For many people, gardening is one of life’s greatest joys. But exercising your green thumb carries some risk.

In 2012, more than 41,200 people nationwide were injured while gardening, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Don’t let a day of digging, weeding and watering get the best of you. Take steps to prevent and treat common gardening injuries.

Protect yourself

• Safety goggles and gloves shield your eyes and skin from chemicals and pesticides and protect you from sharp or motorized equipment.

• Spending hours in the sun each day can lead to sunburn and can increase your chance of skin cancer. Sport a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses and sunscreen with an SPF 30 or higher. Take frequent shady breaks, especially between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. when the sun is at its highest.

• While watering your plants, don’t forget to water yourself. Drink plenty of liquids, but avoid alcohol or sugary beverages that will dehydrate you. 

• Use lightweight hand tools with rubber handles and ergonomic designs. Tools with offset handles make digging and weeding easier. Or cover your current handles in foam tubing. Sharp, clean tools work better and require less effort, so maintain or replace your equipment often.  Handle extenders and reachers can help you reduce the need for bending, reaching and stretching.

• Stretch and get ready. “Prepare your knees and low back for all that bending and lifting. Before you get out of bed in the morning, lie on your back and pull your knees to your chest. Then drop your legs from side to side five to 10 times. If you begin this now, you’ll be rewarded with greater flexibility and a reduced chance of sprains and strains later in the season,” says Dr. Lauri Grossman, a New York chiropractor who has been practicing homeopathy for over 25 years.

Natural remedies

• Did you get scraped or cut out there? Treat minor injuries with clove oil or aloe. Aloe also helps relieve sunburn and blisters.

• “Before pain gets in your way, treat it at the first sign with a homeopathic medicine that works with your body to relieve pain rather than mask symptoms,” says Dr. Grossman. She recommends a natural pain reliever like Arnicare Gel.

Try it for neck, back, shoulder and leg muscle pain and stiffness, swelling from injuries, and bruising. Arnicare Gel is unscented, non-greasy and quickly absorbed by the skin, so it’s convenient to apply and easy to use anywhere on your body. More information about muscle pain treatment and a $1 coupon for Arnicare can be found by visiting www.Arnicare.com.

• For stings and bug bites, apply honey, baking soda, toothpaste or ice.

By following a few precautions, you can make this gardening season a safe and pleasant one.

By Carol Stocker

This is the time to plant your seasonal containers with annals.

Anything that holds soil and has drainage holes in the bottom may be transformed into a container garden for terrestrial plants

For vibrant plant growth, the containers must provide adequate space for roots and soil media, allowing the plant to thrive.

Container gardening has been on the uptrend over the past five years and continues to grow in popularity, especially in urban areas where green space can be limited. But to ensure the most success, it is crucial for the 21 million households planting container gardens to pick the right plant for the pot.

Going the container route saves space, helps control pests and overcome soil issues, enabling the availability of home grown fresh produce without a yard. But it is important to choose a seed or a plant that was specifically developed for the compact container space.

When choosing what to use to fill containers, never use garden soil by itself no matter how good it looks or how well things grow in it out in the garden.

Container soils are often referred to as soilless or artificial media, because they contain no soil at all.

When these mixes are used, they should be moistened slightly before planting. Fill a tub with the media, add water and lightly fluff the media to dampen it.

When filling containers with media, don’t fill the pot to the top. Leave about a one inch space between the top of the soil and rim of the pot.

Soils for containers need to be well aerated and well drained while still being able to retain enough moisture for plant growth.

A regular fertilizer program is needed to keep plants growing well and attractive all season.

The choice of fertilizer analysis will depend on the kinds of plants you are growing. High nitrogen sources would be good for plants grown for their foliage while flowering and vegetable crops would prefer lower nitrogen and higher phosphorous types.

Plants that thrive in like soil, watering, and light conditions make successful combinations. When combining plants, size, texture, proportion, color, setting, and lighting all play a role.

Containers offer the advantage of being portable. As the seasons, temperature and light conditions change, you can move your containers to maintain the desired conditions for peak performance.

Most fruit bearing vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, and eggplant require full sun.

Leafy vegetables such as lettuce, cabbage, collards, mustard greens, spinach, and parsley can tolerate more shady location compared to the root vegetables such as turnips, beets, radishes, carrots, and onions.

