Dont break your back

It is no secret that many gardening tasks can be hard work. Because of the size and accessibility constraints that your garden poses, nearly 100% of everyday gardening tasks are labour intensive and require a bit of effort. This being said, why shouldn't we look to minimise this effort wherever possible and look for methods and tools that will bring the fun back into gardening.

There are various and numerous products on the market that are reasonably inexpensive and can save hours of pain and sweat. From rakes to cultivators, fly-mows to long reach hedge clippers, modern gardening tools are so much more affordable and effective than they ever have been.

One tool I came across some years ago was the Wolf Garten Push Pull Weeder. For years a suffered backache from weeding. I would spend every Sunday bent over pulling up weeds that had poked through vegetable plots and shrub beds. This tool eliminated the problem at source. By simply running the blade through the soil you can achieve wondrous results. Be sure to bend your legs, adopt a wide-stance, keeping your knees over your feet and use your legs as you move backward. Instead of just using your arms rock back and forth on your legs and scoot back as you hoe. I assure you that your back and shoulders will thank you the next morning. Be sure to alternate your raking stance from left to right every now and then and you will share out the workload on your body. The difference this tool can make to hoeing is incredible.

TIP: Things that look simple are usually more effective. The long reach lawn edge trimmer looks like an everyday gardening tool but you would not believe the amount of people that spend hours hunched over or on their knees with a short handle set.