Did you know there is a direct link between soil and climate change?

How we treat the soil in our home gardens and landscapes can either contribute to global warming or help decrease the effects of climate change. Our global temperatures are increasing due to the burning of fossil fuels, but also traditional farming and gardening practices have added greatly to the problem.

Historically, tilling the land and leaving it fallow between crops have been the normal practices, which releases carbon into the atmosphere. We have an overabundance of carbon and other greenhouse gasses trapping heat and raising temperatures. When soil is left bare, the sun bakes it to such high temperatures that it kills the essential organisms underground that plants need to grow.

In just one teaspoon of healthy soil, there are billions of living organisms, far more than the number of people on Earth.

Healthy soil is full of living organisms and is exceptionally complex, comprising a vast community of microscopic bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes, as well as earthworms, spiders, and insects. This soil community builds carbon stores through its interactions within the soil structure of living roots and decomposing organic matter.

Home gardeners have traditionally performed similar soil preparation methods as farmers. We dug throughout the garden to break up dirt clods and loosen the soil, while at the same time we were destroying the web of living roots and organisms needed to grow healthy plants. Instead, dig a hole only the size needed to accommodate a plant, avoid compacting the soil so air and water can penetrate, and keep the ground covered to retain moisture for roots and living organisms to stay cool. The added benefit is the carbon will stay stored in the ground where it can benefit the life there.

These are just a few of the tips we will share in this month's articles to grow healthier plants for a healthier planet.

Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143.  Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.

Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.

Photo credits: USDA.gov

By Bob Niklewicz PT MG  

Did you know there are 60,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body?
The word Ergonomics does come from Ergon “work” and Nomos “natural laws.” Ergonomics means the working body should function at optimal level within physiological limits.  One of the KEYS to doing this is to have an unobstructed circulation network that delivers nutrients to all cells throughout the body, simultaneously, removing the waste products that metabolism produces. I call this system the “Nutrient Pathway.”  This vascular system is vital in maintaining the health of the tissues in all vascularized living things. It is always under-appreciated.

Mammals as well as plants require this kind of circulation system. In the case of humans, the fluid circulated is called, blood and in Plants it is sap.  Simply put, blood is transported through arteries and veins, while in plants, nutrients are transported through the phloem and xylem.      

The top picture is the green tissue of a plant stem, underneath is a cross section of a thigh muscle. 

The stem has the darker green phloem carrying nutrients up from the roots then to the leaves and back to the roots. The purplish tissue is the xylem that carries nutrients upwards from the ground to the leaves.

In the muscle, arteries are seen as red tube endings, and the veins are shown as the blue tube endings. They provide channels for the nutrient pathway to work in mammals. One of the causes of loss of circulation is compression of these tissues. In the plant, compression can be from a tie that is too tight, or when the stem is bent. That reduces the patency, and the flow of nutrients. In a muscle contraction that is of long duration with high force intensity and high frequency will be compression of the vessels in that muscle. This compromises the circulation to that muscle, building up metabolic waste products.

For example: Bending forwards while raking for a prolonged Duration, can cause tension and decreased circulation to your back and hip muscles, as well as to the neck, shoulders, arms and hands.

Pruning continuously with hand clippers can fatigue your hand and arm muscles due to compression from squeezing the pruners. In addition, the unprotected skin on your fingers can suffer circulation loss from the compression from the unpadded hands or handles.

Reaching forwards and/or overhead with a heavy tool can cause decreased circulation in the shoulders, neck and mid back. In this case, it can cause a hospital visit.

Be aware of the duration of time, you are in one position before you change postures/tasks.  Do not strain your muscles by working near your intensity capacity. If any task requires a lot of frequent motions to perform,switch positions or take short breaks between tasks. 

One more thing: Your heart is a muscle too.  As such, it also has a circulation network to feed it. When you restrict the circulation to the skeletal muscles (the body's motors) by keeping them tight for long periods of time your system becomes pressurized.

