Getting physically fit enough to get more gardening in

mikeymikec · May 6, 2024

I have a large enough front and back garden that if it's just me maintaining it, there's likely more than I can keep on top of myself. I'll likely have to remodel the garden to make it more easy to maintain, but the problem I'm facing at the moment is that if I put an hour in, I then want to rest for an hour afterwards. I've kept up the gardening at times enough so that in theory I would get used to the labour, but if I could put say 2 hours or more per weekend-day then I would make better progress.

Putting this in terms like standard get-fit exercises, I suppose I need to divide up the gardening into smaller chunks: my thought is to do 30 minutes, have 15 minutes rest, do another 30 minutes, etc. I'm in two minds about this approach because some types of gardening are more rewarding than others and I might just convince myself that 30 minutes of gardening that I'm making little visible progress with is 'enough' and be done with it.

Another tactic I'm hoping to make something of is to start gardening near lunchtime so the downtime period is more productively spent by feeding myself, but that requires effort too.

Thoughts?

BonzaiDuck · May 11, 2024

You sound like an oldster, like me!

Ever since I took up residence in our family's home, I kept a garden on the inner patio, and I had some potted citrus trees on the hillside patio. I'd been doing this for 20 years now.

On the inner patio, I usually raise tomatoes and a few other vegetables, growing the tomatoes vertically, supported by six-foot cages. To prepare the approximately 120 square foot plot for the tomatoes, I of course turn the soil after weeding, and I add our homemade compost, particularly concentrating it in the holes with the tomato plants. And once these tomatoes are growing in the ground with the cages, I only need to prune the suckers so that I have only a main stalk with sun leaves.

There is always a pest problem, particularly mites and hornworms. For this, I spray the plants with Bacillus Thuringiensis [Thuricide] for the hornworms, and Neem Oil or similar applications for the mites.

I had my last good tomato garden in 2021, the year just before my brother died. Moms died last October. I now have time for this stuff again.

I did some work today, planting one tomato and working on my soaker-hose connections. I'd put up a "NATO-approved" camouflage net above the tomato plot to cut down on the So-Cal sun a bit, but of course the patches of fabric and netting deteriorated from UV, and I pulled the deteriorated camo down today. I started making up and testing connections for my timer system of soaker hoses on the inner patio. If I can keep my garden watered by timer, then I can drive up north for a week or so to visit my brother without fear that my plants will wilt.

The more square footage you cultivate, the more hours you will spend on your garden.

I have to consider this as exercise for myself, in addition to walking a half-mile or full mile every other day. I've got COPD, and get out of breath more easily than I did ten years ago. I think I should keep up my garden every year. I can make a lot of tomato sauce, the presence of a well-kept garden raises my spirits. It gives me something to do, so I don't get depressed about losing two family members recently and worrying about the future ravages of old age.

And with that -- I think I'll pop open a bottle of ten-year-old cabernet from my chiller, to drink with dinner. I had a very satisfying day.

iRONic · May 16, 2024

BonzaiDuck said:
You sound like an oldster, like me!

The more square footage you cultivate, the more hours you will spend on your garden.

the presence of a well-kept garden raises my spirits. It gives me something to do, so I don't get depressed

I quoted the text of your post that has been my mantra since becoming physically disabled. Please don't think I'm discounting any other parts of it…

I stick to mostly flowering perennials, bushes, and trees. My back patio has a thriving fern & ivy garden because of the shade an ornamental wisteria I have trained over the pergola gives it. The front entrance of my home is being groomed like an English garden boxwood walkway. This project has been years in the making.

I have a pair of mini rose gardens/areas. They were here when I bought the house and they're very easy to maintain. I simply cut them down to about a foot above the ground every fall. We are converting one of them to a peony garden this coming spring.

skyking · May 17, 2024

My Sis and BIL made raised beds he could work from his chair.
@mikeymikec I like it, you are going to try gardening intervals.
This is the way.

Jazz98 · May 26, 2024

We have a big garden which was taking too much time to maintain, but we wanted it to still look good. We gradually reduced the maintenance by more than half, and people stop and chat more about it if visiting or just walking past.

Most of the back garden is transformed to rustic patio on two levels. The front is converted into a scree garden and the side is transitioning to trees and shrubs.

Wasn't exactly cheap. But was worth it, for look and reduction of work.

Hope you find a time/style balance you're happier with.

mindless1 · May 28, 2024

IMO one of the best exercises for a task is that task itself, but make sure you stay hydrated, don't get excessive UV exposure, and be mindful of how you're using your muscles, in case you are bending over too much and a different shovel would help, for example. Working slower can help too, enjoy the time spent and set reasonable goals.

If a lot of the work is weeding, consider some weed killer or ground cloth or stones to reduce that.

Muse · May 29, 2024

Now that warm weather has pretty much arrived, I'm doing more gardening. I'm trying to not get too much UV exposure, so early and late or quick! I'm also getting aerobic exercise daily, so working in a 2.5 hour trip to the gym (includes 5 miles each way on bicycle alternating with 1.5 hour bike + hike to 1000 feet elevation from house). Plus I am, ahem, senior, but intent on staying fit. I'm off to the gym in a few minutes, hope to do some more after getting back and dinner, but depends how I feel. I have a list of stuff to do before a surgery in 16 days that will put me on the shelf more or less for 6 weeks! So, get major projects done and hope I'm able to do what's necessary until I'm AOK.

iRONic · May 29, 2024

I wish I had a quarter of your energy! Good luck with everything on your surgery, mang.

Muse · May 30, 2024

iRONic said:
I wish I had a quarter of your energy! Good luck with everything on your surgery, mang.

Thank you! I wish I had 10x my energy TBH. It's hand surgery, outpatient, nothing serious, but the hand will be substandard while it heals, stitches out end of June.

