are floating in the air. Tops on the list for many are eating a healthier diet and getting more exercise. Gardening can tackle both these resolutions.
Gardeners can choose nutritious crops and specific varieties that they want to grow for a healthy garden. For exercise, the gardener is out in the fresh air all season long, planting, tending, and then enjoying the, er, fruits of their labors when they harvest and then consume their healthy, fresh produce. Attacking weeds, planning strategies for watering and garden maintenance are the recipes for a healthy lifestyle.
What qualifies as ‘exercise’? Cardio to get our lungs and heart pumping, weight bearing for increased muscle strength, and stretching to strengthen our inner cores that hold our bodies upright.
It is not necessary to load up in the car, wear exercise clothing, assemble exercise gear, and travel to a gym. Gardeners get plenty of exercise without leaving home just by growing a garden.
Here are some garden tasks for each form of exercise but of course, there are many others; these are usual garden tasks.
• Cardio. Get the heart pumping by increasing activities that involve arms and legs and that require some effort, resulting in heavier breathing. Activities like raking debris left from last fall’s leaf drop and trash that lays around following winter winds, preparing spring gardens by turning soil and incorporating organic matter.
• Weight bearing. Lifting bags of manure that will be carried to the garden, moving bags of bird seed from the car to the garage or storage shed, moving tools or fertilizer bags as the garage or tool sheds are being readied for the spring season.
• Stretching. January is the time to begin major pruning of trees and most shrubs - stretching with pole saws to reach the upper branches stretches back and arm muscles. Cleaning the garden of weeds requires bending, leaning over, lunging to get those a little out of reach.
If exercise or body movement are activities that have not been done for some time, resist the urge to dive right in on your New Year’s resolution. It may take a while to work up the stamina needed for major garden tasks but keep the body moving and muscles will eventually strengthen, and by spring you’ll be in shape to tackle planting that spring garden.
Ellen Peffley Harp, a retired professor of horticulture at Texas Tech University, writes about gardening for several Texas newspapers
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