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If You Love Gardening, You May Want to Hear What Doctors Say About Showering Right After

These physicians reveal what all dwells in your garden to illustrate whether or not post-garden showering is important.

PUBLISHED 5 HOURS AGO

(L) Man planting flowers in his garden, (R) Man taking a shower in the bathroom. (Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images | (L) Westend61, (R) Robin Skjoldborg)

Gardening is one of those habits that offers immense peace while doing it and extreme joy when seeing the results of your work. It's almost like meditation, and if one gets really involved, the garden might as well become their Zen space. However, this Zen space is full of dirt and unknown organisms creeping in it. Therefore, it's crucial to take a post-gardening bath, as eminent doctors share with DenGarden.

Woman taking her tools down the garden (Representative Image Source: Sturti)

Dangers lurking in your garden

Man's hand planting tomato plant in a bed (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Westend61)

The ladder slips on a puddle of mud and topples down. A sneaky thorn lurking in a dancing rose pierces a finger. The entire collection of hand-forced gardening tools has aggressive tendencies. Pickaxes often smash feet instead of chopping wood, lawn mowers trim human flesh more than trimming the tough grass matting, hedge trimmers try to tame the gardener in place of trees and bushes. Even if a gardener is spared from these antipathic tools, another enemy lurking in the soil is contaminants.

Exposure to harmful contaminants

Happy young woman planting vegetables in garden (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Westend61)

The doctors emphasized that even wearing protective gear like gloves, masks, or boots doesn’t offer sufficient protection against the contaminants that might be lingering in your garden soil. Exposure to these contaminants, say, bacteria, mold, or fungi, can trigger serious damage to your body, starting with the skin. Add to it the rusty nails and rodent urine that can cause life-threatening infections.

Mold and fungi

Gardener holds a lemon rotten by mold (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Pablo Jeff Honeyzaga)

Mold thrives in areas that have been moist, wet, or damp for too long. When coming in contact with the gardener’s body, mold can trigger rashes or infections, as Isha McConkey, physician at OSF Healthcare, explained. Melanie Palm, a cosmetic surgeon at Art of Skin, noted that fungus, such as the Sporothrix Schenckii, found in soil, vegetation, or moss, causes open wounds when touched. “This usually forms a chain of inflamed lymph nodes along the hand and forearm, most commonly, and requires treatment from the dermatologist,” Palm described.

Pesky pesticides

Woman cares for plants, watering green shoots from a watering can at sunset. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | RBKomar)

Pesticides aren’t just jet sprays shot upon leaves or petals, drenching them in sheaths of protection. They might protect the plants against pests. But when it comes to the gardener’s sensitive, unprotected skin, they’re toxic. Some of these chemicals, Palm added, can even have adverse effects on eyes or skin; therefore, gardeners should avoid taking a pesticide-infected object inside their home, especially if there are babies or pets. Plus, showering is a must, needless to say.

Deadly bacteria

A man with daughter in the garden, planting seedlings. (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Halfpoint Images)

Bacteria lurking in the garden can cause a kind of suffering that is indescribable, wrote Hughes. Often starting with painful muscle spasms and a locked jaw, the infection turns into a full-blown tetanus jab, leaving no choice for the gardener except to visit a hospital. A post-gardening shower, therefore, is not just helpful, but very, very important. “Bacteria thrive in dark, damp conditions, and that includes sweaty skin trapped under your clothes,” said McConkey.

Unknown oils

Poison ivy, red fall foliage. All parts of plant contain volatile oil that can cause severe skin inflammation, itching & blistering (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Ed Reschke)

Plants and flowers secrete oils or milky liquids for a whole lot of reasons, from defending themselves from predatory attacks to communicating danger to fellow plants to attracting their favorite pollinators, per NIH. In case of plants like lavender, these oils are harmless and quite useful. But there are plants, like poison oak and poison ivy, which secrete an oil called Urushiol. Urushiol can trigger painful rashes throughout the flesh, said Palm, and therefore, showering is the way to go.

Tips for a post-gardening shower

Woman taking a shower (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Lawrence Monnerat)

Dermatologist Geeta Yadav suggested a thorough cleanse for the hair, face, and body while in the shower to get rid of the stubborn garden germs. Debra Jaliman, a New York City-based dermatologist, said antibacterial soaps are the best, plus a loofah and a soft nail brush.