|
Below, you'll find extensive information on leading
asthma support articles and products to help you on your way
to success.
Asthma Friendly Gardens
By Thomas Leo Ogren, Fri Dec 9th
Friendly Gardens Tom Ogren Recent studies have shown that babies born to motherswho were exposed to high levels of pollen in their lasttrimester of pregnancy have a much greater chance of developingasthma. One of the main keys with prevention isavoidance. When you have the typical garden is not a veryfriendly place at all. There are mold spores to contend with andworst of all is the pollen. Typical gardens have pollenproducing male trees and male shrubs and other plants that canprovoke attacks. Almost anyone with will tell youthat their can be triggered by a good number of things,but pollen is often number one for causing an attack. Gardenallergies are common, but they need not be. Allergies fromgardening could be largely a thing of the past… if we’re willingto make some simple changes. In fall of 1999 in Richmond,Virginia the American Lung Association of Virginia (ALAV) builta new Breathe EasyÔ office and headquarters. They had thisentire large building constructed with the latest innovations ingreen construction and sustainable design. No constructionmaterials were used that would off gas any harmful or toxicchemicals, no materials were used that would trigger orallergies. Every attempt was made to build something that wouldbe pleasant and healthy to work in. The people who work in thisoffice now will tell you too, that they all notice what a greatimprovement it is. Their office is a healthy building. The ALAdecided it would make perfect sense to landscape their newhealthy building (in some states these are now called HealthHouses) with an allergy free landscape. OPALSÔ (theplant/allergy 1-10 numerical ranking system) was used to selectonly those plant materials that were either very low pollen, lowallergy, or that were totally pollen free, allergy free. Ineffect they created the first true friendly garden in theUS. Health Houses in other states are now also adding pollenfree landscapes to their green construction, green buildings. Anew Health House is about to be built in Pennsylvania, and thePA Association of Landscapers and Nurserymen are helping tosurround it with an friendly landscape. Schools too aregetting into the clean air act, and in the city of Visalia,California, the Tulare County Coalition recently directedthe friendly landscaping of a newly built elementaryschool. Twelve keys to building your own friendly garden:1.Plant lots of female trees and female shrubs. Not only willthese not shed any pollen, they will also trap a good deal ofpollen that may stay in from somewhere else. Think of thesefemale plants as nature’s air cleaners. 2.Use only low pollen orno pollen lawns. There are types of lawns now that are prettywell pollen free and these are a big improvement over some ofthe older lawn varieties. In southern states, if you have acommon Bermuda grass lawn, consider replacing it with a newer,more friendly hybrid Bermuda grass. ‘Princess 77’ is anew Bermuda grass hybrid that can be planted from seed. It isnext to pollen free, grows very low and tight, and is especiallygood looking. 3.With OPALSÔ 1 is best, 10 is worst. Use onlyplants with rankings of 1-5. The more plants in your gardensthat have rankings ranging from 1-3, the friendlier your placewill be for anyone with allergies or asthma. 4.Remove any treesor shrubs with rankings over OPALSÔ #7. The woody landscapeplants with rankings of 8-10 are all sure-fire allergytriggering plants and you can live without them. 5.Replace anyremoved high pollen, triggering plants with theiropposite, female trees or female shrubs. Also good asreplacements are perfect flowered plants that are known to bevery low pollen producers. These will all have good (low) OPALSÔrankings. 6.Use only plants that are well adapted to your ownarea. If you can find natives that have low allergy rankings,consider using them. Look around your own neighborhood, and seefor yourself, which kinds of plants seem to be flourishing therealready. For almost every kind of plant used in landscaping,there is now a no or low pollen version of it, if you know whatto look for. 7.Use a wide variety of plant materials; diversityis good. Biodiversity always makes sense. The more diverse ourgardens are the fewer problems
we’ll have with insects andmolds. 8.Avoid plants with strong fragrances or odors, as theycan cause asthma. Don’t plant jasmines or similar vines next toentrances or exits and certainly don’t use them underneathbedroom windows. 9.For mulch, use rock or gravel instead of barkto cut down on toxic mold spores in the garden. Flat stones orpavers also make good, mold free mulching materials. 10.Tofurther eliminate mold spores, encourage wild birds in yourgarden. Virtually all wild birds eat insects, and insect damagetriggers outbreaks of mold. Even the tiny hummingbirds actuallyeat a large number of insects. Put up a hummingbird feeder!11.Keep your plants healthy. This too will cut down on bothpollen and mold. When it is hot and windy, do some irrigating.Fertilize everything in the garden spring and fall. If plantsare crowding each other too much, thin them out. If treebranches overhead are putting your whole yard in deep shade,consider having the tree thinned to let in more light. Fresh airand light are the enemies of molds. 12.If a tree, shrub, vine orany other plant always looks sickly, looks dirty, or alwaysattracts bugs, then shovel prune it. Dig it up and get rid ofit. Replace it with something easier to grow. Don’t get caughtup in having to spray insecticides all the time, as they too caneasily cause and allergies. Make your garden a fun, stress free zone. Be sure to have a fewcomfortable garden chairs to sit in, and a little table of somesort is always good too. Wind chimes, bird feeders, andbirdbaths can add greatly to your enjoyment and cost little. Abeautiful, pollen free, allergy free, friendly garden canbe just the place for healthy children, and a great place foranyone to relax and enjoy the great outdoors. For more advice onlow allergen gardening, look up allergy free gardening on theInternet, or go to your local library and read some books onthis new important subject.
Tom Ogren is the author of five published books, including:Allergy-free Gardening, Safe Sex in the Garden (Ten SpeedPress), and What the Experts May NOT Tell You About: Growing thePerfect Lawn (AOL Time Warner Books). Tom has an MS degree inAgriculture-Horticulture, taught landscape gardening for twentyyears, owned and operated two wholesale-retail nurseries, and innorthern Minnesota was host of the popular Public Radio call-ingardening show, “Tom Ogren’s Wild World of Plants!” Tom (ThomasLeo Ogren) has published hundreds of articles on health andgardening. His work has appeared in diverse publications such asSouth Africa’s Veldt and Field, in Women’s Day, AlternativeMedicine, the Burpee Seed Catalog, Sunset Magazine, LandscapeArchitecture, Der Spiegel, The London Times, The Seattle Times,The Washington Post, and even the Jerusalem Post. He has alsomade numerous appearances on HGTV and his work was the focus oftwo made for TV documentaries, one by the Canadian DiscoveryChannel. Tom has been interviewed on National Public Radio’sWeekend Edition and his groundbreaking research was featured onThe CBS Evening News. He is a frequent lecturer for gardenclubs, arboretums, civic groups, hospitals, medical groups,Master Gardeners, and professional associations of landscapers,landscape designers, writers, nursery people, arborists, andurban foresters. He has become well known for his fun, highenergy, highly informative, unusual and provocative talks. Tomis a member of the Professional Landscape Designers Association,and the GWA, the Garden Writers of America. Unlike manywell-published authors, he still tries to answer all of his ownemail. You can contact Tom through his website, at:www.allergyfree-gardening.com Notice of Copyright: Copyright Thomas Leo OgrenÓ About the author:Thomas Ogren is the author of Allergy-Free Gardening, Ten SpeedPress. Tom does consulting work on for the USDA, county asthmacoalitions, and the American Lung Associations. He has appearedon CBS, HGTV and The Discovery Channel. His book, Safe Sex inthe Garden, was published 2003. In 2004 Time Warner Bookspublished his latest: What the Experts May NOT Tell You About:Growing the Perfect Lawn. His website:www.allergyfree-gardening.com
|
