Does anyone have any tips or tircks for sun protection? It even happened the last couple of days, which were cloudy and fairly cool. I am not even in a particularly sunny or hot zone. I am in central Michigan.

Does anyone else have this experience? What do you do about it? Is it possible it's something in my yard, and not just the sun? Could allergies cause this kind of reaction? Are there plants that might be toxic that I am unintentionally exposing myself to?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

The other thing I'd think of is allergies--headaches b/c of sinus symptoms and nausea from the postnasal drip that occurs.

Have you added anything to your yard that you think might be making you sick?

See your doctor and hope you feel better.
HTH.

Anyway, thanks. I feel most encouraged. I appreciate it.

Good luck.

One of my big problems is with the dust from soils, mulch, compost, etc. So, you might consider that. Plus, like you, I can't be in the sun much. Like the others have said, it's important to take breaks, and make sure to drink lots of water. And, I agree with keekush2, to ask your doctor to run some tests. I've learned to listen to my body a little better than I used to, and if I'm starting to feel unwell, I will call it quits for the day. Good Luck.

I can completely relate with you, Dee. I need to learn to slow down! I ain't no springchicken anymore ;-) When you mentioned dirt and dust, it made me think of some bark mulch that had a really yucky white fungus on it that smelled terrible- even made a whole section of the yard smell bad when I tore it up to remove it. ???

The past few times, I wore a hat and sunglasses, and it made all the difference. Still had a little bit of nausea, but I think I can work to avoid that, too.

All of you had such excellent suggestions, and all of them helped. Thanks again.

Keekush, I have great respect for your courage. I have known a few people with Lupus, and I can only imagine the courage it takes every day to keep going. Thanks for sharing your experience.

I have been through the same symptoms! I can honestly tell you it was all caused from dehydration. Even in the cooler portions of the season, your body evaporates large amounts of moisture and over the course of a day in the gardens you can suffer greatly from it.

The symptoms are usually worsend by the amount of up & down and bending over you do while working in the garden as your blood pressure and equilibrium is constantly being tested. Even the slightest bit of dehydration will cause some major effects on a headache!

Stay away from caffinated drinks and alcohol (the wine is for when your done working and can sit enjoy your labors). Drinks like Propel or Fuze and good old water will stave off the problem without a doubt!

Kind Regards,
Mekales

Gardening keeps us young, yes?

The city (kindly) delivered "free compost" to my yard. I was sooo happy - I was a new gardener, so did not know better. You'd think the city would, eh?

It made me sick for almost a year, made the fish in the neighbor's pond die, gave almost ALL the plants in our yard and those around our home rust and molds.

My first thought of course was chemicals but I'm not doing anything different this year than any other and I use very little chemicals.

My theory is that it may be due to higher ozone levels this year.

I never though it could be mold though. I will have to consider that. I have been mulching more areas this year than before. And the mulch does get moldy.

The one thing I did do different this year is put down cracked corn in my garden and on my lawn. I bought the cracked corn in a generic bag at the local garden chain store. Maybe it was coated with chemicals?? Fungicide? Pesticide?

So, you have to have good air.

Sunlight: sunlight is great, but too much for you on a particular day can kick off migrains. These can be nasty. Light will do that.
Interestingly, I suffer from seasonal depression. In the winter, I have a special (prescribed) light-box. I put it in front of me and get 10,000 lumines of light for a while and no headache. But in the summer, put together the light and heat and you can easily get migrains as well as a touch of heat-exhaustion.

So, wear sunglasses, when gardening and a hat with a very wide brim to protect the face, head, neck from those rays.

If it's really hot, stay inside. If you have to go out, then, under the hat, put a wet wash cloth. I know you ladies will love what that will do to your hair--but it's always better to keep a cool head about things.

So, stay cool.

With the heat also comes dehydration.
Do you drink at least 8 full, glasses of water a day--juice, milk, etc., doesn't count.
One time I had gotten down only a couple of glasses of water, then went outside to mow the yard. -not a smart move, but I didn't know better. Anyway, after a while I noticed I had stopped sweating. When I leaned over to put more gas in the lawn mower, everything went black and down onto the ground I went.
I tried several times to get up, but each time I'd rise, I'd go black again. I laid there for 15 minutes, unable to do anything.
Finally, I managed to crawl to the house and lie down.
My blood pressure had dropped dangerously low. I was told by a nurse I called to get to the hospital immediately. But I rode it out, by sipping water, then going for gator-aid that kind of stuff and staying still in a cool room for a couple of hours. WARNING: don't do what I did--go to the hospital.
Anyway, finally, the BP came back up. I called the doc. The 1st thing he asked was how much water had I had. I told him a couple of glasses. He said from the sound of it, I went into dehydration, rapidly, my body potassium levels got all messed up (oh, was I ever sick).
With re-hydration and getting the electrolytes back to normal I got better. But again, I should have went to the emergency room where they could have fixed me up. I didn't realize until later that a stroke, which is caused by not enough oxygen getting to the brain, through the blood supply; can be due to blockage--which is the usual way--or it can be due to the heart not being able to pump the blood into the head--thus the blacking out. Keep it up long enough and your dead. So again go to the hospital it you get too much dehydration.

Last, thing to do then: Make Certain you've had enough water to drink during the day, even drink a glass before you go out, take breaks and drink some more.

I'm sorry for those who have gotten sick while gardening. I sure know what it's like. No fun at all.

We want to have fun while we sweat and toil over our little or big gardens, be it flowers, vegetables, trees, grass, ponds, whatever.

It's a great hobby. So, protect yourself from what's outside that can hurt you. And make certain that your body is hydrated and ready to go outside. We want to keep it fun.

Just wanted to drop in and give you an update... also thank everyone again!

All is well. I wear sunglasses and a wide hat whenever I garden during the day. I stay out of the sun from 10 am to at least 7 pm, working in the shade and taking lots of breaks. I drink water, water, water, all the time. I also drink TONS of Gatorade if I happen to forget or get stubborn and stay in the sunny spots too long. It' still pretty hard for me to stop- but I am learnign to listen to the signals.

I also saw the doc, and she said it was probably dehydration loweirng my blood pressure, which fits with what some of you said.

I do heavy stuff in the early morning and evening. I think of it as conserving my sunshine-minutes. I still mess up and do too much, but I am learning.

I must say, GW is one wonderful place!