-Nadja-'s Journal, 14 Apr 24

Gardening is so physical and digging up established rooted plants can be a tugawar. Simple weeding is hard enough. Used to garden years ago, do very little now. You deserve a good hearty meal after a workout like that. 

Patchizz, only a gardener/landscaper knows how truly labour intensive digging out established perennials can be. Fat Secret considers gardening a mild form of exercise - like golfing, fishing or a leisurely bike ride. LMaO...I want one of them to come and dig with me!! So I used shovelling snow as my exercise, as that is the closest I could find in intensity. I've got a LOT of digging to do this year so maybe I should buy shares in Muscle Relaxers!! I'm not retring this year, I'm exchanging a low paying, slave labour job for an unpaid, slave labour hobby! 🤪 

Nadja, I couldn’t agree with you more concerning the exercise in our well-established garden. I usually don’t walk on the day that I work hard in my yard. 

Maguscanook....I'm not walking today - I'm hobbling!! LoL I was able to go and get groceries today, with the aid of muscle relaxers!!  

I’m reading this dialog and laughing but totalling feeling for ya Nadja!!! Digging up long term perennials is more like finishing the last legs of a triathalon (of course I’ve never done). It is super labor intensive. The body really needs to recover after a days work like you had. Not only sore, but you must’ve been black from soil from head to toe. I was always so dirty after a day out in the garden. As we are aging boy I know I sure feel my arthritis when I do stuff like that, how about you? I guess if you’re hobbling and Maguscanook can’t walk, arthritis definately is affecting us all in one way or another. And you said you have a lot of digging left to do. I can imagine you have a good amount of ground to cover with your gardens being that you have a chainsaw and all. You wouldn’t just have one of those for nothing. Take some long hot baths to help those muscles. 🛁 

Patchizz I'm laughing with you...I literally have dirt trapped between the frame of my glasses and the lenses - I totally forgot that I saved my old glasses just for gardening!! As for arthritus, it affects my feet when its going to storm but any body stiffness that I normally feel totally goes away once I get moving! Well, I've got 7 garbage pails full of yard waste I need to bring in from the "back 40" as in move about 40 feet! LoL I have to make sure they aren't over the 50 pound weight limit 'cause apparently the young bucks throwing garbage can't handle what this old lady can carry to the curb.  

Dirt trapped in you glasses frames, don’t know where to step when you walk in the house cause your feet are covered in dirt, head straight for the shower and don’t forget the nail brush for black fingernails and toenails!!! And don’t need to say anymore on this newer way of working for SOME of these young ones (hate to stereotype). Do as little as possible,, just pay me!!! You and your beautiful yard will appreciate the fruits of true labor!! You must post photos mid summer when everything is in bloom. ☀️🌷🌻 

Patchizz...the dirt in my yard is so rich that it actually stains my hands.(not a good thing when I was working in the Suppotive Housing kitchen!! but the Health Inspector was a gardener too, so he understood 😉) I wear my rubber 'farmer's boots' and socks when I garden so my feet stay relatively clean but the boots make for an interesting 'farmer's tan' on my legs - I am only tanned between the bottom of my shorts and the tops of my boots!! 🤪I am trying to grow/establish more Ontario Native plants, so my gardens are pretty bare this year as I've dug out a lot of invasive flowering perennials (tons of daylillies & Lily of the Valley with tons more to dig out!) but I love my Hostas - so they're staying! LoL