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to watering. That is why you have to be watching your containers on a regular basis and understand the requirements of the plants you choose to put in the containers.

The best way to tell if a plant needs water is to feel the soil. And if the first inch or so of the soil is dry, water. Use enough water each time so water starts to drip out of the drainage holes.

When shopping for plants for containers, consider one of my favorite nurseries, Lake Street Garden Center, 37 Lake St., Salem, N.H. (tel 603-893-5858) The selection is so large and the quality is so good, it really is worth a trip.

Amber Wolfe, AgrAbility Project Coordinator, Arthritis Foundation and co host Tracy Forner talks about one of America’s most popular hobbies. 
According to a recent Greenhouse Management Online study, nearly 164 million homeowners in the US (49%) gardened in the past 12 months. In addition to the enjoyment it brings, gardening is also a great activity for maintaining range of motion, bone density and strength, joint flexibility, and overall quality of life.  However, many people feel they have to give up this popular pastime because of arthritis pain. Arthritis is the number one disability-causing disease in America, with nearly 50 million American’s having a diagnosis of at least one form of arthritis.

For information on the webinar go to www.tinyurl.com/garden-webinar .

Or visit www.agrability.org and go to the Latest News pod at the top of the page.

Cut corners with lazy gardening tips

news.com.au staff

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

© The Cairns Post

 

SO you’d love your garden to look magnificent, but the amount of effort required seems daunting?

Don’t fret – at some stage, we all feel the same way. No matter what those smug, green-thumbed, know-alls say, gardening can be darned hard work. All that weeding, mowing, pruning, spraying, raking and watering can get the best gardeners down.

Yet there are sneaky ways to spare ourselves some toil. I know most of them, because I’ve put a lot of hard work into becoming a lazy gardener. For starters, stop beating yourself up about your lack of garden energy. It’s OK. The world won’t end.

Next, think smarter. Decide what you hate most about gardening and find a way to reduce or eliminate it.

Here are a few suggestions:

* Never plant a lawn that takes more than 20 minutes to mow: life is too short!

* Replace all your normal pots with self-watering ones. You won’t have as many plant losses.

* Avoid too many plants that die down in winter, avoiding the need for cutting back.

* Don’t plant a rose, no matter how beguiling, unless it’s rated top 10 for disease resistance. Spraying is a real drag.

* Don’t make wide garden beds, they’re hard to work and you’ll do your back in.

* Ignore advice not to plant too thickly. With enough good plants, weeds can’t grow.

* Buy a lightweight tiller to reduce digging.

 

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Short cuts: top tips for a lazy garden.

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By Carol Stocker…If you want season long garden color in part shade, look for plants with beautiful foliage that will hold its hues. Heucheras do that plus they do it in part shade and, unlike coleus, they are perennial and have flowers. What a plant!

Since 1973, Dan Heims has been deeply involved in all facets of horticulture. He’s currently the president of Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc., in Oregon, where I interviewed him and saw his amazing display garden. This company noted for its many new introductions to horticulture. Terra Nova’s breeding programs have produced many international gold and silver medal winners and an astounding 700 new plants to horticulture.

Dan’s specialty is heucheras, and he has done more than anyone else to bring this native wildflower into the garden with a great variety of leaf colors. New this year are Heuchera ‘Delta Dawn,’ which has round leaves with red centers and gorgeous gold and lime highlights. and “Paprika,’ with warm cherry coral foliage, ‘Blondie,’ a blooming machine with 8 inch creamy flower spikes rising from colorful foliage, and Huecherella ‘Sunrise Falls,’ a trailing foam flower especially for containers.

For sunnier locations, he is also introducing ‘Red Hot Popsicle,’ a compact knipohfia, ‘Cherry Truffle,’ a sedum with red black foliage, ‘Goldfinch,’ the yellowest flowering Shasta daisy ever, and ‘Fire Storm, a dwarf geum with plentiful orange flowers.

Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc., is a wholesale nurserie, but its fantastic perennial plants are available at many local nurseries and you can Google their website for more information.

Vintage Sunday, 550 Hens And Gardening Tips

If you are growing fuchsias pinch out the growing point in each plant to encourage more bushy growth, side shoots can be picked out later to create a symmetrical plant.

