Naked Gardening Today

Saw this interesting article on the BBC, about a couple who operates a public garden, and has decided to make today a Clothing Optional Gardening Day. I can certainly see where Nude Gardening has it's advantages, especially at cleanup time.

For more on nudist lifestyles, see my home page (blog).

Arby Arthur
Nudist since childhood

Article follows. Enjoy and comment please.

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Cut 'n Pasted from BBC News
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Gardening in the buff takes off
Naked gardeners Ian and Barbara Pollard
There are two more clothes options days planned in 2007
A couple who garden in the buff are holding more open days when the public can walk around their garden naked.

Ian and Barbara Pollard own Abbey House Gardens in Wiltshire, and held the first "Clothes Optional Day" in 2005.

The idea was an immediate success with subsequent days seeing 80% of visitors taking up the option to strip off among the flowers.

Mrs Pollard said: "It feels extremely comfortable - you have a total sense of freedom and being part of nature."

The couple thought up the idea after getting an enthusiastic response from the public to a television programme they took part in about going to work naked.


Naked gardening puts a smile on people's faces but you're definitely more aware of a breeze
Barbara Pollard

After checking the law to see if it was possible, they went ahead.

"If you don't try things in life you never know the answer, so we just did it," said Mrs Pollard.

The days are not exclusively for naturists and there is a clear sign at the entrance to the garden explaining that some people will have chosen to take their clothes off while they look around.

One comment from the visitors' book said: "Absolutely fabulous! Especially the riverside walks and the knot garden. Best seen naked!"

Another added: "A really lovely garden - peaceful and beautiful especially without clothes!"

'It feels lovely'

Former property developer Ian Pollard has been a keen naturist since his early 20s but had to persuade wife Barbara to give naked gardening a go.

"Eventually I tried it and it feels lovely to have the sun on your back and to feel the plants while you are working in the borders," said Mrs Pollard.

The days attract between 250 and 300 people depending on the weather with some 80% choosing to take their clothes off, she added.

"Naked gardening puts a smile on people's faces but you're definitely more aware of a breeze."

The next optional clothes day is 18 August, then 9 September.

 

I like the idea, but dont think it would go over here. It's 50*F with a light rain.

 

the only reason i dont, is theres a road right beside me with plenty of rednecks drving on it. i do garden in minimal clothing though

 

I think I'd have a problem with thinking about all the creepy crawlies possibly crawling into places I wouldn't want them. I really get down and dirty when I garden.

 

How many of you wear gloves to garden? Think about gardening with out jeans or undies...not a pretty thought in my estimation.

 

I generally wear as little as I can get away with, most of the time. In fact just this week I went 3 days straight without putting clothes on, except to turn on the hose in front of the house (our only tap turns on in front, but the hose leads out back). For short periods of time, like watering the garden, hanging clothes to dry, etc. I'm always happy to go nekkid in the back yard. But our privacy fence and house and hedges only cover 3 sides of the yard. On the fourth side you can see clear through the vacant yard next door (deceased elderly man lived there, but it's been vacant since shortly before we moved in last spring) to the next yard over, where a family of a couple hippie-ish looking middle aged people live with their 18-20 y/o son and all his little backyard mechanic buddies. So if they're movin around back there I cover myself. I'm not too worried about it though... I'm sure at this point all our neighbors MUST have seen all of me. I guess I must not be bashful, eh?

As for the glove issue, gardener... I can see your point. Especially living here in hot dry tick-ridden middle TN. I get down and dirty when I can, and when I do I usually cover up. If I'm going in the buff, I find it gives me a different kind of exercise all together, because I might not get as deep in to the soil, but I do a lot more bending and stooping for fear of skin touching the ground.

 

its not uncommon for dilligaf to garden topless. of course our garden is very secluded.

 

I do a lot of mucking and brush work, I am not all that friendly with the ticks around here. I'd rather they pasted themselves somewhere I can reach. And I've ended up with a few on my arms. I'd prefer to keep them there.

 

Topless is one thing bottomless another. I can reach and see most of my top half. There aren't any open orfices but my mouth, ears and nose, and I know when something goes up any of them.

 

Taking a walk in the garden is one thing...gardening is another. I love skinnydipping, but I do it for short periods in a lake I know.

 

^ I usually only go skinny dipping - well, swimming at all really - in running (not standing) water. Give me a river or a creek or a spring anyday, but if it just stands stagnant, even if its big enough to have a decent current going on, it just creeps me out. But haha, I guess I can't say I only go in water I know well! When we're on the road especially, if I see clean looking and smelling running water like that, in even a semi-private area, my clothes are off and my ass is in it!

 

i can barely walk outside without a shirt before being assaulted by mosquitoes. no way would i go out there naked.

 

Cool idea. I wouldn't be involved tho - to shy.

 

i dont wear gloves in the garden actually, ever. i like to feel the earth.

 

I am the same way, but that doesn't mean I don't wear pants.

 

well you dont have to like sit your ass/crotch right down in the dirt or anything. and if your worried about bugs, they can climb in your clothes just as easy and then its harder to find them too.
i just started renting an isolated cabin on the beach and come summer, i see no reason to wear clothes anywhere. it will be wonderful.

 

I voted for gardening naked makes the clean up easier -
because not only does gardening naked save on laundry detergent – It helps to clean up life’s little hang ups. Cheers!

 

I garden with gusto, never know when I've got to sit down to get the leverage I need to pull something up. And I feel much more secure with my shorts than letting it all hang out.

And if I was hanging out on the beach, not much of a one for sand up my crack.