Safe Sex in the Garden

Today’s Reading, “Safe Sex in the Garden“, by Thomas Leo Ogren.

Residential and commercial landscapes are loaded with male-only trees and shrubs since they are litter- and therefore maintenance-free. But given a choice, what would you rather do—sweep or battle hay fever? The fact that our urban forests have been propagated with male-clones is a crime on two counts: male plants are the pollen-producing offenders, and without female plants to absorb pollen, allergenic pollen counts are on the rise nationwide. In SAFE SEX IN THE GARDEN, horticulturist Thomas Leo Ogren explores this safe sex issue (plant sex, that is!), as well as many other allergy-related topics: organic gardening, protecting pets against allergies, handling allergy-related stress, and global warming’s affect on allergies.

The very first example was about mulberry trees. My husband has complained about all the crap our fruiting mulberry can drop, so I made him read the first few paragraphs about how much pollen the male trees drop, and how badly it affects people’s allergies, and told him never to complain about our fruiting mulberry again.

Heh.

Plant more females! Save your noses!