left and right slowly, holding each side for a 5 second count. -helps elongate the spine
   
2. Touching the Earth: with feet shoulder width apart, slowly bend your body over, walking hands down your legs towards the ground. Your knees should have a slight bend in them and you want to try and reach as close to the ground as you can. -improves length of muscles in legs/back
   
3. Shoulder/Upper back stretch: With arms out in front of you, turn your hands in towards you and interlock fingers together. Push arms out in front of you and hold for 20-30 seconds, while slowly pushing hands out.
   

For shoveling, make sure you’re using good body alignment. Be sure to lean as much of your body weight into the shovel as possible while digging. When dumping the shovel, use your whole body. Turn your whole rather than just your upper body, and not just your arms.

When pulling weeds, grab a stool or a bucket! This will save your knees, as well as your hips and back by removing pressure. If you need to lean/bend forward to pull a weed, try to sit on your “sitting bones” and keep your posture and avoid rounding your back.

When lifting heavy bags (mulch, soil, etc.) be sure to lift with your legs. Bend at your hips and knees and as you lower, keep your spine straight. Your hips and knees are stronger to handle the weight of lifting.

Some other easy things to do are;

• Use a cart or wheelbarrow to do your heavy lifting and know your limits of what you can lift/carry.
  
• Get planters/containers off the ground when potting to avoid bending and straining. This allows you to keep your knees and back in a comfortable position.
  
• Try to keep a cushion for your knees nearby if you don’t have a sturdy bucket/stool available and use tools with longer handles.
  

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