The healing hands: how to garden safely
Children and adults are regulalrly treated in hospital because of garden accidents.
Accidents will always happen, but the greater number of garden accidents may be prevented with a few basic and common sense, safety precautions.
* Ensure the garden is free from all trip hazards, such as hosepipes, tools and electric cables, uneven surfaces and moss-covered or wobbly paving slabs.
* Always wear personal protection equipment (PPE), like gloves, goggles, ear protection and steel toe-capped boots, when operating garden machinery, such as strimmers, hedge cutters, chainsaws and mowers. Baggy clothing is not advisable.
* Do not leave any tools, especially sharp or heavy items, lying around in the path of curious children and unsuspecting adults.
* Take extreme precaution when lifting objects. Avoid all short cuts and review the object and, if you consider it too heavy to lift alone, find someone to help. Remember, when lifting unaccompanied always proceed with your knees bent and back straight.
* If a ladder is required for pruning or hedge-cutting, ensure there is someone there to hold it steady.
* I’ve learned the hard way with bamboo canes and, incidentally, they are responsible for almost all injuries to the face and eyes in the garden. Make sure to cover all bamboo canes with stoppers, such as recycled yoghurt bottles or shop-bought stoppers.
* In wet weather, take care on slippy paths and avoid using electrical equipment.
* Be very vigilant with children around garden ponds and paddling pools. It pays to place a pond near to the house and to grow plants around deep sides to prevent children coming too close to the edge.
* Become aware of the plants, berries and flowers that are poisonous, or that sting, contain irritant saps, allergenic pollens or have thorns, ensuring that children and pets avoid them.
* Finally, a guideline for both adults and children is to always remember to use sunscreen and hats on sunny days and to beware of stinging wasps, bees and other biting insects.
Clearly, safety is key to good gardening and demands to be taken seriously. To aid us in good garden practice, and to use our gardens to heal us, Fiann Ó Nualláin, author and award-winning garden designer, has recently published the first of a three-part series encompassing all there is to know on first aid from the garden.
This easy-to-read and user-friendly book, entitled The Holistic Gardener, embraces Fiann’s lifetime experience with gardening, medical botany and the many accidents that can befall garden enthusiasts.
This book is perfect for those interested in reaping the added health benefits of the garden, be they first-timers or old-herbal hands.
The terminology in this book is plain and user-friendly, yet practical and pertinent.
In best practice, Fiann recommends that medical consultation be sought in the case of illness, and this book simply gives an outline of the optimum first-aid response to any given aliment, followed by the most suitable garden aid.
Garden aids are based on plants that grow locally, combined with a few borrowed from the kitchen or bathroom larders.
From insect bites to plant interactions, hay fever, bruises, splinters, burns and much more, this book is bulging with accessible garden recipes, tinctures, top tips and remedies to guide us all in being truly holistic gardeners.
Ó Nualláin regularly contributes to gardening events around the country and gardening shows on RTÉ and TG4, (he has two pilot gardening programmes completed).
He blogs under the title ‘The Holistic Gardener’ and his website is holistic gardener.com or inspiringgardens.ie. This book, essential to every first aid kit, is available through Mercier press and all good bookstores and makes the ideal present for any gardener in your life, including yourself. http://www.mercierpress.ie/irish-books/the-holistic-gardener-first-aid-from-the-garden/
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