7/30/03

ergonomics: smart gardening

Barbara Frank

How much of your personal energy budget do you want to spend on the horticultural habit? Enter ergonomics, whereby investing in body-wise tools and techniques pays dividends in effort saved and work accomplished.

Garden-variety ergonomics is as simple as 1-2-3:

1. Choose new tools or adapt old ones that respect body function.

2. Use methods and techniques emphasizing smarter over harder.

3. Deliberately design the garden with low maintenance in mind.

Equipment

Some no-brainers when it comes to tools: lighter beats heavier; long handles surpass short (they connect you and labor in ways that favor good body mechanics).

 

“The right tool starts with the grip,” offers Karen Funkenbusch, spokesperson for the Missouri AgrAbility Project. “For starters, it should be pliable and non-slip.” Pliability reduces cramping over the long haul; with a non-slip handle, you don’t waste energy just holding on. Rules of “thumb”: 1) thumb and forefinger should meet when wrapped around the handle, and 2) indentations should encourage the neutral position (thumb up, wrist straight).

 

Ergonomics need not conflict with economics. Costco distributes Omnitech products; their garden scooter offers more features than online versions, at 1/3 the price. Browse websites or catalogues to inspire improvements you can make on your own: PVC pipe to lengthen handles; duct or electrical tape, foam padding, thick rubber bands from supermarket produce, or bicycle handlebar grips to fatten/cushion/slip-proof hand tools.

Methods

For less toil in tilling the soil:

• Use kid-size tools for small areas.

• Furrow rows with long PVC pipe cut at a slant on one end; drop seeds through the pipe to plant.

• Load tools and supplies onto a vinyl snow sled; pull it around to work stations. Or use it to transport rocks and other heavy items.

Garden Design

Johnson County Library lists sixteen titles under “low maintenance gardening.” A sampler of suggestions:

• Downsize with containers and dwarf varieties. Train vines, condense plantings.

• Introduce raised beds--the closer your garden to waist level, the more ergonomic.

• Plant the occasional croquet mallet (handle down) as a getting up or down “crutch.”

• Switch to less codependent plants: perennials, self-dead headers, and re-seeders, bulbs that multiply.

Digging into ergonomic gardening has unearthed so many treasures. Our choices for cream of the crop:

• Best ergonomic tool array: http://www.handhelpers.com/ (1-888-632-7091).

• Best resource source: http://www.gatorsport.org/gardening.html.

• Best one-stop tip spot: http://www.muhealth.org/~arthritis/gardens/.

• Best ergonomic tool: the lowly earthworm! Hire a gaggle of these babies and watch them turn your soil into loam so fertile you could till it with a fork. (www.mountainx.com/garden/2002/0724gardener.php)

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© University of Kansas Medical Center, Center on Aging, July, 2003.