On your mark, get set, grow
“He shoots, he SCORES!” What Canadian cannot relate to these words on some level?
I am a hockey fan, but not a player. On the other hand, I am a golf player, but not a fan. There was a time when I played a lot of squash, until my back objected. Now I am a spinner. Hardly a sport, but then, what is “sport,” anyway?
Wikipedia tells us the word sport comes from the old French word for leisure: desport. The oldest English definition, from around 1300, is “anything that humans find amusing or entertaining.”
The Council of Europe concluded “sport” includes all forms of physical exercise, including those done just for fun. If that’s the case, then gardening qualifies as a sport. If it isn’t fun, after all, why do it? Get physical In terms of physical activity, gardening is a winner. Here is a rundown of gardening-related activities and their relative calorie burn in 30 minutes of work, courtesy of research out of Iowa State University.
Calories burned while digging: women, 150; men, 197.
Calories burned while mowing the lawn with a push-type reel mower: women, 181; men, 236.
Calories burned while mowing with a rotary power mower: women, 135; men, 177.
Calories burned while planting transplants, shrubs and trees as well as trimming and pruning: women, 135; men, 177.
Calories burned while weeding the flower beds and vegetable garden: women, 138; men, 181.
Raking the yard and lawn: women, 120; men, 157.
So after an hour or so of gardening activity, I have earned one beer. Competitive sport Research suggests that gardening for just 30 minutes daily will help increase flexibility, strengthen joints, decrease blood pressure and cholesterol levels, lower the risk of developing diabetes and heart disease, and slow the advance of osteoporosis.
Some people will say something has to be competitive in order for it to be a sport.
Where does that leave anglers and hunters?
If catching fish or shooting a deer is a sport, then why not gardening? While there are competitive aspects to gardening, such as growing the largest pumpkin or creating the most original flower arrangement, isn’t there sport in clearing a garden of weeds? Or in creating a garden bed that is brimming with colour and attracts pollinators galore?
I believe there is more sport in gardening than there is in a lot of so-called sports. Sportsmanlike conduct Among the more annoying things about “professional sports” are the timeouts. Basketball would hold my interest for much longer periods if it were not for the infernal interruptions to play. In terms of football, the New York Times recently determined the actual time the ball is in play in a typical NFL game is 11 minutes. Replays take 17 minutes. This is insanity.
Gardening does not force gardeners to take time out, except for good reason, such as the need for a rest, a drink, a stretch or a snack. If there is waiting between innings or activities in my garden they are generally of my own choosing unless they are weather-related. And there is sport in that, too: “I can get this job done before the rain comes, I can grow this even though I am pushing the growth-zone limits” — you get the idea.
In terms of being sportsmanlike, gardeners come out on top every time. Just ask one.
Ask a gardener anything (that has to do with gardening) and chances are a warm, detailed response from which important things can be learned will follow, such as don’t feed herbs and use lots of compost on tomatoes, reduce weeds using bark mulch, and the list goes on.
In fact, the responses are almost as endless as the rules of golf. But not quite. Organized sport Gardening is an organized sport. The entire network of more than 200 horticultural clubs and garden clubs in Ontario are organized under an umbrella called the Ontario Horticultural Association.
Its mandate is to share information and enthusiasm for their common interest: gardening. The OHA does not, I might add, spend endless days meeting to discuss changes to the rule book. There is no rule book.
The sport of gardening? Why not? The sports channel, the sports section of the newspaper and the sports field at the local school could expand to include the new meaning. Imagine! Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author and broadcaster. Get his free monthly newsletter at markcullen.com. Look for his new bestseller, The New Canadian Garden, published by Dundurn Press. Follow him on Twitter @MarkCullen4 and on Facebook.