Are You In Shape To Garden?

By Joan Airey

I have a library of “The Prairie Garden” newsletter which I refer to regularly because it is written by Manitoba Gardeners and a message on gardening fundamentals made me think, am I in shape? Since we have a spoilt dog that has to be walked everyday I do get out for a walk in the winter but I sure don’t get the same exercise I get in the gardening season. This message struck a chord.

Gardening Safely Fundamentals

- Garden Safely: Don’t wait, get in shape! Practice deep breathing and gentle stretching everyday. Exercise, even 30 minutes of walking daily will strengthen you for enjoying the gardening season ahead.

- Remember to use good body mechanics.

- Gardening injuries: Falls! Statistics show that slips, trips, and falls are the leading cause of gardening injuries…Be careful of that garden hose!

- Garden ladders and lawn mowers lead in garden equipment as cause of accidents. Avoid injury. Use, carry and store tools and flower pots safely.

Jessica Sowards has a new book published ‘The First Time Gardener Growing Vegetables” which is full of information on starting plants, how to care for them in the garden and harvesting a great crop of veggies. The book also contains homemade recipes for combating garden problems such as powdery mildew, early blight and fungal infections.

Homemade Baking Soda Remedy

1 gallon water

3 Tablespoons Baking Soda

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil or neem oil

A few drops dish soap to help emulsify

Mix together and spray on tops and bottoms of leaves. Apply in the evening so oil doesn’t scald foliage in the day. Reapply daily.

The book includes a homemade pest spray too which I plan to try.

Hope if you were in the area with the power outage the last few days you were able to keep your plants and selves warm. Luckily for me my plants were still under lights in my laundry room and not in my greenhouse during our 24-hour power outage.

I see that stores have onion sets out and many other garden ing needs. I purchased some extra multipliers this week and started them in pots so I would have some early green onions. I’m hoping by May 1st I can plant potatoes in my greenhouse.

Mosquito Dunks are a little expensive but if you put them in the water that you use to water your plants with they sure help keep the gnats out of your plant pots. I picked some up at our local hardware and the owner asked if they worked, so I shared with him why I was buying them in April.

Let’s hope by the time I write my May column our gardens are planted and we are eating asparagus and maybe rhubarb.

I’m reading a booklet published in 1977 by the Brandon Sun writ ten by Gus. It stat ed that he thought that in the spring more people will plant a garden than ever before. So his tory is repeating its self 46 years later. The varieties he recommended are ones that can still be found today: Straight Eight cu cumbers, Detroit Dark Red beets, Buttercrunch let tuce, Homesteader peas, etc. Person ally, I prefer Green Arrow peas.