Each year that goes by I find that I have body aches that I never experienced before. I remember being in my teens helping my father on the farm and he would make a comment about how his back or feet ached. Of course, being in my teens, that pretty much went in one ear and out the other. In fact, recalling some of those memories, my father would work smarter not harder as each year passed. Instead of bending over to move a heavy object, he would use a pry bar to move the object, less stress on his back and hopefully less aches.

Which leads me to confess, I now experience some of those small aches and pains and I'm hopefully working smarter than harder.  In April of 2007, a product we sell, the "Folding Garden Kneeler/Garden Seat" was part of a story about  ergonomic tools and accessories in an issue of the Wall Street Journal. Even last year when this article ran in the Journal I didn't give much thought to me actually utilizing this product. My wife has used this specific product when planting bulbs in her flower bed, a lot easier on the knees. But again, I had never used the product personally. This last fall we were cleaning up our flower beds for fall and I thought, why not give it a try? After an afternoon of use I thought to myself "why didn't I use this product before?" Then I started to look around at some of the other tools we have in our garage, things I just haven't gotten around to testing out. I must confess, it was only a year or so ago that I purchased a bulb auger that attached to my cordless drill. What a difference that made in planting bulbs. In fact, since it was so easy versus a shovel and hand trowel, we planted more bulbs than we had planned. With all the extra tulips we planted due to the ease of the bulb auger, we were presented with a spectacular tulip display last spring.

I have concluded that I don't have limits or give up our favorite hobby of gardening due to a couple of new aches and pains. Tool and accessory manufacturers are taking some of the aches out of gardening. There are many great products to try and I intend to try them all. I want to continue gardening until the day I leave this earth.  So they say, if there is a will, there is a way.