Why Do Ditch Diggers Have Great Bodies?

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  I'm almost half way through digging and filling my garden with 13 cubic yards of black topsoil from Pine Island, NY. It's the best soil you can have, since it comes from the Arctic glaciers that melted a few million years ago. I've always prided myself to be quite strong from years of Muay Thai fighting and various sports, but let me tell you....digging dirt is tough stuff! After about 2 hours of filling a wheel barrel, taking it to its destination and digging out the soil (I'm too short for leveraging the wheel barrel to just dump the dirt into the elevated garden beds), I'm a done deal! I know when to stop before I think I'll overdo it. This is repetitive work and now I know why ditch diggers sing songs to the rhythym of their motions....I'm singing all those songs of the south the sisters of brutality taught us in Catholic parochial school (the things you remember while digging in the dirt!).

So, here's my tip: if you're digging dirt, filling a garden and think you're going to get it done in a day...just forget about it! Sing some songs, take your time, drink lots of water and tomorrow is another day. It might take me another 6 days to get the job done - any volunteers to help out there? Have a wonderful week; be safe, be healthy and be cool!

It's Getting Warm...Time To Plant That Garden

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  The weather is becoming warmer here in the North East and it's time for Spring planting.  Don't injure yourself while trying to do too much at one time or over-reaching, lifting or bending.  Get 2 cheap spackle buckets from Home Depot.  Use one  for all your short handled gardening tools, so you don't have to go back and forth 900 times during the day. It is also the perfect size for weeds...when the bucket is full, it won't weigh so much that you can injure yourself carrying it to a mulch pile or trash.  Turn over the other bucket and use it as a seat, so you're not leaning and putting weight on your knees nor taxing your lower back.  Don't forget your bug spray, sunscreen, floppy hat and sunglasses.  Most importantly....hydrate!  A large thermos of cold water or non-sugary, non-alcoholic beverage is best when working in the sun!  Have fun and be safe this weekend!

Plant Something Positive and Just Wait and See What Happens

I've been missing the 'zen of gardening' for many years.  Every weekend, I help a friend at his Harley Davidson dealership in the Catskills...basically, I'm the social liason.  This past weekend, I decided to do something social for the dealership - I planted an herb garden in back of an old shed they own just across the road.  The area is rocky and surrounded by overgrown bushes and brush, but, in my eyes (as a seasoned gardener from way back in the day), this spot has lots of sun, lots of drainage and is unmolested by human traffic.  This was the perfect spot for the official dealership community herb garden!
My cousin donated several plants from her own garden up in Columbia County for this project.   Chocolate mint, peppermint, spearmint, pergamon and another lovely ______cherry plant (oops, I forgot!) were in the lineup.  Next stop was Home Depot for a pair of cotton gardening gloves, a short handled shovel (size matters when you're a small person digging) and a great spade.  It took about 2 hours to dig out a rectangular space, pull indigenous roots, weed and discard a boatload of rocks, but viola!  The herbs were planted and one of the owners of the dealership donated metal brackets to create a border.  The next day, it was off to the local farmers' market where the Cornell Agricultural School liason took an interest in what I was doing and pointed me in the direction to where I could purchase basil, thyme, rosemary and parsley.  At the end of the day, O'Toole's Harley Davidson of Wurtsboro, NY had its very own herbal garden.  Everyone at the store was curious and excited to see me going back and forth with a shovel and spade (aside from the 'burying the dead body jokes') and buckets of water and even more excited to know that this garden is for everyone to share.  In a few weeks, we will all be able to cut our own mint, parsley and other herbs for various uses. 

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  Plant something positive today.  Whether it's a pot of herbs for your office to share, or a positive idea that can impact others or just a positive attitude for the day....like a garden, the good vibes will spread and like a little community garden, you'll put a smile on other people's faces.  At the end of the day, you'll feel really good!  I got to dig in the soil, create a garden and got some great exercise.  I've got big plans for an expanded garden for next year, but for the meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy some fresh mint tea today!