The Mandalorian is not a show that I would watch – normally. You see, I don’t enjoy futuristic, dystopian shows. It bothers me to think of a desolate and barren future. Isn’t there a place in the future for beauty? And flowers? And color?
I also don’t like shooting and fighting.
So, there is nothing about The Mandalorian that should entice me to watch it but watch it I did!
Baby Yoda and his knight in shining, Mandalorian armor have won my heart!
With this show fresh on my mind I headed out to tackle the chip pile.
My gleaming pile of soil-building gold
The glorious, free, soil-building gold is the perfect boost for my flower and vegetable beds but is an unruly tangle of roughly chipped trees that must be manually moved from pile to beds. Did I mention it was free?
Since I do not own any earth-moving power equipment, I rely on my brute strength to accomplish this task.
In my new directive to re-learn how to garden without causing myself pain, I took to YouTube and watched some video tips for moving the massive pile.
The one I enjoyed the most was from Plant Abundance.
As I tuned in and saw this burly, fit 30-something-year-old talk about moving massive amounts of wood chips, I quickly realized that I am not him!
He says a motivated individual could move the 10-yard pile of wood chips in about 5-6 hours! What? I am highly motivated but it’s a 5-6-week job for me.
He recommends using a wheelbarrow. Ah, the joys of a youthful body. The wheelbarrow is all wrong for the not so strong. As I mentioned in my blog post about the Carts Vermont garden cart, a wheelbarrow is horrible for someone with a bad back and knees. The wheelbarrow requires a lot of core stability or you will lose the load and hurt yourself in the process. He also mentions that the wheelbarrow is nice and deep to carry larger loads. Wrong – we want to limit the load size. The Carts Vermont garden cart is perfect for this task.
He also talks about the tool to scoop the chips. I had been trying to use a scoop shovel. This is a large shovel with a flat edge and is very good for scooping from the bottom of a pile and will hold a lot of material.
But the scoop shovel is very hard to scoop into a packed wood chip pile. Even Mr. Burly says that trying to scoop into the pile with this flat blade can hurt your back. So, he recommends a bedding fork. If your wood chip pile is highly processed, a fork is problematic because all the chips fall through the tines. But with a rough pile like mine with lots of sticks, the load stays on the fork. So now the pile can be removed from top down instead of bottom up, which puts a lot less stress on the back.
Unlike Mr. Burly, who prefers the long-handled tool to get lots of leverage, I want the short-handled tool. You do have to bend more with a shorter handle, but the closer the weight of the load remains to my stressed joints, the easier it is on them.
Diving into action
So, video done, I’m ready for action. I head out dressed in my normal uniform of jeans and a sweatshirt. I gather my tools and my trusty garden cart. And I dive in. But wait. Rethinking the old ways – maybe I should have a brace on? I have braces, I just usually don’t take the time to use them unless the pain is reminding me to. Maybe I can prevent the pain by wearing the braces so that improper movement is limited.
So, back into the house to brace-up. Back brace to protect lower back, knee braces for both knees and wrist braces for both wrists. Now I am ready for action! But walking out to the pile, I feel rather like the first version of Mandalorian. My warrior armor is clunky. My jeans are wadded up under my knee pads and are not very comfortable. My back brace is rubbing my skin and poking out under my shirt. My gloves do not fit well over my wrist braces and where will I put my phone?
Maybe I need to rethink this too? If I’m going to do this job properly and not be afraid of frightening the neighbor children, I could find a way to look and feel better with these braces on. So back into the house to create the perfect suit of armor to protect me against my arch enemy, the dark force of pain.
Normally I wouldn’t garden in yoga pants because they aren’t very sturdy. But I wanted to try this and if it works out well, then I can invest in some better yoga pants. So, yoga pants, a tank top under my shirt to protect my skin from back brace and a longer sweatshirt that covers the back brace while working, and I feel much more comfortable literally and also don’t feel the need to hide from the neighbors.
So now I am the sleek, new improved Mandalorian, the lone warrior, ready to tackle that wood chip pile. And guess what showed up for Christmas?
Baby Yoda in the form of an adorable garden cart by Carts Vermont.
This new cart is the smaller version of the old cart and it follows me everywhere! While the old standby still has many uses for me, the new cart is a little more suited to the disabled gardener’s challenges. It is much smaller which means the load you carry is smaller which prevents overdoing it.
It also is very maneuverable. This cart is so easy to get in and out of the areas where I need it. I love how easy it is to turn. And the smaller size allows me to lift it over edgings to beds and dump the load in very tight areas.
I am very pleased with the progress I am making on my wood chip pile and the fact that I am working smarter to prevent injury so I can accomplish more.
Build beautiful garden soil you will!
Happy New Year to everyone and here’s to our best gardening year ever!
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