Does anyone else garden?

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SusieB01
SusieB01 Posts: 89
in Health and Weight Loss
It is good exercise. I had a marathon session this morning. Right now I'm exhausted. It's almost to the point where I feel I should have been in training all winter--you know--the way someone who runs a marathon does. My marathon was just gardening. I've bought some weed killer, but I'm thinking about just letting the weeds grow and spending a few minutes a day on them with a big session every Saturday. It certainly won't hurt my weight loss efforts. Probably I can use the weed killer and I'll still have plenty of weeding to do-from the looks of things. I believe this year's going to be one of those summers where things grow good! I've been a gardener for a long time, but I'm especially good at growing weeds.

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  • rschmmidt
    rschmmidt Posts: 296
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    Yard work is such great exercise! I like spending time in my garden and when I'm done pulling weeds, I feel like I've worked out. Plus there's the added benefit of having a pretty yard when you are done. :flowerforyou:
  • bjenny12345
    bjenny12345 Posts: 118 Member
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    I garden! This will be my second year with a big garden! I am so excited, hope this is a good growing year ;) I know pulling weeds is good physical activity, always makes me break a sweat. Not to mention how healthy all the fresh veggies are! What do you have growing this year?
  • wildon883r
    wildon883r Posts: 429 Member
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    I don't just have one BUT two large gardens. Right now the weeds are out of control but it's rained so much i can't get in yet . When i do it take me alot of work to clean the place up.
  • elinsofie
    elinsofie Posts: 69 Member
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    I love gardening! I live in an appartment and I don't have my own garden, but I garden at my parents house and at the family farm. The best way to exercise is when you're doing something meaningful that is not just exercise for the sake of exercising.

    Using less weed killer is not only good for your weight loss but it's also better for the environment :)
  • SweetPandora
    SweetPandora Posts: 660 Member
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    I enjoy gardening, I loathe weeding....lol But it has to get done!

    My darling daughter bought me two cute signs, one says - Free Weeds - Pick Your Own and the other If Mothers were flowers I'ld pick you!

    Karen
  • suzooz
    suzooz Posts: 720 Member
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    This will be my first year, and I am quite intimidated. The previous owner of my house planted a huge garden of perennials, and I don't know what's a weed from a flower. :blushing: I didn't have time to do anything with the plot last year, and with all of the rain that we've been having, it's hard enough for me to keep up with the lawn.

    But I'm going to try to at least pull the weeds, and perhaps grow some strawberries this year. i know that there are herbs out there too. Anyone tried to grow raspberries? Are they hard?
  • get_fit2009
    get_fit2009 Posts: 827 Member
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    I do not garden, because apparently *I* have an EXTREMELY brown thumb. My neighbors ask me to touch a plant if they want it killed so they can yank it out easier. :laugh:
  • NatalieWinning
    NatalieWinning Posts: 999 Member
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    I have the tough hands, the cracked fingernails and the bruises to prove I've been in my garden big time! I just expanded it, and I've been plugging away with me and a shovel for 5-7 years at this house. Finally up to the fun part! the perrennials need dividing and I can move them into bigger space. Every year I feel like I should have trained for it! This year I sort of did and i'm so glad!

    I have a few pictures on my profile of this years new spaces and effort so far. It's the sort of exercise I can keep up into old age. I was pooping out until this year with my weight and activity level. So this has been a good year to get back 'me' and garden again. It's not me trying to be Jillian Michaels here, it's me trying to keep fit enough to garden. And then, of course, I can sit in my skinny new body and enjoy it with some ice cold water.

    This is about the 4th house I've planted, and never stayed long enough to get to this stage where I can expand it to "fun", not just getting a garden started.

    :flowerforyou: I have lots of pictures if I can make you look! http://s1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa387/Nammyl/
  • jujudot
    jujudot Posts: 129 Member
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    This will be my first year, and I am quite intimidated. The previous owner of my house planted a huge garden of perennials, and I don't know what's a weed from a flower. :blushing: I didn't have time to do anything with the plot last year, and with all of the rain that we've been having, it's hard enough for me to keep up with the lawn.

    But I'm going to try to at least pull the weeds, and perhaps grow some strawberries this year. i know that there are herbs out there too. Anyone tried to grow raspberries? Are they hard?

    I let everything bloom and made myself a "map" of where the flowers/plants were and what appeared to be just weeds. The previous owner of our house was kind enough to bring plants back from the east coast that aren't native to this area.......I have no idea what half of the things are, but they are pretty!! haha
    We planted a few raspberry bushes last summer. They seem to grow pretty easily-spread into our yard even easier though! :grumble: Nobody told me about that part!
  • ToucheTurtle
    ToucheTurtle Posts: 1
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    I've finally gotten into my garden and the grass is shoulder height. I've been pulling weeds, weed eating, brush hogging the "lawn", and mowing with my "riding" ATV brush mower accessory I'm nowhere near to planting anything yet. Where are all the exercise points for these activities? I want credit!!
  • elinsofie
    elinsofie Posts: 69 Member
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    I've finally gotten into my garden and the grass is shoulder height. I've been pulling weeds, weed eating, brush hogging the "lawn", and mowing with my "riding" ATV brush mower accessory I'm nowhere near to planting anything yet. Where are all the exercise points for these activities? I want credit!!

