I happen to love being outdoors in the summer months as much as possible. Usually I like to fiddle with my plants and work in the garden. In the past, I was more prone to getting poison ivy regardless if I was near it or not. However, I found some useful preventive measures when gardening to avoid it for the last few years or so with what I’m going to share with you. Here are some of the poison ivy gardening precautions I took that made a difference in keeping me safer than previous years.
Even though it might be hot, I traded shorts and a sleeveless top or halter for jeans and T-shirt and gardening gloves to protect more of me from possible exposure while working outside.
An important thing to do is to wash your tools with a soap solution once you finish. This really helps just in case you accidentally contaminated those tools when working because the oil in poison ivy can attach to the handles, especially.
When you finish working outdoors and are ready for your shower, you need to take a few special precautions. First, shower off with plain water before attempting to suds up to remove any possible poison ivy residue that you may have come in contact with. If you attempt soaping up without rinsing off first, then you will spread that poison ivy over your body more for full coverage.
Also, I suggest picking up a bar of Fels-Naptha soap to use after working outdoors among the plants. This may be considered a laundry soap, but this is a lifesaver if you’re outdoors with trees and plants as the last line of defense in the war against catching poison ivy.
However, if this advice comes to late and you now have poison ivy, you might also want to try some aloe vera gel from your aloe plant on the problem.
Hopefully though, these few extra little poison ivy gardening precautions will help you have more enjoyable time outdoors!
