That gardening is good for you seems proven beyond all shadow of doubt. It has even been suggested, although perhaps only half-seriously, that doctors prescribe it as an essential to good health--mental and physical. It is still welcome though when a serious scientific study extends this belief. According to scientists, there are many health benefits of gardening for elderly women, they showed in a recent issue of the journal HortTechnology.
Researchers assessed physical and psychological benefits of a 15-session gardening intervention for women aged 70 and older. Physical and psychological health parameters were assessed before and after the intervention for participants and a control group of nonparticipants. Women in the participating group exhibited significantly improved muscle mass, aerobic endurance, hand dexterity, cognitive ability, and declared waist circumference compared to the control group. Participants also reported a significantly higher amount of daily physical activity from gardening.
Diversion No. 1
An accountant has finally scooped 'Britain's Best Lawn' title after years of trying. But he admits his £40-a -week gardener does all the hard work! Boasting that he has a more impressive garden than the Queen, 58-year-old Keith Chuck from Bolton uses the same grass used by Premier League football clubs to maintain his award-winning lawn The Daily Mail reported
There is still the conundrum of why men and women tend to separately concentrate on certain gardening activities. Ignoring (if we can) the feminist jibe of why men were invented--'a vibrator can't mow the lawn'--men seem to migrate to lawn care. The widely reported of an accountant winning Britain's 'Best Lawn' award is but a recent example of this. Males and mowers seem to go together. Is there any record of a woman being arrested for operating a ride-on mower while drunk? What used to be called the 'kitchen garden' seems also in the main to be a masculine pursuit as proven by giant vegetable entries. (And what is the fate of those giant pumpkins?). Meanwhile, floral affairs are left to females along with container gardening and indoor plants.
Diversion No. 2
A Bathurst, New Brunswick community college is offering a course in horticulture tailored to equipment students with the skills to work in a growing industry--marijuana cultivation, according to CTV News
UFOs can improve sweet cherry production, according to research published in the journal HortScience. Yes, really. But that's Upright Fruiting Offshoots you can tell your next garden club meeting. In the news also are mycoheterotrophic plants, mercifully abbreviated to MHPs, plants that neither photosynthesize nor bloom. There are many more such names at a New Phytologist special paper on the subject. Won't you be the envy of your club?
Diversion No. 3
Dropped from about 40 metres from the ground, a 474-kilogram (1,046-pound) pumpkin made quick work of a Pontiac Grand Am on an early October Saturday during an annual fundraiser by Blue Grass Nursery and Garden Centre north of Calgary in support of Alberta Children Hospital Foundation [CBC News]
There is many a wife that has found a use for an old rake, as many a gardener knows. While the mechanically-minded may indulge in leaf blowers, when it comes to disentangling fallen leaves from shrubs, nothing equals a rake, old or new. Shredded, they will make very superior mulch. Gather in a heap on the lawn then run the power mower over them a few times. The resulting fluffy mass, spread over flower beds, will protect overwintering plants from killer freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw cycles.
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Diversion No. 4
The orange glow of Kraft's revamped macaroni and cheese now comes from paprika, turmeric and annatto, a colouring extract from tree seeds, writes Malia Wollan, The New York Times
Despite the much proclaimed global warming, gardeners in northern climes face a close down of outdoor activities. Indeed, last month had barely opened when snow fell on northeast B.C. and the Prairie Provinces.
A nudist by name Roger Peet,
Loved to dance in the snow and the sleet,
But one chilly November,
He froze every member,
And retired to a monkish retreat.
For more, read on to 'A Garden of Limericks'
Wes Porter is a horticultural consultant and writer based in Toronto. Wes has over 40 years of experience in both temperate and tropical horticulture from three continents.
