Worried About Pollen? Follow These Easy Tips For Low-Allergen Landscaping
Looking for relief from allergies when landscaping may seem impossible, but we're here to tell you: It's not.
When giving a talk at Google, expert horticulturist Thomas Leo Ogren explained what it was like trying to find a book about allergy-free gardening, 'The first librarian I asked about it was at a university. And she laughed. I said, 'What's so funny?' And she said, 'Well, it's the gardens that cause all the allergies.''
Indeed, stepping into a garden can be a minefield for anyone suffering from allergies. Springtime brings an abundance of airborne pollen from trees, which overproduce because they rely on the wind, not insects, to carry their pollen. Tall grasses, especially when covering wide lawns, can produce overwhelming pollen in the summer. Flowers, though beautiful to look at, can leave us sniffing and sneezing for weeks.
Ogren eventually developed a system called OPALS, or Ogren Plant Allergy Scale, to measure the allergy potential of plants used in landscapes and gardens. His research, including an allergy-ranking of 3,000 plants, is published in The Allergy-Fighting Garden. Ogren, and other horticulturists like him, have learned that there are steps that any gardener can take to create a low-allergen landscape in their yard.
When landscaping, gardeners should plant female trees over their male counterparts. That's because male trees produce pollen, while female trees produce fruit and seeds. Conventional wisdom in the landscaping industry has led to the popularity of planting male trees, which are seen as less messy because they don't create unwanted fruit. But for those with allergies, springtime pollen from male trees can be a much bigger problem.
(MORE: Don't Let Spring Allergies Irritate Your Skin)
A low-allergen landscaper should be picky when it comes to planting flower beds. Open-faced and disk-shaped cone flowers, like daisies and sunflowers, produce the most airborne pollen. On the other hand, bright and tubular flowers, including daffodils and snapdragons, encourage pollinator insects to carry their pollen rather than sending it out into the wind.
Nothing stirs up pollen and dust in the garden like running a lawn mower, but tall grasses are a major contributor to pollen counts. For gardeners caught in between these two allergen triggers, hiring a lawn maintenance service to do mowing, edging, and blowing might be the best approach.
Pollen counts often hit their peak in the sunny hours of morning and midday. A savvy gardener might save their landscaping and lawn work for the cool hours of twilight and early evening, when less allergens are circulating in the air.
Weather.com copy writer Wyatt Williams is exploring the relationship between weather, food, agriculture, and the natural world.
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