For those of us with arthritic joints, gardening can be a challenge; however, it can be made enjoyable. Gardening helps maintain joint flexibility and improves your quality of life. Here are some tips, techniques, and tools that can help keep an arthritic gardener active and happy in the garden. Work only during the time of day you feel your best. If you are stiff in the cool of the morning, conduct garden tasks during the warmer afternoons. Before starting, warm up your muscles and flex your joints with some gentle stretching exercises. Ask your doctor or physical therapist to recommend some warm-up and stretching exercises. I usually start each day with about 20 minutes of Tai Chi since it puts very little stress on my joints and increases my flexibility. Since I take arthritis medication, I usually protect my skin with sunscreen and wear a hat to make me less…
Category: Newsletters and Member Articles
A Dream Come True – My Own Greenhouse
A few years ago, I was on a cruise in the Western Caribbean with a wonderful group of friends to celebrate my 50th birthday! It was a MEMORABLE trip to say the least. We promised (like we always do) to get together afterwards and keep up our momentum. My friend, Mark, who was on the cruise, was already an over-committed builder at the time, but I convinced him to help me with my dream project…to have my own greenhouse! Around that time, I was at a fellow Master Gardener’s house and saw some ideas for greenhouses in a magazine she had. In the environmental mind of being cost effective and trying to recycle/reuse, I rediscovered some old windows with wooden frames that had been replaced on my home; this was the catalyst to start the project. They became the framework of my greenhouse dream. Then I searched flea markets and…
A Bit of Dirt – Fall 2009
Editor’s Cuff Notes – by Dan Willis. THE 1621 THANKSGIVING The tradition of the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving comes from both myth and legend. Few people realize that the Pilgrims never celebrated Thanksgiving in 1621 or any year thereafter. President George Washington made it a one-time Thanksgiving holiday. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln finally made it a national holiday to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November (which could occasionally end up being the fifth Thursday and hence too close to Christmas for businesses). President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed Thanksgiving Day to the fourth Thursday of November in 1939 and Congress approved that day in 1941. The Pilgrims’ first mythological Thanksgiving Day occurred in early October. The date of Thanksgiving, set by President Lincoln, seems to correlate with the anchoring of the Mayflower at Cape Cod, which supposedly occurred on November 21, 1620 according to the Gregorian calendar (It was…