RE: More on Allergy-Free Gardening

H* A*

OK Leo
( Query: Does the jhsph.edu in your email address stand for John Hopkins
School of Public Health?) ,

After our community garden's honey harvest ( our beehive helps us keep our
garden going organically, our pollen helps keep the bees going, etc.) I
actually got my hands on a copy of  Ogren's  "Allergy Free Gardening"
http://www.naturalland.com/gv/gnews/gnews2.htm . 

I wonder, and perhaps the list may know the answer: Is childhood and adult
asthma exacerbated more by diesel and fossil particulate, rat and roach
droppings or by pollen from plants and trees?   Are asthma attacks primarily
caused by physical stimulants ( i.e pollen and pollution) or are can they be
set off psychosomatically?  

Ogren  makes some interesting points about urban plantings and how to make
them less allergenic. The main difference about female trees seems to be
that gardeners may sneeze less but their backs may ache more from cleaning
up after them. It always seems to be a matter of trade-offs. 

For folks with more money to pick and choose plants (most CG's I know live
on freebies, end of season nursery donations, and discounted plants as a
means of surviving) female, low pollen plants may be the way to go. For CG's
on a shoestring budget, low pollen gardening may not become a viable option
until nurseries sell enough of them to discount or even write off at the end
of season. 

What do you all think about this?

Happy gardening, 
Adam 

Yes, I can tell the difference between the sexes of trees now. 

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Leo Horrigan [SMTP:lhorriga@jhsph.edu]
> Sent:	Wednesday, October 18, 2000 3:26 PM
> To:	community_garden@mallorn.com
> Subject:	[cg] More on Allergy-Free Gardening
> 
> 
> Check out this website from the "American Lung Association of Virginia -
> Breathe Easy® Office":
> 
> (www.lungusa.org/breatheasyoffice/landscape.html).
> 
> I mention this as a followup to a post I made a few weeks ago about the
> issue of male (pollen-producing) plants and their link to an increase in
> allergic reactions.
> 
> Leo Horrigan
> Baltimore, MD
> 
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