Green Space For Allergy Suffering Children

Allergies can be difficult to live with, especially for people who love gardening and being outdoors. You may want to be out there breathing the fresh air, walking barefoot on the lawn, eating or working or just relaxing under the trees, but the pollen gives you red eyes, runny nose and a headache. The sad truth is that the best times of the year to be outdoors are also peak allergy season. If you have kids with allergies, it can be especially alarming to watch them suffer through the symptoms.

However, there are ways to minimize allergies while still allowing you and your kids to enjoy being outdoors. Medication like nasal sprays can help, of course, but there are more natural and creative ways to get close to the nature. You can change your landscaping by choosing plants that produce less pollen. In fact, this can be a special gardening project to do with the kids.

It also helps to keep an eye on the weather, and to be outdoors at times when exposure to pollen can be minimized. Grass is one of the leading sources of pollen, and you could consider getting artificial grass like Easigrass instead. Artificial grass has many other advantages over natural grass.

What causes allergies?

There’s a reason why allergies appear in the spring and summer, which is also the growing season for plants and trees. Allergies are triggered by contact with pollen, and the symptoms are due to the chemicals released by the body to fight it off. It’s these chemicals that are responsible for the familiar symptoms of seasonal allergies.

Once you know the source of the problem, you can work towards finding a solution. One way to deal with allergies is through medication, but you may not want to go that route with young children. Another solution is to minimise contact with pollen, and there are a few ways to do that.

How to minimize contact with pollen

If your kids have outdoor allergies, they don’t have to be deprived of the simple pleasures of sunlight, fresh air and blue sky. You can find some creative strategies to help minimize their contact with pollen, which will help reduce the sneezing, sniffles, red eyes and runny noses. That way they can still enjoy the outdoors and even help you with some gardening projects.

1. Keep an eye on the pollen count

The pollen count varies with the season, time of day and weather. Once you know the days and times for peak and minimum pollen, you can plan your gardening time accordingly. Most weather reports on TV and the internet will tell you the day’s pollen count. The pollen count is usually higher early in the mornings and late evenings. The best time for allergy sufferers to be out in the garden is in the middle of the day, from late morning through afternoon to early evening.

2. Dress for pollen protection

You can also dress the kids for protection from pollen, with clothing that covers the arms and legs, hands, feet and hair. Hats and gloves are part of the fun of gardening anyway, and they can serve two purposes here.

3. Create a Green Space that’s safe for allergy sufferers

If you’re a keen gardener but have been hampered in this pursuit because of allergies, you can still create a green space that’s safe for allergy sufferers. This could be your chance to indulge in that favorite gardening pastime and explore new plants which release less pollen in the air. Changing your landscaping and plants can help make it easier for you and the kids to get out into the garden without worsening allergy symptoms.

4. Consider replacing your lawn with artificial grass

Grasses are some of the most prolific plants in terms of pollen production. Replacing your lawn with artificial grass will help to create a safe outdoor space for kids with allergies. Artificial grass has several other advantages over natural grass – it doesn’t need regular chemical inputs like fertilizer and pesticides, and you don’t have to worry about watering it during dry summer periods. If you add a shock pad underneath, it gives kids and pets a safer play area.

Design a pollen-free garden with your kids!

Artificial grass companies (like Easigrass for instance) offer not only real lawns alternatives, but also trees, grass figures like animals or letters and gazebos. You can design a simple backyard or make yourself a real green kingdom, depending on your taste or financial conditions. But make your children an important part of your garden design team! Allergies don’t have to stop them enjoying spring and summer in their own backyard. What’s more – their own dream backyard!

Choosing the Right Garden Plants

If you choose the right plants and the right design, you can create a green space that is safe for allergy sufferers. This can be a family gardening project, where you plant a garden with the minimum amount of pollen. Plants of all kinds fall into two broad categories, those that rely on the wind to carry the pollen far and wide, and those that have insects do the job for them. Wind pollinated plants need to produce a lot more pollen because it doesn’t reach its destination as neatly.

Typical wind-pollinated plants are grasses, weeds, and almost all coniferous trees as well as common broad-leaved varieties like aspen, oak, ash, birch, elm and olive trees. If you can pick plants that mostly rely on insects for pollination, you can reduce the amount of pollen that’s blowing around outside your house. This won’t completely eliminate it, because pollen from your neighbor’s’ yards and nearby streets and parks will still blow into your backyard. But it will help reduce allergy symptoms.

When choosing insect-pollinated plants, you can get lots of advice from your neighborhood garden centre. One way to identify them is by their colorful flowers, which attract bees and other insects. Or you can just watch the bees to see which plants they pick, and add those to your garden. Most garden flowers and vegetables are insect-pollinated, so you can go ahead with your gardening plans without worrying too much.

Even if you or your kids suffer from seasonal allergies, you don’t have to miss out on all the fun and health benefits of being outdoors. You can plant a garden that’s a safe spot for allergy sufferers. Best of all, this is a great project in which the kids can help, as well!

Think green and have fun.

This is a collaborative post.