Create an Allergy-Free Garden
Love the look and smell of a garden? Can't do either because the pollen has blurred your vision and clogged your nose? Try an allergy-free garden.
Instructions
1. Get rid of any plants that attract mildew, rust or aphids. Plants grown in the wrong place will fail to thrive: shade plants grown in the sun, or sun-loving plants grown in the shade, may attract insects or disease. Buggy, mildewed plants produce molds, and molds produce allergenic spores. Cut these plants down, dig them up and replace them with plants that thrive in your garden conditions.
2. Hire gardeners or landscapers who understand the principles of creating allergy-free landscapes and gardens. If your favorite gardener doesn't yet understand this, encourage him or her to read up on the subject.
3. If your entire yard is shaded by trees, consider thinning the trees or removing some to let in the light. Fresh air and sunshine will cut down on molds and spores.
4. Cut back male trees such as "fruitless mulberries" in winter. You can, in effect, give them a sex change - just graft them with wood from a female tree of the same species. (Separate-sexed trees and shrubs - called "dioecious" - will either be all male or all female; the females are pollen-free and actually trap and remove airborne pollen, while the males produce tons of pollen. Male trees are by far more common now in urban landscapes; this is one of the main reasons allergies have become so common in cities.)
5. Keep your lawns well fertilized and mow them often. Lawnmower blades should be sharp; dull blades rip off the grass and the exposed surfaces are subject to disease - thus, mold and spores. Also, sharp blades put less stress on the grass, resulting in healthier lawns that are able to choke out allergy-causing lawn weeds.
6. Encourage your nursery salespeople to sell more pollen-free plants and to allergy-rank all their plants according to the OPALSA¤ plant allergy scale. (A rank of 1 on the scale is best; 10 is most allergenic. Try to use only plants ranked 1 to 6, and use as many plants ranked from 1 to 3 as possible.)
7. Arm yourself with information. Read the book "Allergy-Free Gardening." Look for relevant articles in trade journals such as "California Landscaping," "Pacific Coast Nurseryman Magazine," "Colorado Nurseryman" and "Grounds Maintenance," and in magazines like "Alternative Medicine," "Awareness," "Conscious Choice," "Garden Design" and "New Scientist."
8. Visit Web sites devoted to allergy-free garden concepts as sources for pollen-free trees, shrubs, flowers, and yes, even all-female, pollen-free lawns. Start your search at a site like Google or Yahoo and use key words such as "allergy-free," "pollen-free," "gardens" and "lawns."
9. Have patience. An allergy-free yard doesn't have to happen overnight. Each year get rid of some of the worst plants and replace them with some of the best.
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