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pring has come at long last and Canadians are heading
to balconies, yards and community gardens to rake, weed, dig and plant.
Gardening has been growing in popularity by leaps and bounds during
the past decade, but its benefits are not limited to flowers and shrubs.
Gardening is also good for people, offering benefits to both body
and spirit.
For enthusiasts, gardening is a year-round activity. The annual cycle begins in December with the arrival of the seed catalogues, and ends the following November (depending on where you live) when the garden is put to bed for the winter. In between, you plan and dream about your perfect garden. You nurture the seeds and young plants to the best of your ability and even if things don?t work out quite the way you hoped, you can always anticipate next year. Meanwhile, you have the satisfaction of knowing that you have created something that is uniquely yours. You see tangible results from your efforts that are both beautiful and fulfilling.
Reap a healthy body
- Gardening uses all the body's major muscle groups. Arms, legs,
shoulders, stomach, neck and back all are used during an hour
of raking, digging and planting. You may not end up with "buns
of steel" but you will get a challenging workout that stretches
and strengthens muscles and promotes cardiovascular health. Gardening
also improves coordination and burns calories.
- Depending on the activity, working in the garden for 45 minutes
can burn the same number of calories as 30 minutes of aerobics
or jogging. For example, mowing the lawn with a push mower or
tilling the vegetable patch expends the same level of energy as
swimming or aerobics. Digging or turning compost can burn about
400 calories per hour. Even something as simple as planting seedlings
can burn 160 calories in only 30 minutes.
- If exercise is your goal, your total gardening time should add
up to at least 30 minutes per day. As with all exercise programs,
warming up is important before you start. Stretch your muscles
before you begin and make sure you alternate strenuous activities
with lighter tasks. Remember that repetitions are important. You
will get more exercise taking smaller loads in your wheelbarrow
and making more trips than you will by making fewer trips with
heavier loads.
Scents, not stress
- Many gardeners feel a powerful sense of well being from being
in touch with the earth and its natural cycles. There is a spiritual
aspect to gardening that helps us achieve balance and harmony
in our everyday lives.
- Anyone who has spent time tending a garden knows the soothing,
stress-relieving effect that it has. It is relaxing. It takes
your mind off work, family problems and all the other troubling
issues that prey on us in our everyday lives. When you grow herbs
and flowers you have no need for expensive aromatherapy oils for
stress relief. Pick and dry some leaves and blossoms and the scents
will soothe you all winter long
- What could be better for one's self-esteem than knowing you
have produced a beautiful bouquet or a delicious salad from a
patch of plain, brown dirt? What a sense of accomplishment!
"When I go into my garden with
a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health, that
I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting
others do for me what I should have done with my own hands."
Ralph Waldo Emmerson, 1841
Health for your garden
Copyright © 1998-2003 Earth Day Canada
Gardening is one of the best means of
getting in touch with our environment. Here are some handy hints
for a pest-free, pesticide-free garden.
- Start off with a clean patch. Before planting your spring
fruit and vegetable garden, make sure that you rid the area
of insect infestations or diseases by removing all old and
dead plants and debris from the previous year.
- Combine carefully. "Companion Planting" allows
plants to work together toward a common cause. For example:
| Plant |
With |
To Control |
| Tomatoes |
Cabbage |
Flea beetles,cabbage maggots |
| Onions |
Carrots |
Rust flies, nematodes |
| Horseradish |
Potatoes |
ColoradoPotato beetles |
| Radishes orNasturtiums |
Cucumbers |
Cucumber beetles |
In addition, you may like to plant mint (in pots to prevent
overgrowth) to repel cabbage pests and aphids; and basil,
to control tomato hornworm, aphids, mosquitoes and mites.
- Identify pesky pests from beneficial bugs. A couple that
you'll want to encourage are lady bugs (which feed on aphids,
mealybugs and spider mites) and Ground Beetles (which eat
Cabbage root maggots, Cutworms, Snail and Slug eggs).
To trap earwigs, leave rolled-up newspaper on the
ground, or bait empty tuna cans with fish oil or vegetable
oil. Check the traps each morning, then shake the live insects
into soapy water to kill them.
To destroy your garden slugs, bury some empty tuna
cans in your garden until the tops of the cans are level
with the ground. Fill the cans full of beer. This will attract
the slugs, which will crawl inside the cans and drown.
- Have some "home brew" on hand by mixing your
own pesticide alternatives:
| Brew |
For |
How |
| Insecticidal Soap |
To eliminate aphids, white flies
and many other insects |
Spray a mixture of 1 gallon of
water mixed with 1 to 3 teaspoons of soap (not
detergent) on your infested plants. |
| Garlic Oil |
Garlic has shown success as a
fungicide on crops, and as a mosquito larvicide. |
To make your own spray, soak 10
to 15 finely chopped garlic cloves in 1 pint of mineral
oil for 24 hours. |
| Hot Pepper Spray |
Leaf hoppers, spider mites and
white flies, to name a few. |
Mix a cup of hot peppers in 2
cups of water, strain and spray. |
Keep a healthy check on your next meal by trying these suggestions,
and find many others in helpful organic gardening books
at your local library.
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Date published: June 1, 2003 |
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This article was prepared by the 
