The original natural family living magazine, founded in 1976. Reader-supported
and trusted by thinking people around the world who want positive alternatives
to high cost, high consumption lifestyles for themselves and their families.
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||
|
from
Natural Life Magazine, May/June 2002 The trees are leafing out and we’re back working in our gardens and walking in parks. Itchy, watery eyes and runny noses are also on their way back...and multiplying in number and severity year by year. This situation is no coincidence, according to landscape gardener, teacher and writer Thomas Ogren. He believes the steady increase in the number of seasonal allergy sufferers has its roots in a trend toward using male trees and shrubs in urban landscaping. Among the trees believed to be problematic for allergy sufferers are such popular varieties as cottonwood, willow, elm, aspen, maple and poplar. Ogren is a former nursery owner with a Master of Science in Agriculture from Cal Poly University, who lives in San Luis Obispo, California. He is also the author of Allergy-Free Gardening: The Revolutionary Guide to Healthy Landscaping, published in 2000 by Ten Speed Press, in which he presents his case for claiming that our gardening and landscaping practices may be the culprit for the continual increase in the number of allergy or asthma sufferers. He says homeowners and commercial landscapers like male clone trees because they are “litter-free”, meaning they do not drop seeds, seed-pods, or fruit on lawns and sidewalks. However, these male plants all produce large amounts of allergenic pollen. . . To read the rest of this article, and all of our current and back issues, subscribe to our digital edition. Wendy Priesnitz is the Editor of Natural Life Magazine and a journalist with 30 years of experience. She has also authored nine books. Read her blog. |
|||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
