I don't know why I get the AARP magazine. I mean, how old does that mean I am?

Or is this like McDonalds, where you don't need to be 65 to get a cheaper cup of coffee?

Anyway. This month's edition has Valerie Bertinelli on the cover, which makes me feel like a dinasour. But it also has some gardening tips for saving your back and knees at this time of year.

The article recommends specific exercises to strengthen the muscles used in, say, raking or pushing a wheelbarrow. And it also gives instruction on the right way to do these chores to save your back and knees.

For example: Don't overload the wheelbarrow. Use your legs to lift the handles and your arms to push. Try not to use your back for either of these moves.

For raking? Short, quick movements; keep the rake close to the body and switch sides every 2 to 3 minutes.

Illustration courtesy of clkr.com

Continue reading "Gardening the AARP way" »

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Photo by Celia Pearson

Check out the May issues of Chesapeake Home for a couple of lovely garden features:

The story of an Annapolis garden, designed for outdoor living, and some ideas for container gardens in the shade.

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Fine Gardening magazine's August issue arrived in the mailbox with a wonderful, truly helpful, cover story: 100 skills to make you a better gardener.

I am not going to list them all here - and I probably won't do all of them either - but this is a great set of tasks for the self-taught gardener to do to help develop his or her skills.

Among them:

• Determine the orientation of your house. Which way, exactly, is south?
• Buy a good set of pruners and then prune a shrub rose. Learn how to sharpen your pruners.
• Design and plant a container garden.
• Learn to identify poison ivy, oak and sumac.
• Buy a good shovel and learn how to sharpen it.
• Force a bulb
• Learn how to remove a tick
• Determine your area's average rainfall and identify your microclimate.
• Learn to keep good records.
• Learn to tell the good bugs from the bad bugs.
• Mix your own potting soil.
• Lay a path.

(The article isn't available in the on-line version of the magazine. It looks like you'll have to buy it at the newstand.)

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Gardening inspiration - and money, too!

Subscribe to Fine Gardening magazine and get a $25 gift certificate for plants at White Flower Farm. Visit this Web site for details.

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This month's edition of Real Simple magazine is dedicated to the basics of spring cleaning.

But in an article titled "42 Mood-boosting Ideas to Bring Joy to Every Day," one of the suggestions is: Stop and smell the alyssum.

The editors suggest you purchase a "Grow Your Own Alyssum" kit for $20 from anthropologie.com.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 6:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
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