Pain Free Gardening
There are 3 Steps to Pain Free Gardening
Step 1 – Look at HOW you garden
Reduce the risk of injuries, skip the low-back pain and soreness, increase blood flow, improve balance and relieve tension with some quick pre- and post-gardening stretches. The following routine only takes 2 minutes for the warm up and you can use the same stretches afterwards for your cool-down.
-
Neck. Stretch your neck by slowly moving your head from side to side, laying your head first toward one shoulder and then the other. Repeat a couple of times. Now move it front and back with your chin on your chest and then tipped back. Hold for a few seconds. -
Back and Shoulders. Bend forward at the waist and let your hands hang toward your toes. Roll your shoulders back and around, as if you are shrugging. This elongates your spine and loosens your back. Stand up slowly and place your palms on the back of your pelvis and lean back from the waist. Drop your head back and hold it for a few seconds.
-
Trunk. Reach one arm across your chest. Twist that same direction. While you’re doing that, reach the other arm behind your back. Do this 3 or 4 times, switching arm positions. This works the trunk and opens the spine.
-
Upper torso. Hold your arms straight out at shoulder height. Make fists. Pull your arms back as if you were trying to touch your elbows in the back. Tighten your fists and then push your hands in front again. Roll your shoulders forward to stretch your upper back. Open your hands with your wrists flexing up and spread your fingers as you push forward. Do this several times.
-
Ankles & Lower Body. Lift your knee as high as you can and point your toes toward the ground as far as you can. Then extend your leg forward, with your leg straigh and flex your ankle up, with your toes facing the sky. This will loosen most of your leg.
-
Knees. I like to add a few deep squats and lunges just to get my knees extra warm. Use a rake or chair for balance. While I’m lunging I stretch and flex my fingers. This helps grip strength.
Continue your warm-up in the garden by starting slow. While you work, be mindful and thoughtful about how your body is positioned. Try not to twist a lot or stay in one position too long. Stand up at least every 10 minutes if you’re bent over or on your knees.
Save the heavy lifting for later - say, a half-hour into it. Make sure you’re warmed up before you start moving pots and bags of soil.
Drink plenty of water! Set a kitchen timer if you need to be reminded. Every 20 minutes take 5 big gulps.
A good cool-down is even more important than a good warm up. After gardening, don’t just sit down. Take 10 minutes or so and really stretch to keep that lactic acid from building up and making you sore later. Use the stretches above as a guide, but do them slower and longer.
Step 2 – Use Ergonomic Garden Tools
Ergonomics is about using fittings, tools, and the environment in order to reduce injury or discomfort.
The right tools can make gardening safer and more enjoyable. Ergonomic garden tools, used correctly, will help to reduce the risk of injury. Ergonomic tools will allow you to work in a way that does not require you to use more force than necessary, or to bend or twist in ways that are unnatural. You will also be able to work more efficiently, completing tasks faster and/or with less effort.
Gardeners have struggled for years managing heavy loads in the garden. A garden cart is a pain free and efficient way to relieve the strain of moving, soil, plants, rocks and mulch on your property.
A garden cart will prove its worth time and time again by accomplishing more work with less effort. Garden carts come in many different sizes and can be made of plastic, wood or metal, and depending on the style, can carry 100 to 300 kilos.
Long-handled tools that allow you to stand, not stoop, and easy-to-grip hand tools are gardeners’ friends. You can add attachments that lengthen tool handles to gain leverage. Buy a kneeling pad or even a scooter wagon you can sit on while weeding.
Step 3 – Garden Design
The layout of your garden can make a huge difference to the maintenance required.
A well landscaped garden will provide the ideal lifestyle without sacrificing the time to appreciate that lifestyle you seek.
You can also design your garden in a way that is ergonomical. Raised garden beds means less bending or leaning and allows you to access plants more easily. A large, square or rectangular expanse of lawn is easier to mow than a curving lawn that is interspersed with trees or shrubs.
Regretably there is no such thing as ‘no-maintenance’ garden. Even a concrete front yard will need to be cleaned at some time. It may even crack.
A low maintenance garden is created by identifying precisely the needs and desires you seek to obtain from your garden. Once defined, these are then worked into the design to formulate simple yet functional spaces in order to fulfil these needs and desires.
Each space is then complimented with appropriate items (such as paving, decking, plants, soil, mulches, figures, furniture) to create character, a sense of space and to consolidate the design into reality.
When creating a hedge, it is best to keep all plants the same species. By mixing the hedge species it will result in varied growth rates, different watering and fertiliser requirements and continual pruning. With one uniform plant, they are all watered, fertilised and pruned at the same time… which saves you time.
The argument over deciduous trees and evergreen trees has been fought for decades. There is no winning side. It is true deciduous leaves drop leaves, but this usually happens during one intense period therefore maintenance is restricted to a short period. Evergreen trees can drop leaves 365 days a year, but the daily drop is very small and easily overlooked.
Water features although very trendy and stylish when new, can become a high maintenance problem ... they need to be monitored and cared for.
Native are also not the perfect minimal care plant. Natives come from all parts of Australia. A tropical native plant from Cairns grown in Brisbane will need a lot of care to survive just like a native heath plant from Victoria being grown in Carrara. Using only local native plants (endemic) is a great idea however the modified soils in new residential estates are usually not appropriate for these endemic plants. Natives should always be encouraged, but they do need some degree of care.
Palms likewise need maintenance either in the removal of old fronds or excessive fruit falling on the ground.
The secret of a successful minimal-care landscaped garden is therefore based on defining needs of the property owner, simplifying design and layout, and selective use of appropriate plants and materials.
Following these core secret components, you can work towards a minimal care landscape.
Extreme low maintenance plants:-
• Yucca
• Succulents (Sedum)
• Cycads (Macrozamia)
• Desert Rose (Adenium)
• Matt reed (Lomandra)
• Crotons (Codiaeum)
Low Maintenance plants:-
• Gymea lilies (Doryanthus)
• Spider lilies (Hymenocallis)
• Orange Trumpet Vine (Pyrostegia)
• Banksia
• Bottlebrushes (Callistemon)
• Plumbago
• Bromeliads (Billbergia, Neoregelia)
Other hints on achieving a low maintenance garden:
-
reduce lawn areas… less lawn means less mowing
-
mulch well to maintain a depth of 5 - 10cm … this will save on watering and reduce weed growth
-
if keeping lawns make all garden beds with curved corners as this decreases mowing time position plants in communities… plants that like water should be placed together, plants that don’t should be placed together in a different area
-
if you feel you are using too many chemicals on plants, identify the problematic plants and remove them
-
if you do not have time to look after a vegetable garden, then renovate the garden for an alternative use position deciduous plants in garden beds so that leaves can drop directly into the garden to form mulch
-
do not plant vigorous growing plants near pathways instead of planting short lived annuals, choose longer flowering varieties or change to perennials
-
to save time watering pot plants invest in water saving products like crystals or cells use 3 or 6 month based fertilisers on pots rather than weekly liquid applications.