Dry eyes when gardening

Gardening can leave eyes dry and irritated because you spend hours outside in wind and sun, bent over beds where dust and pollen rise toward your face, often rubbing your eyes with soil on your hands. Wraparound sunglasses, a brimmed hat, working with the wind at your back and washing your hands before touching your eyes all help, and a lubricating drop used as labeled can ease dryness afterward.

Why gardening dries out your eyes

A garden bed looks calm, but your eyes are dealing with several things at once. Breeze moves across the eye’s surface and speeds up evaporation of the tear film. Sun makes you squint, and squinting means fewer complete blinks. Digging, raking, turning compost and running a leaf blower lift fine particles into the air at exactly the height of your face when you’re kneeling or bent over. And because your hands are busy, you tend to wipe your eyes with the back of a dirty glove.

Bending over beds: dust at face level

Standing up, your face is five feet above the soil. Kneeling at a raised bed or bending to weed puts it a foot or two away, right where loosened dirt, mulch dust and dried leaf bits drift. Dry soil in late summer is the worst, because it lifts with every pull of a weed.

• Water dry beds lightly the evening before you weed, so the soil holds together.
• Turn so the breeze carries dust away from you rather than into your face.
• Wear safety glasses or wraparound sunglasses when you dig, chip, trim hedges or use any power tool.
• Open bags of potting mix, mulch or compost at arm’s length and away from your face.
• Use a mower or blower with your back to the wind, and wear eye protection with side coverage.

Sun, glare and the time of day

Midday sun is hard on eyes in a garden: bright light from above, more bouncing off pale gravel, patio stone or water features. A wide-brimmed hat shades your eyes from above, and sunglasses with UV protection cut the rest. Working in the early morning or late afternoon helps twice over, since the light is gentler and the air is often calmer and cooler.

Soil on your hands, then your eyes

Garden soil carries everything you’d expect: compost, manure, bits of plant, fertilizer residue and whatever the neighbor’s cat left behind. Rubbing an itchy eye with a soil-covered finger pushes that onto the eye’s surface. Some plants, like euphorbias, have sap that irritates skin and eyes; wear gloves when you cut them.

• Keep a clean, damp cloth in your pocket for wiping sweat, instead of your sleeve or glove.
• Wash your hands with soap and water before touching your eyes, your face or an eye drop bottle.
• Scrub under your nails; soil hides there even after a rinse.
• If soil or grit does get in your eye, rinse it with clean, lukewarm water rather than rubbing.

Pollen season and irritated eyes

Spring and early summer fill the air with pollen from trees, grasses and flowers, and gardeners are in the middle of it. Pollen and dust can leave eyes itchy and scratchy. Lubricating drops like Quell aren’t antihistamines, and their label doesn’t claim to address pollen. Quell’s label lists its Uses as For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye, so it fits the dryness and irritation side of a day outdoors, not the allergic side.

A few habits keep pollen off your eyes: change clothes and wash your face when you come in, rinse your hair before bed after a long garden day, and keep sunglasses on outside. If itching is a regular seasonal problem, a pharmacist or doctor can suggest what fits. Eye drops for itchy eyes covers the label side of that question.

Fertilizers, sprays and splashes

Many garden products, from liquid fertilizer to weed killer and insecticidal sprays, can sting or harm eyes. Read each product’s own label before you use it, wear the eye protection it calls for, and spray on a calm day so drift doesn’t blow back at you. If something splashes into your eye, follow the first aid directions on that product’s label and flush with clean water; get medical help if pain or blurriness continues. Lubricating drops aren’t for rinsing chemicals out.

Using eye drops after a garden session

• Come inside, wash your hands and face, and let your eyes rest for a few minutes.
• Follow the label directions: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye.
• Follow the label’s handling line: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination. A potting bench is just the kind of surface it means.
• Read the Drug Facts first, including the caution about egg or bird allergies; Quell contains emu oil.

Quell is designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss, which is the kind of loss wind and sun cause. For more on wind in particular, see dry air, wind and altitude.

Where to keep the bottle in summer

Not in the garden shed, a greenhouse or a tote left in the sun. Sheds and greenhouses get hot fast, and the label says Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). Keep the bottle indoors and use it after you come in, with clean hands.

When to see an eye doctor

If you feel something stuck under your lid that rinsing doesn’t clear, if an eye was scratched by a branch or thorn, or if pain or blurriness follows a splash, see a doctor promptly. The label adds: Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours.