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Spring's budding flowers and sprouting greens bring a less rosy side to the season: allergies. Perhaps worse than being hampered by hay fever is knowing that the most common allergy and asthma triggers are wafting in the breeze around you: pollen.
Now the good news. By limiting your exposure to pollen and by making some simple lifestyle changes, you can enjoy being outdoors in the blooming days ahead.
Smart Gardening
- Eliminate from your yard pollen producers such as ragweed, sagebrush, redroot, pigweed, lamb's quarters, Russian thistle (or tumbleweed) and English plantain. A single ragweed can produce a million grains of pollen a day.
- Plant one of the nearly 1,000 species of grass that doesn't produce allergenic pollen. Avoid the handful of grasses that do: Timothy grass, Kentucky bluegrass, Johnson grass, Bermuda grass, redtop grass, orchard grass and sweet vernal grass.
- Don't seek shade under the trunks of oak, ash, elm, hickory, pecan, box elder or mountain cedar trees, all of which produce allergenic pollen. If these trees are in your yard already, and you don't want to remove them, close nearby windows and doors during pollen season.
- Ask an allergy-free family member or friend to mow and rake grass. If you must mow, wear a dust mask.
- Yard allergies aren't limited to spring. In fall and winter, remove dead and decaying leaves, compost and wood piles near your home. They're mold magnets. But don't burn leaves — the smoke may exacerbate allergies and trigger asthma attacks.
Smart Outdoor Living
- Minimize early morning activity between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. Pollen counts are usually at their highest then.
- Run errands on cloudy, windless or rainy days when there is less airborne pollen. Stay indoors on hot, dry, windy days with high pollen counts.
- Keep car windows closed. Use air conditioning or the "recycle" or "recirculate" air setting when needed to keep out hitchhiking allergens.
- Wash away dust and pollen from your hands, face and especially your hair after coming inside from gardening.
- Don't hang freshly washed clothes — or any linens — out to dry on the clothesline. Pollens and mold spores quickly snuggle into such items.
- Steer clear of tobacco and wood smoke. They can trigger reactions in your lungs and other parts of the body.
- Place washable area rugs at all entryways to your home to stop outdoor allergens and dirt at the door. Launder weekly in hot water.
- Take a vacation during the height of the pollen season to a less pollinated area, such as the seashore.
