Gardening can be a great way to enjoy as a hobby, get physical activity and even beautify
your home and community, and at the same time grow nutritious and healthy fruits and vegetables
for you and your family.
If you are a beginner or an expert gardener, health and safety should always be the topmost
priority.
Gardening or planting is actually a low-risk and a relatively safe hobby, but whatever
it is, certain safety precautions are must to keep you safe, particularly for those with
health issues like allergies or for older people with mobility disorders like those
with arthritis or spine problems.
Now am gonna list out some tips to safe gardening practices.
If you have some more to add, please write them in comment section below the video.
15.
Warm up before Actual Gardening: Yes, gardening is a physical exercise, you should warm up
before doing some strenuous activities like digging and other activities.
Walk around your garden for a few minutes and do some stretching before starting.
14.
Avoid Continuous Activities for prolonged time, like pruning, digging, raking ot whatever,
particularly for the aged and those with musculoskeletal disorders like arthritis, tendinitis and spine
issues.
You need to take rest intermittently.
Have a relaxing chair in your garden.
One tip for people with arthritis and back problems is Kneeling down instead of bending
your spine will put less strain on your back.
For extra comfort, consider wearing knee-pads.
Another tip for people with arthritis of wrist is to use a Ratchet action pruner for trimming.
Its specially designed for cutting with minimal efforts.
13.
Do not lift up heavy stuff like large containers, unless you are comfortable.
This can cause back injuries and even hernias if your abdominal wall is weak.
You can try this simple hack using a large cloth to place heavy items on it and drag
along to shift some heavy garden stuff.
12.
Keep Yourself Hydrated: Protect Yourself from the Heat, specially to avoid heat stroke and
sun burns, and particularly in hot summer.
Sometimes out of too much passion for gardening, you tend to forget to drink water.
Make sure you keep yourself enough hydrated.
And Health should be your first priority.
11.
Wear Protective Dress and Gardening Gloves: to Protect Your exposed Skin � like Protecting
your skin from allergens or toxic plant saps and juices, specially when you prune the branches.
You should wear gardening gloves or any glove for protecting your hands.
Also depending on the work you do, protective clothing with full sleeves may also be useful
to protect from insects, pests and chemical and also from Sunlight if your skin is photosensitive.
You can also use Other Optional Protective Stuff like safety goggles, shoes or boots
and things like that.
10.
Use Sun screens or protective clothing to avoid sun burns, specially for those with
photosensitive skin.
9.
Use Insect repellent creams if your garden is having lot of mosquitoes or even ticks
which can cause tick bite fever and you all know mosquitoes can spread dengue, malaria,
chickungunya and many other diseases.
Also consider planting some mosquito and insect repellent plants in your garden.
You can watch a list of these plants in one of my videos from a card linked at top right
corner of this video.
8.
Use Appropriate Tools for gardening not your hands: Use a hand shovel or rake rather than
your hand for digging or raking.
Sharp objects and any debris buried in the soil can harm you.
7.
Use tools like cutters including pruners, blades and knives with caution to protect
yourself from injuries.
Also if you are using power tools follow safety precautions to avoid electric shocks and injuries.
6.
Keep Chemicals, Fertilizers and cutting tools and other stuff out of reach from small kids.
5.
Protect yourself from Infections and Toxic substances: Never wipe your face or eyes with
your hands while you are in the garden.
There are chances of transferring some toxic substance or even harmful organisms on to
your face or mouth or even eyes.
If you have done this by mistake, immediately rinse your face or the affected part thoroughly
with water.
4.
Keep your compost and other smelling stuff away from windows and living areas.
Better use a closed compost bin.
3.
This Point am sure most of are unaware.
Avoid gardening during periods of very short rain or light drizzles and storms because
the allergen load on the ground is very high at these times, like the pollen grains and
other allergens.
Specially do not carry your kid at this period, if your kid is having an allergic asthma and
any other similar disorder.
2.
Use a Face Mask: Whenever you are spraying a pesticide whether organic or chemical, wear
appropriate protective clothing along with a face mask.
If you do not have a mask, atleast wrap around a hanky or cloth around your nose and mouth.
1.
After Finishing Your Gardening: Wash your exposed parts thoroughly before entering your
living area.
Particularly wash well if you have handled the potting mix with your bare hands and also
under your nail beds.
So, there you have it folks, those are the top 15 precautions to keep in mind to make
gardening a pleasant hobby.
If you have any more important points please add them in the comments section below the
video.
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Happy and Safe Gardening!