Six safety tips in the garden

With spring just around the corner, it's fun to start thinking about how you might revitalize your garden once the winter blues have been blown away.

Planning your garden will not only save you time and money, but give you a sense of purpose and a goal when you pick up your gardening fork for the first time in 2024.

If you're considering selling soon and catching the spring wave of buyer interest, you will be rewarded if you take care of your garden.

That's especially true if young families are your target buying market. 

When young children are in the picture, a garden where they can play safely becomes a powerful selling point.

These tips will help you enjoy your gardening this coming spring.

Handy idea

Always wear gloves, even for the quickest or smallest tasks. You'll not only protect yourself against thorns and the like, you'll also prevent skin irritation from soils and fertilizers. 

Cover up

It doesn't have to be a boiling hot day for the UV danger to rise. So, wear a hat and maybe have a shirt with the collar turned up to protect your neck from burning. A minimum 30+ UV sunscreen is never a bad idea.  

Avoid injury

To avoid injuries caused by repetitive movements, consider rotating tasks every 20 minutes. Move easily between raking, pruning or digging to give you a little variety. You can still finish your tasks but you don't need to do them sequentially.

Mower mayhem

In America, 2.6% of injuries caused by lawn mowers are fatal, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information. More than 6,000 children are hurt by lawn mowers annually and they account for 9% of all child amputations.

Deep breath

Did you know you can catch the fatal Legionnaires' disease from the Legionella bacterium in potting mix? Always wear a mask when handling this material.

Short circuit

Always watch out for electrical cords when using hedge trimmers, strimmer, hover mowers and other equipment that needs to be plugged into the mains power. It is so easy to cut through a wire so move to battery-powered tools when your budget allows.