BonzaiDuck · Jun 16, 2024

Muse said:
Thank you! I wish I had 10x my energy TBH. It's hand surgery, outpatient, nothing serious, but the hand will be substandard while it heals, stitches out end of June.

I learned to play the piano from first grade. Then I took up guitar as freshman in college, and taught myself to play the flute (a little). I can probably type on a gaming keyboard faster than I can think. More recently, I've noticed that my right-hand pinky finger exhibits discomfort bordering on pain when I curl it -- for instance, in making my hand look like a claw. Sometimes it seems locked in place, or straightening it seems painful. This comes and goes. A friend has the same problem, advising me to buy an "exercise ball" to squeeze when I visit a sporting goods store.

My latest gardening challenge comes with the visits I get from ground squirrels, due to the fact that I've been slow to keep the poison bait traps filled with pellets. If the visitors die soon after raiding my garden, they won't communicate with other squirrels and I can get on with my task of growing tomatoes. I'm getting a late start in the season for this. I usually get the plants in the ground by mid-February.

mindless1 · Jun 16, 2024

^ Oak trees FTW! Squirrels are plentiful here but never bother my garden, much prefer acorns and the occasional black walnut.

I used to have a problem with Cardinals eating my spinach seeds. Not sure why the Cardinals gravitate towards them but they did, just Cardinals and no other birds, and more than one season so it wasn't just a particular pair of birds. I might have had deer problems except they are too skittish to come near the house where I located the vegetable garden for that very reason, and they seem to like acorns too. Rabbits are my biggest foe, but they are cute, and don't eat most things, preferring the clover that grows in the adjacent field.

Then again fall... I like the shade the rest of the year but there's a heck of a lot of leaves to mow away.

Muse · Jun 16, 2024

BonzaiDuck said:
I learned to play the piano from first grade. Then I took up guitar as freshman in college, and taught myself to play the flute (a little). I can probably type on a gaming keyboard faster than I can think. More recently, I've noticed that my right-hand pinky finger exhibits discomfort bordering on pain when I curl it -- for instance, in making my hand look like a claw. Sometimes it seems locked in place, or straightening it seems painful. This comes and goes. A friend has the same problem, advising me to buy an "exercise ball" to squeeze when I visit a sporting goods store.

My latest gardening challenge comes with the visits I get from ground squirrels, due to the fact that I've been slow to keep the poison bait traps filled with pellets. If the visitors die soon after raiding my garden, they won't communicate with other squirrels and I can get on with my task of growing tomatoes. I'm getting a late start in the season for this. I usually get the plants in the ground by mid-February.

If you can, see a good hand surgeon about your issues.

Sounds to me that you have trigger finger. I have had 5 of those over the last 3 years or so. The first two, I got cortisone injections, which fixed them. Those injections usually work but a lot of the time the condition returns. Surgery, I'm told, is highly effective (trigger finger release) and generally safe and it doesn't come back. So said my physical therapist.

The other 3 trigger fingers I've had came on after my carpal tunnel surgeries (both hands) over the winter. I needed a revision CTS surgery on left hand, and had that 2 days ago. At the same time the surgeon did trigger finger releases on my left thumb and pinky. Will get stitches out 14 days after the procedure. I am typing with both hands right now, couldn't yesterday. Not much pain, I didn't take my pain meds and the pain is basically gone now.

I think I'm going to have trigger finger release on my right thumb after the left hand is healed up. I asked my surgeon about that a couple days ago before my left hand procedure and he said don't worry about that now. But I think that's coming.

BonzaiDuck · Jun 18, 2024

Muse said:
If you can, see a good hand surgeon about your issues.

Sounds to me that you have trigger finger. I have had 5 of those over the last 3 years or so. The first two, I got cortisone injections, which fixed them. Those injections usually work but a lot of the time the condition returns. Surgery, I'm told, is highly effective (trigger finger release) and generally safe and it doesn't come back. So said my physical therapist.

The other 3 trigger fingers I've had came on after my carpal tunnel surgeries (both hands) over the winter. I needed a revision CTS surgery on left hand, and had that 2 days ago. At the same time the surgeon did trigger finger releases on my left thumb and pinky. Will get stitches out 14 days after the procedure. I am typing with both hands right now, couldn't yesterday. Not much pain, I didn't take my pain meds and the pain is basically gone now.

I think I'm going to have trigger finger release on my right thumb after the left hand is healed up. I asked my surgeon about that a couple days ago before my left hand procedure and he said don't worry about that now. But I think that's coming.

It's actually improved slightly, but I'll see my primary doctor in September. I can still speed-type with it and have no pain or discomfort doing so.

As for mindless1 and his comment about my squirrel problem. One of them has taken two green tomatoes. I really hope to get the rest of the potted tomatoes in the ground. It's a little late in the season. But I'm determined. The bait traps have always worked in the past.

Muse · Jun 18, 2024

BonzaiDuck said:
It's actually improved slightly, but I'll see my primary doctor in September. I can still speed-type with it and have no pain or discomfort doing so.

Trigger finger can resolve on its own, i.e. without a shot or surgery. Look it up online. In my case I think surgery is the best course.

alex_perez05 · Saturday at 4:12 PM

BonzaiDuck said:
It's actually improved slightly, but I'll see my primary doctor in September. I can still speed-type with it and have no pain or discomfort doing so.

As for mindless1 and his comment about my squirrel problem. One of them has taken two green tomatoes. I really hope to get the rest of the potted tomatoes in the ground. It's a little late in the season. But I'm determined. The bait traps have always worked in the past.

That's the better thing to do. Though you are seeing certain improvement but, only your doctor will be able to give you proper guidance about the same.

Getting physically fit enough to get more gardening in

mikeymikec

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iRONic

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