Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The dangers in gardening; Part 2..

The new leaves are starting to appear on the crepe myrtle trees; to the left of the photo are the shrubs which I'm slowly working on to prune back old growth.
It's Spring here in my part of the world and there's lots to be done in the garden. This is especially so for me as in recent years many of the heavier garden jobs were left undone...especially pruning of shrubs and small trees. As a result these plants have become rather rampant here at the Goodwins.


Splashes of mauve colour on the jacaranda tree

The clivia didn't flower last year but is making up for it this year :-)

The first of the hippeastrums (amarylis) to flower this year

A climbing geranium cutting I brought back from a visit to Warwick a few months back is now flowering

Lettuces thriving in the veggie patch


 Just over a week ago I wrote of the shoulder and arm pain that I was experiencing after a particularly enthusiastic pruning session. By last week that was all better so I re-started the serious pruning that needed to be done. I couldn't find what I'd done with the safety goggles. After looking in a few places I thought I'd just do a bit of pruning and I would be very careful. Yep! You guessed it! A wayward branch of a plumbago shrub poked me in the eye when I wasn't looking. After a bit of discomfort I decided to go to the GP and have the eye checked out. Getting the appointment was no problem but getting in to see the doctor at the appointed time became quite problematic. I waited an hour and a quarter after my appointment time :-). Then a few drops of orange dye in the affected eye, a check with the little ultra violet light and the doctor announced that there was no damage to the cornea, so all was good. It got even better when I went to pay the bill. The girl waved me away saying I was 'right to go'....I'd been bulk billed! Yippee free!!



Another part of the 'jungle'! Note the black and white 'tiger' lurking!

By the way I later found the goggles just inside the back door on the floor; not in the gardening cupboard in the laundry!

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4 comments:

  1. I'm envious of your warm weather. It's still a bit warm here, but I can tell Fall is here already. Your yard is looking nice and I know your hard work will pay off even more, but please be careful. I love the tiger shot ;-).

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  2. Don't forget to rotate your jobs. Give yourself say 20mins of pruning and then 10 mins of weeding and then do some sweeping or raking and then go back to the pruning. It will mean that you don't over strain. Isn't it always the way with safety glasses though!

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  3. Looks like a lovely place to be. I feel for you and your shoulder. I get the same thing too if I spend too much time doing one activity especially sewing. It's hard to stop doing an activity that you are enjoying even if you know it will cause you pain later. Changing activities regularly is definetly the way to go.

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  4. very good advice Tanya and I'll try to remember to do that. Another bit of advice from the Gardening Australia crew is to do stretches and general warm-up exercises before gardening...but I find I forget and just 'jump straight in' to it! My 'Bowen lady' nags me also so you'd think it would sink in! lol

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