Asthma Friendly Gardens

By Tom Ogren, MS

Hemerocallis (happy returns).

Recent studies have shown that babies born to mothers who were exposed to high levels of pollen in their last trimester of pregnancy have a much greater chance of developing asthma. One of the main keys with asthma prevention is avoidance.

When you have asthma the typical garden is not a very friendly place at all. There are mold spores to contend with; worst of all is the pollen. Typical gardens have pollen producing male trees and male shrubs and other plants that can provoke asthma attacks. Almost anyone with asthma will tell you that asthma can be triggered by a good number of things, but pollen is often the number one cause. Garden allergies are common, but they need not be. Allergies from gardening could be largely a thing of the past, if we?EUR??,,????'???re willing to make some simple changes.

In the fall of 1999 in Richmond, Virginia, the American Lung Association of Virginia (ALAV) built a new Breathe Easy??????oe office and headquarters. They had an entire large building constructed with the latest innovations in green construction and sustainable design. No construction materials were used that would release any harmful or toxic chemicals; no materials were used that would trigger asthma or allergies. Every attempt was made to build something that would be pleasant and healthy to work in. The people who work in this healthy office will tell you they all notice a great improvement in the working environment.

The ALA decided it would make perfect sense to landscape the new healthy building (sometimes called a health house) with an allergy free landscape. OPALS?EUR??,,????<

Scabiosa columbaria (butterfly blue).

Health houses in other states are also adding pollen-free landscapes to their green construction, green buildings. A health house is about to be built in Pennsylvania, and the PA Association of Landscapers and Nurserymen are helping to surround it with an asthma-friendly landscape.

Schools, too, are getting into the clean air act. In Visalia, California, the Tulare County Asthma Coalition recently directed the asthma-friendly landscaping of a newly built elementary school.

Twelve Keys to Building an Asthma-Friendly Garden

Plant lots of female trees and female shrubs. Not only will these not shed any pollen, they will also trap a good deal of pollen that may stay in from somewhere else. Think of these female plants as nature?EUR??,,????'???s air cleaners.

Use only low pollen or no pollen lawns. There are types of lawns now that are fairly well pollen free, a big improvement over some of the older lawn varieties. In southern states, if you have a common Bermuda grass lawn, consider replacing it with a more asthma-friendly hybrid Bermuda grass. Princess 77 is a new Bermuda grass hybrid that can be planted from seed. It is next to pollen free, grows very low and tight, and is especially good looking.

With OPALS, 1 is best; 10 is worst. Use only plants with rankings of 1-5. The more plants in your gardens that have rankings ranging from 1-3, the friendlier your place will be for anyone with allergies or asthma. Remove any trees or shrubs with rankings over OPALS #7. The woody landscape plants with rankings of 8-10 are all sure-fire allergy triggering plants; you can live without them.

Replace high pollen, asthma triggering plants with their opposites: female trees or female shrubs. Also, good as replacements are perfect flowered plants that are known to be very low pollen producers. These will all have good (low) OPALS rankings.

Use only plants that are well adapted to your own area. If you can find natives that have low-allergy rankings, consider using them. Look around your own neighborhood and see for yourself what kinds of plants are flourishing. For almost every kind of plant used in landscaping, there is now a no or low pollen version of it, if you know what to look for.

Use a wide variety of plant materials; diversity is good. Biodiversity always makes sense. The more diverse our gardens are the fewer problems we?EUR??,,????'???ll have with insects and molds. Avoid plants with strong fragrances or odors, as they can cause asthma. Don?EUR??,,????'???t plant jasmines or similar vines next to entrances or exits, and certainly don?EUR??,,????'???t use them underneath bedroom windows.

For mulch, use rock or gravel instead of bark to cut down on toxic mold spores in the garden. Flat stones or pavers also make good, mold-free mulching materials.

To further eliminate mold spores, encourage wild birds in your garden. Virtually all wild birds eat insects, and insect damage triggers outbreaks of mold. Even the tiny hummingbird eats a large number of insects. Put up a hummingbird feeder!

Keeping your plants healthy will cut down on pollen and mold. When it is hot and windy, do some irrigating. Fertilize everything in the garden, spring and fall. If plants are crowding each other too much, thin them out. If tree branches overhead are putting your yard in deep shade, consider having the tree thinned to let in more light. Fresh air and light are the enemies of molds.

If a tree, shrub, vine or any other plant looks sickly, dirty, or always attracts bugs, then ?EUR??,,????'??shovel prune?EUR??,,????'?? it. Dig it up and get rid of it. Replace it with something easier to grow. Don?EUR??,,????'???t get caught up in having to spray insecticides all the time, as they too can easily cause asthma and allergies.

Make your garden a fun, stress free zone. Be sure to have a few comfortable garden chairs to sit in, and a little table of some sort is always good, too. Wind chimes, bird feeders, and birdbaths can add greatly to your enjoyment and cost little. A beautiful, pollen free, allergy-free, asthma-friendly garden can be just the place for healthy children, and a great place for anyone to relax and enjoy the great outdoors.

For more advice on low-allergen gardening, look up allergy free gardening on the Internet, or go to your local library and read some books on this new important subject.

Tom is a member of the Professional Landscape Designers Association, and the Garden Writers of America. He still tries to answer all of his own email. You can contact him via www.allergyfree-gardening.com.

Don?EUR??,,????'???t plant jasmines or similar vines next to entrances or exits and certainly don?EUR??,,????'???t use them underneath bedroom windows.	Acer rubrum (October glory), a maple that made the American Lung Association of Virginia Breathe Easy??????oe plant list.
Veronica spicata (sunny border blue).
For mulch, use pine needles (or rock or gravel) instead of bark to cut down on toxic mold spores in the garden.	Princess 77 is a new Bermuda grass hybrid that can be planted from seed. It is next to pollen free, grows very low and tight, and is especially good looking.
Liriope spicata (not Muscari)	Gaura lindheimeri (whirling butterflies)

Tom Ogren has published hundreds of articles and is the author of five published books, including Allergy-Free Gardening. He has an MS in agriculture-horticulture, has taught landscape gardening for 20 years, owned and operated two wholesale-retail nurseries, and in northern Minnesota, hosted a popular public radio call-in gardening show ?EUR??,,????'??Tom Ogren?EUR??,,????'???s Wild World of Plants!?EUR??,,????'??

American Lung Association of Virginia Breath Easy??????oe Office Plant List

Summersweet Perennials:

Mulch

• pine needle

Stone