The short answer
MedlinePlus says to use gloves when gardening during cancer treatment, because bacteria and fungi are often in soil. Wash your hands, guard against cuts, and clean any cut right away. Call your care team right away for any sign of infection. Your care team's guidance comes first.
MedlinePlus advises gloves for gardening, because bacteria and fungi are often in soil.
Wash your hands often, and clean any cut right away with soap, warm water and an antiseptic.
Call your care team right away for a fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher, chills or any other sign of infection.
Your care team can tell you if gardening is okay for you right now.
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This page is for people getting chemotherapy who love to garden. It explains why soil and cuts matter when your counts are low, and what to ask your care team.
MedlinePlus answers this in one line
MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine's patient information service, has a page on preventing infection during cancer treatment. In its list of practical steps it says: use gloves when gardening. Bacteria and fungi are often in soil.
Ask your care team what is right for you.
Why soil, specifically
MedlinePlus says bacteria and fungi are often in soil.
NCI explains the mechanism on its infection page. Some cancers and treatments such as chemotherapy lower the number of white blood cells, the cells that help your body fight infection. During chemotherapy there are times in your treatment cycle when one type, the neutrophils, is particularly low, and your risk of infection is higher then.
Ask your team when your count is expected to be lowest.
Cuts are the way in
MedlinePlus lists guarding against cuts as its own step during treatment. Use an electric razor. Do not tear at your cuticles. Be careful with knives, needles and scissors. Gardening tools and plants can also cut or scratch, so keep your gloves on.
What to do the moment you nick yourself
MedlinePlus gives a two-part instruction. Clean the cut right away with soap, warm water and an antiseptic. Then clean it the same way every day until it forms a scab.
NCI adds the same idea in its infection guidance: if you get a scrape or cut, clean it well.
Watch the site afterward. MedlinePlus lists redness and swelling among the signs of infection.
Call your care team right away, day or night, for redness or swelling around a cut, chills or sweats, sore throat, mouth sores, burning when you urinate, cough, rash, or any other sign of infection. MedlinePlus says to contact your provider right away for any sign of infection during or right after cancer treatment. Do this even if your temperature is normal.
Call right away for a fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher. CDC says a fever during chemotherapy is a medical emergency and that infection during chemotherapy can be life-threatening. NCI is clear that infections in people having cancer treatment need urgent medical attention, because they can be life threatening.
Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department for sudden confusion or being hard to wake. If you go, tell the staff you are getting chemotherapy.
Days to stay out of the garden
Ask your team when your neutrophil count is expected to be lowest, and which days to avoid soil and compost.
The rest of the routine still applies
The garden is one part of a wider set of habits MedlinePlus lists for treatment:
- Wash your hands often, including after using the bathroom, before eating or cooking, and after touching animals.
- Ask someone else to clean up after pets. Do not pick up pet waste or clean fish tanks or birdcages.
- Stay away from people who are sick.
What to ask your team
- Is gardening reasonable for me right now?
- When in my cycle is my count lowest?
- What should I do if I get a cut while I am outside?
- What signs around a wound mean I should call you right away?
This is general information. Your care team's specific instructions for your treatment always take priority.
Sources
Common questions
Is it safe to garden during chemotherapy?
Ask your care team. MedlinePlus says to use gloves when gardening during cancer treatment, because bacteria and fungi are often in soil. NCI says chemotherapy can lower white blood cells and raise infection risk.
Why is soil a concern during chemo?
MedlinePlus says bacteria and fungi are often in soil. NCI says that during chemotherapy there are times when white blood cells called neutrophils are particularly low and infection risk is higher.
What precautions should I take when gardening?
MedlinePlus names gloves. It also lists washing your hands often and cleaning any cut right away with soap, warm water and an antiseptic. Ask your team about the days when your counts are lowest.
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Fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher during chemo, severe pain, or trouble breathing: call your cancer care team right away, day or night. Call 911 for an emergency.
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Last updated: 2026-09-29Next planned review: 2028-07-14
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Cancer Explained does not originate medical claims. Every page restates guidance already published by the National Cancer Institute, the CDC, the USPSTF and the FDA, in plain language, with the source cited so you can check the original yourself. AI does the translating and organizing; automated checks test claims, citations, clarity and safety before anything publishes, and this is translation and navigation, not clinical judgment. Nothing here is personal medical advice, and no page can account for your particular situation.
Editorial status: Source checked — This page was written with AI assistance and then compared with the sources listed on it, looking for statements those sources do not back up. That check is not a sentence-by-sentence record and can miss errors. It is not a medical review, and it does not confirm the page is complete or right for your situation.
Human medical review: not completed. Pages here are not signed off by a clinician before they publish. That is not an oversight we are quietly working around: we restate published guidance and cite it, so the authority belongs to the source rather than to us, and every page names where its claims come from — you can verify us instead of trusting us. Where a volunteer clinician has reviewed a page, their name and credentials appear on it; where no name appears, no clinician has checked it. We are glad to have reviewers and are recruiting them, and we do not hold pages back waiting for one. Use this site to understand your situation and to ask better questions of the people treating you.
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