Gardening: The Total Body Workout

Today I transformed an old, empty garden at my sons' school into a vegetable/fruit/herb/flower garden.   I did this alone and completed the job in 2 3/4 hours.  I experienced a good workout in the process. Multitasking rocks!

My first step was to pull all of the weeds that had crept in over time.  Weeding is as effective as reverse situps and squats. No joke.

 

Then I removed about six inches of existing soil from the "produce" side of the raised bed and lined it with plastic edging to keep the old soil separate from the new soil.  Doing this was the equivalent of curls, dips, crunches and lunges.

 

I then lined the produce section with weed barrier.  More squats.

 

Next came fresh soil that I raked until smooth and then watered down with a mixture of water and liquid seaweed (an all natural root stimulator). The lighter soil is a mix identical to "Mel's Mix", as described in the book "Square Foot Gardening." It contains the optimal mix of ingredients to produce a prolific and healthy vegetable patch. Only edibles were planted in the light brown soil (basil, carrots, watermelon). The dark brown soil is just fresh flower bed soil, into which we planted wildflower seeds.  More lunges.

 

 I redistributed soil I took from the produce section to the other sections, then tilled and smoothed the other sections to plant sunflowers and wildflowers.  Shoveling is the equivalent of lunges, curls, dips and reverse sit ups.  If you keep up a good pace, it's your cardio, too!

  

All of the kids took turns planting seeds, which they loved doing.  Finally, I labeled all of the plantings so the children know what they're looking at as things grow. 

Cool down. :)

Great workout - I mean garden!