I’m sure we’ve all got our own horror stories about unscheduled A&E visits with family and friends through garden related incidents. I remember clearly when my dad chopped the end of his toe off, courtesy of the lawnmower, and the time my brother jumped off the coal bunker onto the end of a rake which sprang back into his face - ouch!
Personally, I’ve had a few incidents involving crushed fingers courtesy of paving slabs and had a few stitches inserted into my leg – the result of a pane of greenhouse glass snapping in two. Hindsight is a great thing and I’m sure that all these accidents could have been avoided with a little forethought and care, although I had to laugh at a headline I spotted the other day – ‘Brian May hospitalized after "ripping his buttocks to shreds’’ in gardening accident’. Not sure what on earth he was up to but it just goes to show that it can happen to anyone – and your buttocks are (weirdly) as vulnerable as any other body parts!
Removing trip hazards = less accidents!
Most accidents happen for completely inane reasons such as wearing the wrong clothes (particularly footwear) or using the wrong tools for the job. I’ve nearly gone head over tit on many occasions walking on the wet paving in the garden in my ‘go to’ Crocs and my gardening gloves never seem man enough to prevent me getting pricked by a thousand thorns when pruning the roses. Thankfully, I’ve never picked up an infection from these painful lacerations and I can only hope that Brian’s backside remains similarly infection free – even though the threat from unseen nasties such as Legionella, tetanus, Weil’s disease and salmonella is frighteningly high. Personally, I find a tube of Germolene the perfect antidote for all these infections – it smells as if it could kill all known germs, and that’s good enough for me.
Tripping and falling in gardens is always a problem and embarrassingly these things happen all the time – even when completely sober. Changing levels from one section of paving to another needs careful consideration and for people with limited vision it can be a complete nightmare. If it’s not obvious that you need to step up or down (particularly when it is dark) by using a change of materials and illuminating the hazard, then accidents can and will happen. Only last week I was surveying a garden where the owners wanted a garden with minimal changes of level, but the garden was on such a steep slope across its width that it was virtually impossible to achieve without large scale earth works. I’m still working on the best solution which will allow them to enjoy their plot in as much safety as possible without having to complete a risk assessment every time they want to pick some flowers.
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