Back Pain and Gardening

Spring is in the air. Have you noticed? The days are getting longer, the daffodils and hyacinths are out, The birds are twittering earlier in the morning, and gardening springs to mind!

For many of us, gardening is a fair weather occupation, (we don't even look at it in the winter), but for some reason as soon as the sun starts shining, the birds start singing, everything outside your window looks unbearably dreary and your fingers start to itch to get out there and do some work.

Suddenly you're feeling energised and the pangs of guilt become to much to bear... Out comes the spade and the barrow (or whatever you use) you start digging with gusto and... You can't move the next day (ouch)

Classic case of Gardener's Back.

You have a couple of choices here, you can either let the weeds in your garden take over your life, or you can be sensible about how you approach the whole gardening thing. So What's it going to be? And what difference does it make (except to your back of course)?

Lets take a logical approach, Does it matter if you take a week to get your garden into a semblance of something approaching nice, Hey it's been choked in weeds anyway all winter.. Why does it have to be done in those few measly allotted hours you gave yourself, you really are risking a serious injury.

Be sensible and do it properly. If you think about it logically, gardening is a form of exercise. All athletes will tell you, you should never exercise without doing those warm ups first.

Without warm ups, tense muscles will crack and moan under the strain you put them under. So are you warming up before straining all those muscles you haven't used for months? Of course youre not.

The best advice I can give you is take it in bite sized pieces, do a bit at a time. It's really surprising how much you can get done in just an hour a day. Because thinking to yourself that you'll just have another half hour, or you'll just finish that last bit, is absolutely fatal. (And could be the bit that does your back irreparable harm).

You may think this is excessive, but have you considered drawing up a plan of action for your gardening tasks and sticking to it?

Decide beforehand what you are going to do, (and remember to go easy on yourself, especially when you first start). Do a bit at a time, Have a break (maybe a coffee) and then tackle that next bit.

Before you know it, you will have a garden good enough for Gardeners world, and you won't kill yourself in the process.