If the blood vessels to those muscles are compressed from holding things tight for prolonged periods, your heart has to work harder to get the blood moving. When the heart contracts it is pushing blood out to muscles. If vessel flow is restricted by hard compression, it takes more power/pressure to get the blood through the muscle.

For example, hand watering your plants and the stream can easily reach the back row of plants. If you step forwards and inadvertently step on the hose, the stream is reduced and only hits the middle row.  Furthermore, the hose behind your foot starts to build up pressure. When you notice, you step off and the rush of pressurized water shoots up through the nozzle and you water the fence behind the last row.

The same thing happens in your heart when you sustain an awkward posture, generate force that tightens the muscles and makes the heart work harder to move the blood to where it is needed. So, spend some extra time taking an “ergo break” that will help your heart.

Do you appreciate the nutrient pathway a little more?

Information links:

UC Berkeley-Ergonomics tips for gardening

https://uhs.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/ergonomics_tips_for_gardening_at_home.pdf

 

 

by Cynthia Kerson

Being a UC Master Gardener has many joys.  We attend classes on multiple horticultural topics and are given access to an amazing font of research based horticultural information. Then, as if that isn't enough, we are given the opportunity to pass that information on to the community.  

When we meet together as a group our conversations will often be about our home gardens. We will talk about how we applied all this wonderful information in our personal gardens and what did or didn't work.  Recently the UCMGs decided to create an internal UCMG garden tour so that all our members could have access to these MG personal spaces. These tours allow the UCMGs to view these real life gardens and to gather information to be passed on to our community. In the  next few weeks we will be reporting on our visits to these amazing gardens.

Our visit to two St. Helena MG gardens proved to be worth the gas (even at today's prices). We explored 2 very different properties. A couple from Angwin gave us a tour of their fire-riddled hillside property within the shadows of St. Helena Hospital. It was delightful and reflective to see how life restores after a disaster. The many tiers of their property – made easily available due to the beautiful stone retaining walls and gravel paths they painstakingly developed over the years to make these steep areas accessible. 

It was a very hot day – reaching 100°F, so we were careful to stay hydrated and refreshed with the treats prepared. We enjoyed them on the shaded patio area, overlooking the lower tier and chicken coop.

Lastly, as we were traversing the hillside, there were many plant opportunists popping up after the fire that the owners could not identify. Many ‘took a shot' (pun intended) at what they were, and phone apps were snapping away. We decided this particular mystery plant was a sort of sage. Maybe you can identify it?

Next, we headed to downtown St. Helena to a gorgeous and very inviting backyard. The front yard is also lovely, but living on the main thoroughfare the owner admitted the family is more inclined to stay in the back so they don't have to respond to “Excuse me, can you tell me where Beringer Winery is?” every 10 minutes. It was a perfect contrast to the rural property we had just visited. The garden is a lovely mixture of things to eat and to enjoy visually. They recently pulled up their water-sucking lawn and created an attractive walkway of concrete and ground cover. However, the owner admitted keeping the ground cover vibrant was more challenging than expected. The highlight (at least for me) was the well-designed vegetable garden area. The newly built raised beds housed all the usual summer suspects, including tomatoes, squash, basil, peas, and peppers, and the garlic was about to be harvested. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few. Lisa created a “textbook” haven for the cucumbers by supporting the wire trellises on a diagonal and crisscrossing them with others. 

 

Interestingly, they had a Coffee Cake Fuyu persimmon tree that, over the years, did not do well. They removed it and a black walnut tree replaced it – all on its own. It's a beautiful addition to the yard, which is home to a peach, lemon, and Hachiya persimmon tree as well. There is also a Japanese maple that is quite established and vigorous despite being mostly in the sun. 

I'll be reporting on another garden tour on west Napa's Dry Creek Road on June 24th next. We first explored a sustainable and industrious property and then checked out my (Cindy Kerson) property where we have a vineyard, small orchard, Kurapia area, and vegetable garden.

Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143.  Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.

Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.

