Gardening Wounds

by | Mar 19, 2020 | Safe Gardening

Sooner or later you will injure yourself while working in the garden.  This possibility is actually increased by the fact that if you are using a tool I have sharpened, it will be razor sharp.  Your tender skin simply cannot resist the blade of a properly sharpened tool.  If there is any consolation, you will be surprised at how painless the cut will be.  You see, the sharper the cutting edge, the less nerve tissue damage there it.  And it’s not just the tools that can hurt you.  The garden is like a battle ground–with enemy thorns, rough bark, splinters, rock and concrete surfaces and just plain pokey branches just waiting for you to make just one careless move.  You might win the war, but sooner to later you will lose a battle.

 Now most of you will probably ignore the wound and continue your gardening chores.  I, however, cannot.  Any tiny skin puncture results a blood flow that simply won’t stop because of the blood thinner I take.  So I have to go inside and apply a bandage.  Here is where my advice comes in:  Use Nexcare clear waterproof bandages.  After washing the wound area thoroughly (do as I say, not as I do) and drying, apply antibacterial cream or ointment to the gauze pad, and stick on the bandage.  Now you are literally covered for days.  These bandages are unobtrusive and will remain stuck to you skin until you get around to finally removing it days later.  And voila, the wound is completely healed.  Now I realize that severe wounds are not treated just with a bandage, and although one of my sons swears by super glue to stick open wounds back together, you are going to have to use a certain amount of common sense in dealing with accidents in the garden.  In any case, stock up your medicine cabinet with Nexcare clear waterproof bandages and a tube of antibacterial cream or ointment.  You want to be prepared for that next accident that will occur.

Stan, The Tool(?) Man

Kneeling Bench

Kneeling Bench

by | Mar 19, 2020 | Garden tools, Safe Gardening

Kneeling Bench

Kneeling Bench

Not all of us are comfortable kneeling, but playing in the garden often requires it.  My kneeling days are numbered, even though I’ve been protecting my knees with knee pads for years.  In fact, I have a set for indoors and a set for outdoors.  I wear knee pads so much that I just keep them on when I nap in the recliner between play sessions.

            An alternative to wearing knee pads is using kneeling pads—one inch thick pads of soft material that you place between you and the ground.  We must have 3 or 4 around here.  I’ll grab one for LaVille when I catch her kneeling on a hard surface.  These pads are fine to use, but when you move around a lot, like when I’m chasing weeds around the yard, it’s a nuisance to carry the pad with you.

            Here, for you persistent kneelers, is a device that you may wish to purchase and use.  It’s a seat bench that can b e turned up-side-down and then used as a kneeling pad.  Look at the attached picture to see what I mean.  You can work while bending over from the bench, or you can kneel when it’s flipped over.  Perhaps the best feature is the fact that you have 2 supports on the sides that will help you get up—which is the hard part.  Do you remember that the main reason for using a rigid plastic bucket when weeding was that you could use it to help you get up?  An additional feature is that the legs can folded in for storage.

            There is a variety of kneeler benches at Amazon for less that $40.

            If your knees could talk, they would thank you.  The side supports may just be the feature that will save you from taking a face plant into the garden—and nobody likes to grow face plants.

Keep on kneeling,

Stan, The Tool Man