Part 1: Save Your Back and Knees with these Gardening Tricks and Tools!

We are in the thick of gardening and yard care season here in Western North Carolina, so we wanted to take this opportunity to give a series of tips and recommendations for taking care of your garden and lawn without hurting your back or knees!  It's normal to have sore muscles after you've done an increased amount of work outside that your body is not accustomed to doing.  But injuries that result in persistent back or knee pain are different though, and with some care and modification you can be more likely to prevent these kinds of injuries and keep your garden green and lovely!

One of the suggestions I make to my gardening patients is that they use different positions for tasks like weeding.  Having a few little tools and gadgets in your repertoire can help with this.  One is a kneeling pad or knee pads.  This can let you get out of a deep squat position with hurting your knees or getting grass/dirt stains on your clothes.  

Some people do well to be able to sit at a low level on a stool on this handy rocking stool that lets you shift weight and reach out a bit further than a regular stool.  

For medium or smaller sized tasks that don't require a big wheelbarrow, this little guy is great.  I first saw my neighbor using one of these and thought, oh perfect!

This last hack may not help your back, but it's great for getting small weeds without getting dirt under your nails.  You will have sopping sweaty hand, but you get nice fine dexterity to get little spindly weeds.