Photo credits: Cindy Kerson

Information links: UC ANR-home landscaping for fire https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8228.pdf

 UC Sonoma county-firewise gardening https://sonomamg.ucanr.edu/Firewise_Landscaping/

 UC Butte County-firewise landscaping https://ucanr.edu/sites/bcmg/resources/firesafe/

 UCMG Sonoma Co.-grass removal https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8228.pdf

 UC ANR-Garden web-vegetables https://cagardenweb.ucanr.edu/Vegetables/

 

by Bob Niklewicz PT MG  

Whether you are a “Budding Gardener” or an “Old Sage”, the wonderful experiences we feel from the enjoyment of developing our garden should not be painful ones. In our passion to make our gardens look great, we often sacrifice our bodies to get that last weed pulled or to dig one more hole. Sadly, the next day we are often too sore to get out of bed or scratch our nose because of muscle aches and pain.                                   

It is my intent to share information about your body through the eyes of physical therapist / ergonomist / Master Gardener. My goals are to provide possible ways to reduce garden injuries and pain, and to keep you safely doing what you love to do in the yard. “It hurts good when I am done” should not be your excuse for not knowing some basic ergonomics that can help protect you from needing to skip days of play or work or using analgesic options.

Did you know you have 209 bones in your body? The word bone in Greek is “osteon.” It is commonly used as a prefix to refer to issues of the bones. Each bone has two ends and where they meet another bone, that area is is called a joint. In Greek, joint = “arthro.” If joints are overused they become inflamed. The Latin suffix for inflammation = “itis.” Each joint can suffer from wear and tear with inflammation pain and that is called arthritis. More specifically, it would be osteo-arthritis.

The most common joints involved are knees, hips, shoulders, elbows and wrists/fingers. These are the ones most often used for forceful activities. The diagram below is what is typically found at the joint that has been damaged.

The body also has over 600 muscles. The medical prefix for muscle is “myo”. Each muscle has a tough connector at each end called a tendon. If a muscle is inflamed it is called myositis.  The terms osteoarthritis and myositis often refer to  overuse of those joints and muscles. The good news is that with a little planning, using the right tool and knowledge, much of the pain from those conditions could be minimized while in the garden. 

The diagram of the Patellar tendon at the knee is commonly injured.

Spot Quiz: From what you have learned from the information above, what would you call it if the tendon was inflamed? The answer is patellar tendinitis. Tendonitis is also acceptable spelling.

These are just a couple of the things that keep your body moving and a couple of examples of what can go wrong, mechanically, to your body. Ergonomics is the science concerned with the design, use, and user education for reduction of injury while gardening or at a desk. Ergonomic awareness will help reduce the chances of injury yourself. 

Ergonomics is not a quick fix to all the problems of pain and soreness of an injured gardener. Ergonomics is something that will neither improve your endurance or your morale by just talking about it. It cannot reverse degenerative changes to the body or guarantee that you will not get hurt again. 

Ergonomics will give you a way to start looking for habits, postures, tools and activities that may be a source against muscle and joint discomfort. In the long run, smart ergonomic practices enhance the aftermath of a great day in the yard when enjoying a glass of your favorite iced beverage instead of applying that ice on what hurts. 

Ergonomic awareness in the garden will give you options to improve the efficiency of performing yard projects and promote safety. It can help reduce the problems of fatigue, joint and muscle soreness. 

Did you know? By the time you turn 70, your heart will have beat some two-and-a-half billion times (figuring on an average of 70 beats per minute.) No wonder we feel a little tired at the end of the day. Thank goodness for the powerhouse of life in our chests.

References: UW Extension-Gardening Exercises and Body Mechanics https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/sewmg/files/2016/07/LLGExercisesMechanicsHandout-Feb-2017.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiV3-Trjbv4AhXTD0QIHSeZAz8QFnoECAYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3zRO6pyGgkPQ5I9LXInyGR

ACE Physical Therapy & Sports medicine institute-Working on the garden and preventing injury https://www.ace-pt.org/ace-physical-therapy-and-sports-medicine-institute-working-in-the-garden-and-preventing-injury/

Photo credits: https://springloadedtechnology.com/guide-to-severe-knee-osteoarthritis/ ; fix-knee-pain.com

Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143.  Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.

Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.