Gardening in Alaska : Don't Be a Pinhead

Talk Dirt To Me

Gardening in Alaska presents big challenges, whether it's the extra effort in finding plants tough enough to survive our Zone 2-4 climate, communicating with like-minded Alaska gardeners, or keeping up with the latest trends, issues and solutions. We'll try to help with that. We'll also tour gardens from Homer to Anchorage to Wasilla to Willow whenever we get the chance, and post the best garden photos around. Presenting a forum about cold-weather gardening and for cold-weather gardeners is what we are all about. We hope you'll join us on the Talk Dirt garden blog.

Photographer and gardener Fran Durner (fdurner@adn.com) writes the blog.

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Jeff Lowenfels

A member of the Garden Writers Hall of Fame, Jeff writes a weekly column on gardening in Alaska.

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Don't Be a Pinhead

Posted by talkdirt

Posted: June 16, 2009 - 9:50 am

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This X-ray shows a 2-inch metal pin that was shot from a garden tiller into the brain of Chris Clear, a 19-year-old from Penrose, Colo. The X-ray was taken in Canon City, Colo., in late April 2008 after the freak accident, which, despite a trip to the emergency room on the day it happened, went undetected for 48 hours. AP Photo/The GazetteView Healthy Gardening Video Part 1
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I don't mean to alarm you with the accompanying photo as it didn't happen here and the patient lived. But it drives home a point (and no pun intended) that something considered as benign as gardening can sometimes be a danger to your health.

From little ol' splinters to pulled muscles to broken bones to pneumonia to blood poisoning, it's a jungle out there. We're the explorers and we need to take care.

I keep thinking the best advice I could give a gardener is: Get your shots and keep your mouth shut!

Shots are obvious, tetanus being the one to keep updated. Some bacteria that live in the soil are not friendly to us and if they enter your body through a cut or blister can cause infection or something like lockjaw - both can be fatal.

As for keeping your mouth closed....I have this vivid memory from my childhood of boys flinging worms and of one of those worms landing in the mouth of a laughing boy! Yuk!

I also have firsthand experience at inhaling mosquitoes and tiny bugs and immediately spitting them out furiously, but the worst was when I inhaled a speck of bark mulch through my mouth and eventually developed bronchial pnuemonia that had me felled for two weeks in the middle of summer one year.

So, do your stretches and warm up your muscles. Use the right tools and keep them in good condition - there are some really great ergonomic tools on the market nowadays. Wear the right clothes and shoes. Use gloves, a hat and sunblock! Stay hydrated. Be good to your body and you'll guarantee being able to garden for a long, long time.

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