Hay Fever Site

If you love gardening and your hay fever medications and/or self-help measures are at least partly controlling your symptoms, you may like to create a hay fever-friendly garden. You can do most of your work on the garden in March, which is before the start of the hay fever season for most people.

The following tips can make working in the garden more tolerable:

• Prior to going outdoors, check the daily pollen count for your area. If the signs are that it’s going to be a high pollen count day, think of gardening another time.

• Spray a fine mist of water over the garden with the hose to dampen down pollen in the air.

• Use spectacles or wraparound sunglasses while gardening to keep pollen out of your eyes. Consider wearing a mask too, to protect your mouth.

• Keep your house doors and windows closed while you are outdoors.

• To keep pollen out of your hair, wear a hat when gardening. Whether or not you do so, brush your hair in your porch or other enclosed entrance area, if you have one, before coming indoors, otherwise put a comb in your pocket before going outside and pull it through your hair prior to coming back inside.

• Don’t wear your gardening clothes around the house, as pollen sticks to fabrics.

• If your symptoms make it difficult to garden and there is no one else to do it, speak to your doctor about the possibility of temporarily increasing your medication while you prepare your ‘anti-allergen’ garden.

• Don’t bring cut flowers indoors. If you are given some, shake them well outdoors before putting them in a vase (perhaps placing them in an out-of-the-way area). It may be best, however, to ask people not to bring you flowers, explaining that they make your hay fever worse.

• There are two National Asthma Campaign low-allergen gardens. Try to visit at least one of them for lots of useful advice.

Plants

Steer clear of plants that release their pollen into the air; choose those that are pollinated by insects – this pollen is sticky and heavy, making it far less likely to become airborne. Most flowers with large petals are insect-pollinated, examples being clematis, iris and geranium. If you grow clematis and other climbing plants, keep them well away from your doors and windows. Pollen and dust can accumulate on the leaves and blow indoors.

Try to avoid growing flowering plants that are heavily scented, as this can temporarily worsen hay fever symptoms. These would include wisteria, jasmine, carnations, hyacinths and freesias. Among the best low-allergen annual plants are nigella, mimulus, antirrhinum, impatiens and eschscholzia.

Lawns

Lawns harbour numerous types of pollen, mould and dust, which all fly into the air when it is being mown. In place of a lawn you could use tiles, gravel mulch or one of the many types of attractive paving -or you could even use synthetic grass matting. These alternatives have the added advantage of being easier to maintain than grass. However, if you don’t have a choice and must stick with a lawn, ask someone else to mow it, keeping the house doors and windows firmly closed beforehand and for several hours afterwards. Cylinder mowers cause less pollen and dust to fly into the air.

Shrubs

Shrubs are usually insect-pollinated and shouldn’t cause a problem, and they are also quite easy to maintain. Think of using shrubs instead of traditional hedges to edge the boundaries of your land, but don’t choose heavily scented ones – again, as with scented flowering plants, this can aggravate your symptoms.

If you want to try planting a herbaceous border, use low-allergy plants such as tiarella, viola, veronica, acanthus, aquilegia, pulmo-naria, hosta, iris, campanula, delphinium, saxifrage, hemerocallis and geum perennial geranium.

Weeds

When you are weeding the garden your face is nearer the ground, and this allows airborne pollen to easily enter your nose and mouth. Low-allergen ground-cover plants can suppress weed growth, how­ever – examples being ajuga, lamium, vinca and hostas. It’s also a good idea to cover any patches of bare earth with gravel mulch as this can discourage weed growth.

Compost heap

The rotting vegetation in a compost heap is invariably full of mould, so it is best not to have one. Wrap up your waste vegetation in plas­tic bags and remove them from the garden. Avoid purchasing garden compost, too, as this can also harbour mould.

Water features and ponds

If you love the sound of running water and are considering a water feature, don’t buy a fountain, as falling water generates air currents, which make pollen and dust rise into the air. Choose a smooth-run­ning waterfall as this is less likely to create extra movement of air.

Most pond plants are not irritants, with the exception of the arum lily.

Pot plants

In a hay fever-friendly garden it is safe to have plants in pots. Don’t bring them indoors in winter, though, as spores from moulds in the soil are released by the warmth of the house.

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