How Does Your Garden Grow?
Here are some reminders about gardening safety:

• Gardening involves lifting and pulling, which can be hard on your back. If you have to lift items such as pots or bags of fertilizer, use the strength in your legs, not your back. Crouch down close to the item to pick it up. Get help with heavy objects.
• Wear the correct Personal Protective Equipment. You'll need sturdy shoes, preferably safety-toed footwear, for operating a lawnmower and other powered equipment. Impact-resistant safety eyewear is a good idea when mowing the lawn or operating powered trimmers or clippers. Wear the recommended hearing protection to guard against noise from loud gasoline engines such as mowers. Gloves protect your hands against cuts, scrapes and insect bites and stings.
• Keep your hands and feet away from the moving parts of cutting machinery such as lawnmowers and hedge trimmers. Keep control of the tool at all times. Before making adjustments such as cleaning the blades, turn off the machine. If the tool has a gasoline engine, disconnect the spark plug. If it is electrically powered, unplug it.
• Do not use electrical tools in the rain or when the area is damp from rain or irrigation. These tools must be plugged into a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI). This is a device, which you can obtain at any hardware or building supply store. It cuts off the electrical power to prevent shock in case of a leakage of current.
• Store pesticides and fertilizers safely, out of the reach of children and pets. Better yet, learn to garden without these chemicals for the safety of your family and the environment.
• Remember to guard yourself from the sun by wearing a sunscreen, sunglasses and protective clothing.
• Here's a gardening safety hint you might not think of -- get a tetanus immunity booster shot every 10 years. Tetanus is an illness caused by bacteria, which lives in the soil. It enters the body through a cut or puncture wound. Toxins created by the bacteria interfere with the muscles, including the muscles used for breathing.

Since injuries take the fun out of gardening, follow some simple safety precautions