The whole point and moral of this story is very simple. Stay hydrated and avoid overheating while gardening outside. I mean, we all know that, right? Being a nurse, of course, I know that too. Yet, despite that, there have been a couple of times when I have allowed myself to overheat and dehydrate. How could I allow that to happen? As a nurse, I know better, right? Of course, I do! These incidents weren't so much a knowledge deficit on my part. Not even defiance. My problem is two-fold. One problem is mental. The other problem is physical. My mental problem is that I sometimes think I am still forty-something years old. If I get thirsty or overheated, I will just run back to the house, drink some water, eat a snack, and run back outside to finish my tasks. Nice thought! My physical problem is that even though I am active and run about two miles three times a week, my body has slowed down. My body slowing down allows problems like dehydration and overheating to sneak up on me rather quickly.

If you think there is not much to do in the garden during the winter, you are wrong! Winter is an ideal time to plan and prepare a spring garden. Preparing a spring garden during the winter gets us outdoors to get some exercise and boost our mental health during the shorter, darker days. I think of winter as my ‘down time’. Planning and preparing now gives me a head start and means less work in the spring! I use the cooler temperatures to my advantage. Even though I dress warm, I find the cold less taxing on my body, allowing me to perform the more strenuous chores in preparation for a spring garden. Today, I’m going to share some helpful and healthy tips to help you make the most of your spring garden during the winter months.

Are you one of those people who only goes to the doctor when you are sick? If you are one of these people, you are doing yourself a disservice. Everyone should see their healthcare provider at least once a year. The rebuttal I often hear is, “But I’m fine! I only go to the doctor when I’m sick.” The problem with this argument is waiting until you are sick allows diseases and conditions to worsen over time while wreaking havoc on your body. Waiting until you are sick to go see your healthcare provider is a reactive approach to healthcare rather than a proactive approach. I practice what I preach. I see my healthcare provider at least once a year, if not twice a year. We should all see our primary healthcare provider, or HCP, at least once a year. A primary healthcare provider, or HCP, is usually a doctor or nurse practitioner who is responsible for meeting our basic healthcare needs.

I moved from California back to my home state of Alabama in 2018. Growing some of the things I used to grow in California has been a little more challenging to grow in Alabama. Take lettuce, for example. I have yet to successfully grow lettuce in Alabama to the extent that I grew lettuce in California. The Alabama heat is intense, which causes the lettuce to bolt, growing at an accelerated rate which results in a tall stalk with bitter tasting leaves. Hens might enjoy it. Humans find it undesirable for eating. Pumpkins on the other hand have been less of a challenge for me to grow in Alabama. I have grown them annually since I moved back to Alabama with basically good results.

I was born and raised in Mobile, Alabama. It is among one of the oldest cities in America. It is also one of the rainiest cities in America. According to some sources, Mobile may even be the number one rainiest city in America.

I moved to California in 2001, where I lived in Vallejo for many years. Vallejo has a rainy season and a dry season. The rainy season starts in the fall around October and ends in the early spring of the following year. From late spring through late summer, there is rarely any rain in Vallejo. Those of us with gardens have to water by hand or through some type of irrigation. When my husband and I were debating moving back to Mobile from California, we had frequent discussions about the advantages and disadvantages of moving back to Mobile versus staying in California. Both of us are farmers. One of the positive aspects of moving back to Mobile is that Mobile, like the rest of the Gulf Coast, gets a lot of rain. We figured we could count on the rain to do a lot of watering on our farm for us.

Have you ever been in a situation where you hear a noise, but you can’t figure out what you are hearing? Perhaps you are finding it challenging to determine the direction from which the noise is originating? “Is that the refrigerator? Was that an earthquake? Did the cat knock something onto the floor? Do I hear thunder?” These are questions we may ask ourselves in such circumstances. I find myself in these situations probably more often than most people because I am hearing impaired. I sometimes have difficulty identifying sounds. Other times, I may have a difficult time locating the source of a given sound. These incidents can be further complicated if there is a lot of background noise, such as music playing or people talking.

One thing I am guilty of is I sometimes assume that other people think the way I do. We are all probably guilty of that in one way or another. Sometimes, it works out in a positive way when we act on that thought process. Other times it may not. There is an old saying from a poem that has been attributed to Saint Mother Teresa that goes something along the lines of, “The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.” Is that really true? Being a nurse and a critical thinker, my initial response is, “Well, it just depends…”

For example, when my husband and I lived in California, there was the night that we were in our den watching TV when we saw what appeared to be people walking with flashlights in our next-door neighbor’s yard while she was not at home. Our neighborhood was a somewhat ‘iffy’ neighborhood. Our neighbor had recently put her home up for sale. We were suspicious, so we both walked outside to the fence and hollered, “Hey! Who’s over there?” It turned out to be a realtor with two prospective buyers. The buyers ended up buying the house. Surprisingly, our new neighbors later told us how glad they were about our boldness and how our willingness to speak up that night was the final deciding factor in buying that particular house! My husband and I mutually agreed with our new neighbors that if we ever saw or suspected anything suspicious, either party should and would speak up, make a phone call, or take whatever action we felt was necessary in a potentially ‘sketchy’ situation. So, basically, our new neighbors had a similar thought process. I could argue, “They think like we do!” or “We think like they do!” The good that we did was not forgotten and, in fact, was encouraged by both parties the entire time we lived in that neighborhood.

Vitamin C is an essential nutrient that should be a part of our daily diet. Some of the functions of Vitamin C include maintaining healthy skin, healing wounds, helping our bodies absorb iron from vegetables, and promoting a healthy immune system. While there is no evidence that Vitamin C will prevent the cold, evidence does show that regular and consistent consumption of Vitamin C prior to catching the cold may help reduce the duration of the cold symptoms. Some healthcare professionals argue that this benefit is minimal. Mainly because the duration of the cold symptoms may only be shortened by thirteen to twenty-four hours. While I find thirteen hours to twenty-four hours to be disappointing, I do not necessarily agree that it is minimal. That’s half a day to a full day of recovering and feeling better sooner.