Are You a "Dirt Diva?"

This newsletter is for all of you Dirt Divas (I like this name for girl gardeners!) and those of you who don’t garden but know some Dirt Divas to pass it along to.   Now if Spring would only cooperate!

A gardener can stay safe and healthy by following these good gardening guidelines:

Warm up. Treat gardening like a workout and warm up first. Stroll through your garden doing gentle stretches or take a walk. Gardening can challenge your joints, so choose a few stretches to loosen and warm your knees, elbows, wrists, and shoulders.

Be nice to your knees. To get closer to the earth, gardeners often find themselves on their knees. Reduce the strain to your knees and to your back by working with only one knee on the ground at a time. Your back should be straight as you kneel, and kneepads provide additional cushion on rough or rocky terrain. 

Take turns. Weed or dig for too long, and the repetition can cause strain. Alternate your gardening tasks to avoid repetitive strain injuries. Mix it up: pull weeds for 5 minutes, and then follow it up with a task that's a bit gentler on your hands. Switch again to digging, and then back to another task. This way, you don't overstrain any one part of your body! Take breaks between tasks to rest or do some light stretches. Sit in the shade for awhile and sip some water.

Handle with care. As a gardener, you use a lot of tools, but your hands are among your most precious. Shield them from harm with sturdy, well-fitted gardening gloves. Bare hands risk cuts, scrapes, blisters, as well as exposure to chemicals, pests, and potential allergens or irritants. Even with gloves, your hands will need a thorough washing-up once you've finished your tasks. The gloves I like best are the combo rubber and cloth gloves found at Wal-Mart.  They keep your hands dry as well as clean.

No tooling around. Tools should make a gardener's life easier, not more painful or dangerous. Gardening tools come in all shapes, sizes, and levels of sharpness, so always use them with care and caution. Choose the right tool for the job, and read and follow all the instructions included with the tool before using it. With stand-up tools - rakes, hoes, or shovels, for instance - select one that allows you to keep your back straight as you work


Gardening is an act of kindness. Yet a gardener's hands are often quite abused. Lavish them with a little well-earned therapy. Shouldn't a gardener's hands be as well cared for as a gardener's garden? 

Hand Soap. Gardening is tough on your hands. So get them some special hand soap made especially for gardeners. It will soften their hands and it will help get all of the dirt out from under their nails and from their hands.  

Heavy Duty Hand Lotion. Any gardener will be sure to appreciate some really good hand lotion. Gardening can be tough on your hands with pruning, weeding and planting. 

Great products to put in an Easter basket or as a Mother's Day Gift!