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The Dirt On Proper Gardening Techniques How to protect your back, knees and peace of mind when dealing with common garden chores. From "The Dirt On..." episode DTDO-112

Believe it or not, there's a right way and a wrong way to do even the most basic garden chores — like shoveling, hauling, pruning and cleaning up.

At some point, we all try to do too much at once or even take a few short cuts that could end in disaster one of these days. If you want to save your back and get the job done right, make sure you're using the proper techniques in the garden. Here are some basic tips on some gardening basics.

Cutting at an angle typically takes less effort than cutting straight across.

Save your back! Avoid overfilling the wheelbarrow.

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Figure A

Shoveling

Use a round point shovel (figure A) instead of a square shovel when digging and moving soil. Square shovels can get too heavy because they can hold too much at once.

Follow this proper technique:

• Bend your legs to a squat.
  
• Step as you dig in.
  
• Scoop and step back, letting your foot land in the direction of the pile you're creating.

With each shovel-full you're impacting your muscles with a jarring motion. When you use the proper technique, you're using your whole body so your arms take on less of the load. The momentum created with this also helps. It should kind of look like you're dancing.


Figure B

Loading and Moving a Wheelbarrow

When filling up your wheelbarrow, try to keep it fairly level (figure B). If it can't be perfectly level, put the most weight over the wheel. Don't overload it. You'll risk spilling everything and making more work for yourself.

When moving it, use the wheel. Let this support the majority of the weight. Hold the bars in the middle instead of at the ends. There will be less strain on your shoulders because you won't hold it out in front of you like you would if you were to hold it on the ends. You also won't twist as much when moving, which can strain your back.


Figure C
Figure D

Pruning

This is where you can get into the awkward reaching, squatting, crawling, twisting and whatever else you can imagine. People don't always realize that you don't need to bend yourself like a pretzel to prune. You just have to get a little creative.

When pruning shrubs, try to stay off your hands and knees. If you have to be on your knees though, use knee pads (figure C). You could even glue a couple together for extra support (figure D). If you need to get under shrubs, lie down on your back and prune. You could even get a roller like car mechanics use to roll under cars.

For the taller jobs, like pruning trees, you'll need a ladder but don't get lazy and just plop it in one spot. You don't want to start reaching and twisting up on that ladder to get to the branches you want to cut. You'll strain muscles left and right, plus it's dangerous because you could fall off if you're not careful.


	Figure F
	Figure E

Clean-Up

Chop up big branches where they fall so they're easier to lift and put in the green waste bin. Instead of chopping these straight on, chop the branches at a slant (figures E and F). You'll notice right away how much easier it is to do this way.

The final clean up task calls for a rake. Everyone seems to think you're supposed to rake all your debris into one big pile. Why? If you rake in a circle, creating smaller piles, you won't have to drag all those leaves to one spot. When you're ready to bag up the leaves, just bring the garbage over to each smaller pile.

There are quite a few garden chores to be done but you don't have to do all of them at once. Take breaks if you need them. Also, sometimes just bouncing around the garden to different tasks or switching your left hand for your right while pruning will make all the difference. It'll keep you from exhausting one muscle group and break through the boredom of the bigger chores.

Go to next article in DIY's "Gardening Basics" series.