Gardening tips for your aching body parts

While attempting to crawl out of bed the morning after unload- ing a pickup truck full of wood chips, it made me think of all the enabling gardening hints I've compiled in my files. I thought maybe it was time to pass on some enabling gardening tips to you and remind myself to follow my own advice. First, get someone else to do the work! If you have problems with your back, knees, shoulders or other parts, it may be cheaper in the long run to hire help for the heavy work. My summer worker for my campus display garden grew up on a horse farm. She is used to shoveling stuff. At home, my block was blessed with a new family complete with a teenager in search of odd jobs. Matt can unload a truck full of wood chips in just a few minutes. Although now I have to get all the weeds pulled so I can spread them around. Remember, mulch! It does a garden good! If getting down on your knees is difficult or if getting up is even more difficult, there are a couple of planting aids that will make life easier. A length of 1-inch to 2-inch PVC pipe cut waist high makes a handy no-stoopplanting aid for seeds. I like to use mine for large seeds such as beans, peas, squash and corn. To use it, make the planting furrow or holes with your hoe, then drop the seeds down the pipe. No hassles of seed blowing away. Spacing can be quite accurate for less thinning later. When I looked up "enabling gardening" on the Internet, I found a similar tool for sale. Call- ed a "Plant "N Stick," it looks like a piece of PVC pipe with a probe attached to make a planting hole. It's supposed to be wide enough to drop plants through, down into the hole made by the probe. It also works for planting seed. In- stead of making a furrow, you simply make a hole and drop the seed in. Maybe I'll attach a pointy stick to my piece of PVC pipe. Another handy hole maker is the bulb auger. Generally they're sold in the fall at spring bulb planting time. My friend Tiny uses his to make planting holes for bedding plants. Simply drill a hole in the prepared flower bed and drop in the plant. Use your toe to kick the soil in around the plant and voila! It's planted. If your aim isn't very good, use a length of PVC pipe as a planting chute through which to drop your plants. Be sure to choose pipe wide enough for plants to slide through so you don't spend too much time trying to unplug it. To save time and water, in- vest in a shut-off valve for the end of your hose. Plastic or brass versions are available depending on where you shop. I love the quick couplers that are available for attaching sprinklers or nozzles. The brass quick- connect allows for more water flow so sprinklers tend to work better. Once attached, the quick connec- tors are much easier for stiff fin- gers and hands to manage than screw-on attachments. Soaker hose placed in the vege- table or flower garden early in the season can mean never hav- ing to haul hose the rest of the season. Use the quick couplers for easy hookups so that your hose is available for other jobs. If you have trouble gripping tools, you might want to add pad- ding. The home- made way is to purchase foam pipe-insulation tubes and cut the tubing to the length of the handle. Secure it with duct tape. Bicycle shops sell foam handlebar padding that can be used on small hand tools. One can also purchase tools with pad- ded handles to ease gripping and absorb the jarring that one gets when working in the soil. Adding organic matter to your soil makes it easier to work; your plants benefit from the slow release of nutrients and in- creased pore space, which im- proves air and water flow. Com- post (homemade or from the city), sphagnum peat, and wood chips will all improve soil im- mensely. Keep in mind, though, that if you incorporate wood chips or other high-carbon mater- ials to planting sites, you'll also need to add extra nitrogen fertil- izer so yourplants are not de- prived.