In his weekly chatter and blog with AboutMyArea/NN12 Ashley Warren of Towcester’s Bell Plantation brings us upto date, “Another lovely bank holiday! Vintage Sunday, 550 new hens and weekly gardening tips all from The Bell Plantation in Towcester.

“High winds with plants in full leaf is a recipe for damage. There is not too much you can do other than tie everything up. Newly planted tall plants need canes or stakes and then tying firmly to that support. Make sure that that there is good connection between the plant and the support, loose connection between a windswept tree and a stake may result in chaffing ,de barking of the tree.

“There is not a lot you can do to protect the fragile new leaves on a plant other than cover the whole thing up, which in the case of a tree would be difficult. It is a little more practical to put a cloche over newly planted vegetable plants, well worth it if you have one. Covering newly seeded plants with a cloche or glass will speed their growth by creating a micro climate around the seed / plants. The air is warmed within the space to a higher temperature, the air warms quicker in the morning and cools later in the evening creating longer growing days, it also helps retain the heat from the soil at night. It will also keep in the moisture creating a moist humid climate around the plant.

“Roses could probably do with a fungicidal spray, I have just seen the first sign of black spot on one of my roses at home, if it got a little warmer the aphids would be attacking the soft new buds on the roses too.
This weather will really test our new Suttons grafted tomatoes which are supposed to grow outside better than the non grafted tomatoes, they also crop 70% heavier than the normal tomato. We have also have some much larger tomato plants with fruit already set on them also courgette, chilli sweet and hot, aubergine and courgette, buy some time!

“If you are growing fuchsias pinch out the growing point in each plant to encourage more bushy growth, side shoots can be picked out later to create a symmetrical plant.

“The forecast for the weekend does look a little better than today, thankfully. We have got an all-day Most Marvellous Vintage Sunday this weekend.

“We have got wheelbarrows full of wonderful plants here for your garden. 550 new chickens arrived this week. Keep your hens shut up at night, foxes are busy feeding their young at the moment so they are prepared to brave all risks to get an easy meal.

“‘Oak before Ash in for a splash’, I hope this is the case

“Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend, we are serving cream teas on the lawn!”

www.bellplantation.co.uk | www.poultrycentre.co.uk

 

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Posted: Friday, May 24, 2013 11:24 am

Gardening Tips: Farmers Market Plant Sale Saturday has much to choose from

By Matthew Stevens

RR Daily Herald

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The fourth annual Farmers Market Plant Sale at the Roanoke Valley Farmers Market is Saturday.

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Friday, May 24, 2013 11:24 am.

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Ready, Set, Grow! to offer gardening tips and materials Saturday

By Dann Denny
331-4350 | ddenny@heraldt.com
May 24, 2013

Tips on composting, soil optimization and container gardening will be part of the offerings Saturday at the second annua …

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Expert gardening tips will be shared at an event to raise money for a Sussex children’s hospice.

A panel of horticulturalists will answer questions at a special Gardeners’ Question Time event on June 4 to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Chestnut Tree House.

The panel will be chaired by BBC Radio Sussex gardening reporter Jean Griffin and include the head gardeners from the grounds of historic buildings Fittleworth House and Parham House.

There will be a light buffet and wine at the evening, which has been organised by Bognor Regis Friends of Chestnut Tree House. Guests will also have the opportunity to buy plants donated by local nurseries and take part in a raffle.

Paula Puleston, long-term volunteer for Chestnut Tree House and member of the Bognor Regis Friends Group, said: “I have volunteered at Chestnut Tree House since 2007 and love every bit of my time spent helping the teams that do such fantastic work both at the hospice and out in the community.

“Without their incredible work and the support of the local community, Chestnut Tree House wouldn’t be able to provide the care and support the children and their families need at a very difficult time in their lives.

“Over the years we have held many events to raise vital funds for the hospice. This year, we’d like to do something exceptional as Chestnut Tree House is 10 years old, and so we have organised an extra special Chestnut Tree House Gardeners’ Question Time.”

Tickets for the event, which starts at 6.30pm at St Mary’s Centre, in Felpham, are £10 per person, which includes a buffet and glass of wine. To purchase tickets contact Paula Puleston on 01243 584 843.

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