Alternative Community Farmer/WPB.FL

WHAT DOES REALLY MATTER:THE ECONOMICS OF GARDENING or GARDENING ERGONOMICS?

Gardening is a therapy as per the programs and degrees now available in colleges as :HORTICULTURAL THERAPY.Could it be a CHALLENGING PAIN IN THE BACK AS WELL?It all depends how we use our body to carry on the gardening functional movements.

As a certified Massage Therapist and a Master Gardener , I studied  the anatomy and physiology of both plants and the human body.I have learned how to work my muscles in a way that will not spoil my passion for gardening.

Now I want to share my story with you gardeners and farmers who learned about everything except HOW TO USE YOUR BODY ERGONOMICALLY!

Repetetive motion of the wrist and knee and shoulder and back.Watch out for the OUCHES and ACHES when you abuse your body.There are ERGONOMIC Garden tools in the market , but I am not trying to SELL YOU anything .Beware those sales people who come to you wearing different masks in the name of ORGANIC GARDENING.We all need to make a living but the best way is the DIRECT HONEST WAY where we use no gimmicks or games to make the buck.There are so many so called false prophets so beware !Here are some suggestions to be ERGONOMICALLY fit:

1-Use Ergonomic tools.Look them up at the web and make sure that you buy the least .Check out weights,angles,materials.Try them before you buy them and feel them for their safety ,flexibility and comfort!Remember that the tools must rotate not your wrist .So they must be strong ,safe and reliable not to break or cause you injury.

2-Check out with your health care provider if you are clear to stear free in the garden or the farm and that you have no conditions that might impair your gardening and put you in HARMS WAY!.

3-Get a good GRIP on your tools.Use your wrist ERGONOMICALLY :The wrist is vulnerable, once we abuse it  we might end up straing a muscle,twisting or injuring a tendon by applying  inappropriate  muscle or body movement .

4-Learn more about your body anatomy and physiology.Take responsibility.:The hand for example employs FLEXERS and EXTENSORS that host the nerves and hand muscles  which have been vulnerable for CARPAL TUNNEL and TENNIS ELBOW  syndrome/injuries from employing repetetive hand motions either in Gardening or in Tennis exercises.

5-Study ERGONOMICS :The word originates from the GREEK language.Prefix -ERGO:WORK MOVEMENT,and Suffix- nomix:Study.The study of work movement!Voila! 

6-Ask the experts and the EXPERIENCED:Gardeners or farmers who studied horticulture and anatomy and physiology are to be trusted to advise you.There are self proclaimed teachers who ONLY know how to SELL and EMPLOY their mouth and the muscle of their tongue to twist your dollar out of your pocket for lessons and books they sell without even having a garden or a farm.Check out that they do HANDS ON CLASSES first and do not be distracted by the presenatble paper work or fashion.I will follow the farmer or gardner in rags who has experience in the feld ,knows what he/she  is doing and saying rather that the well dressed ,well versed one just fakes it!You know them by their FRUIT(garden)!If they dioo not have one.You know what to do!

7-Place your body in harmoney with the gravity of the universe and the earth.When pushing,pulling,digging etc..use your  body weight.

8-Keep on learning and applying what you learn in the garden or the farm .Be patient.Be flexible.Be safe!Wear on the garden safety gear:hat,gloves,sun-glasses and DRINK SPRING WATER!

9_Stretch your muscles after a garden work or take a yoga class.

10-Rest your body often.

Have a happy and SAFE Gardening!

LOcalharvest.org/farms/M20618

After Peak OIl what we need to pay attention to is :PEAK SOIL.LINCOLN once predicted that soil is the next ENDANGERED SPECIES.With development destroying most of the historical ,commercial and recent farms in S.Florida what is left to consider are the BACK and FRONT YARDS!

Here in S.Florida the land was once known for SWAMPS and THE RIVER OF GRASS was the KING.NOW it is no more than DEVELOPMENTS and what is left is:SAND  SAND EVERY WHERE !

Why there are no laws to protect the farms  fertile top soil from being destroyed by development ?Why there are no laws to protect the drinking water from contamination like what is happening now at the ACREAGE?There are so many cries for helping the ENVIRONMENT.Last cry was after  the recent SNOW blizzards that closed down Northern states for unprecdented times and days.Crops are being damaged as the COLD fronts move to Florida as well.SOIL SOIL SOIL is NOW the  CRY for saving the EARTH after we cried GLOBAL WARMING for decades and no one was home in COPENHAGEN to DO SOMEHING about it .

Now we need to look closer at our backyards soil or shall we say instead :SAND!

Creating your own ORGANIC SOIL may be the answer to combat the S.Florida nematodes that inhabit what is left over in the soil.

Wonder why the plants die?It is not your brown thumb to blame.It is the SOIL!

The soil is the home of both friendly and non friendly organisms, just like our colon is the home of the intestinal FLORA , both the friendly and non-friendly  ones.The answer we usually use to combat dis-ease both to plants and humans is :Antibiotic for the latter and Round UP or PESTICIDES for the former.BOTH will kill them all:the good and bad guys!Organic soil hosts worms and beneficial bacteria that turn the soil into HUMUS.That is the rich organic matter neccessary to grow our crops which was present long time in ancient history of the earth!.We know that the TOP SOIL HAS BEEN DEPLETED.What we need to learn now is :HOW TO RE-MINERALIZE and RECREATE the soil.It takes MOTHE$R EASRTH 500 years to produce few inches of fertile top soil.We take for granted that we can grow as much as we want using fertilizers ,pesticides and soil chemical amendments .That is not valid any more.Organic farming is now the way of DOING HORTICULURE.Permaculture,sustainability,community gardens are just a few of  alternative approaches  that we might consider.Ecological farming,enhancement of bio-diversity in the soil,elimination of toxic cancer producing synthetic fertilizers and pesticides,fungicides,herbicides etc...

Organic farming in the city will be practiced by URBAN FARMERS who now have lost their jobs and are on the verge of losing their homes.Those backyards may be the new GOLD RUSH. LOCALLY and Organiccally grown produce has been now the talk of the town at GREEN markets near you.So what we need to KNOW in ORDER to be ABLE to GROW the ORGANIC WAY? First start by the SOIL.Whatever you feed the plants  makes the difference.You are what your soil is .Know your soil and the bset way is to GROW YOUR OWN.Here is HOW:

1-A key element to remeber.Steer clear from contaminated SLUDGE(heavy metals,pharmaceuticals,fertilizers,pcb etc..)

2-Use home composting to start with.Compost should be the basic.Recycle kitchen veggie and fruit  scrapps(no -meat products).

3-Ammend with Organic fertilizers :Bone meal,blood meal,bird feathers..

4-Enrich soil with sea weed,lime grounds,phosphate grounds.A good source for minerals5-Add brown manure(mulch,yard leaves ,saw dust etc.)A source for carbon.

5-Fortify with composted manure(range chicken,goat,horse),grain meal,coffee grounds.A good source of nitrogen.

6-To eliminate odor add borax,baking soda..

7-Top with local  solarized soil

8-Expose to the four elements:Air( aerial nitrogen) -Water(rain rich with hydrogen peroxide))-fire(sun)-Earth(worms)

9-Mix and mix.

10-Use it in your garden -mix with local solarized soil.

Trace minerals people.Paty attention to them.Our bodies were created from dirt and will turn into dust once we expire.So check it out.What kind of DIRT(SOIL) you want to eat from.You are what you eat or is it, what is eating you!

Localharvest.org/farms/M20618.Read our blog.