    You'll find gardening in the exercise database :) I think the calorie burn estimate is a little high, but I guess it depends a lot on what you've been doing.
  • SusieB01
    SusieB01 Posts: 89
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    I can't wait until Spring to get started again! I wonder how many calories are burned just thinking about it and planning? :happy:
  • 2Bgoddess
    2Bgoddess Posts: 1,096 Member
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    I love, it and miss it. I have two veggies gardens and several other gardens. I grow all sorts of perrenials and add impatiens, pansies and other things each year too. Also hanging baskets, ornamental hangers, stuff like that. Keeps me busy from may to october, our super short growing season!
    I am excited for next spring, i have a tiny green house to build!
  • calliope_music
    calliope_music Posts: 1,242 Member
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    i have a "garden", which is really a shallow patch of dirt in my "backyard" that grows weeds and occasionally the things we plant there in the spring/summer. i love that i can see it from my living room though!
  • weaverfit
    weaverfit Posts: 124
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    I do! I have raised beds in the back for food, a micro-orchard (10 trees), fruiting hedge in the front, zillions of irises, etc. I'm working on a permatculture/food forest project on another piece of land too. I absolutely love soil.

    (edit to change dirt to soil) :flowerforyou:
  • shreddin_mama
    shreddin_mama Posts: 1,076 Member
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    I have just flowers but plan on doing some tomatoes this spring and maybe some other vegetable. Does anyone do compost? i have been thinking about getting that started as well
  • SusieB01
    SusieB01 Posts: 89
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    I've finally gotten into my garden and the grass is shoulder height. I've been pulling weeds, weed eating, brush hogging the "lawn", and mowing with my "riding" ATV brush mower accessory I'm nowhere near to planting anything yet. Where are all the exercise points for these activities? I want credit!!

    You'll find gardening in the exercise database :) I think the calorie burn estimate is a little high, but I guess it depends a lot on what you've been doing.

    I found gardening in the data base, and I don't think the calorie burn is high at all. But then, I was digging new beds in our heavy clay soil using a shove. and also reparing a rabbit fence around my raised beds. ( Oh-and pruning Roses. That wasn't many calories, but since I didn't have the right equipment it was tricky trying not to get thorns). If I had just been deadheading or watering, the count wouldn't be high. It does, indeed depend on what you're doing. For most of this Spring, I've just been spending time looking out the window wishing it would quit raining for two days in a row so I can check the soil to see if it's too wet to dig or till. Unfortunately, that doesn't count at all.
  • REET420
    REET420 Posts: 160 Member
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    I've finally gotten into my garden and the grass is shoulder height. I've been pulling weeds, weed eating, brush hogging the "lawn", and mowing with my "riding" ATV brush mower accessory I'm nowhere near to planting anything yet. Where are all the exercise points for these activities? I want credit!!

    You'll find gardening in the exercise database :) I think the calorie burn estimate is a little high, but I guess it depends a lot on what you've been doing.

    I found gardening in the data base, and I don't think the calorie burn is high at all. But then, I was digging new beds in our heavy clay soil using a shove. and also reparing a rabbit fence around my raised beds. ( Oh-and pruning Roses. That wasn't many calories, but since I didn't have the right equipment it was tricky trying not to get thorns). If I had just been deadheading or watering, the count wouldn't be high. It does, indeed depend on what you're doing. For most of this Spring, I've just been spending time looking out the window wishing it would quit raining for two days in a row so I can check the soil to see if it's too wet to dig or till. Unfortunately, that doesn't count at all.

    I will only log it if I'm carrying heavy objects or digging holes. If I don't sweat I don't log
  • Dadof8
    Dadof8 Posts: 146 Member
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    My wife and I have put in a garden most of the last 20 years but I'm not sure what we do can be called gardening. Most of the time we get the seeds in and hope that there is something to harvest in the fall. The weeds and critters get most of what we plant and living out where we do these are formidable foes. Last year we put up a 5 foot fence around a 30 X 90 foot plot which kept most of the critters out, this year I've added 3, 4 X 16 foot raised beds. The first was filled with the 'Dirt' from the floor of the cow/horse barn, we haven't had a cow or horse in about 5 years. Digging that out burned some cals. the next two I filled with top soil I bought from a local nursery. Shoveling that into the bed also burned some cals. I sometimes think "Gardening" is to gentle a word to describe the activities we do to get a few vegetables.
  • momtokgo
    momtokgo Posts: 446 Member
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    We planted stuff this morning! We have flowers, as well as a wooden 3 tier box that my dad made us for growing strawberries. It's our first year, I hope they grow. We are also putting in carrots and lettuce, and we dug a small bed for my daughter who wants to try growing a pumpkin.

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