Gardening au naturel?

I never thought about gardening au naturel – in the buff, in the nude – why would you want to?  I guess the soil might feel good on bare feet, but if it does, then why not just take off your shoes?

We had a friend who gardened in the buff. He was an architect and lived with his wife at end of a long driveway up in the hills.  We certainly never saw him ‘gardening’ since they lived a bit far from us and we never dropped in on them without an invitation.

He did tell of one time when the UPS truck showed up to deliver a package…

And then there was Ruth Stout who lived in my home town in rural Connecticut. She was the sister of Rex Stout – the creator of the best selling mystery series featuring that genius, Nero Wolfe, and his assistant and narrator, Archie Goodwin.  I recall my dad telling me that Ruth Stout had that reputation for gardening au naturel. I never stopped to think until now how he would know.

Ruth Stout along with her reputation for gardening in the buff, later gained fame amongst gardeners advocating using hay bales for mulch in her book, The No Work Garden Book.

I don’t know about your garden, but for years my narrow strip of a garden in our small back yard ran along the side of our property line. Now we live on a narrow wedge of land where gardening is almost always public. Garden au naturel? Why would you want to under the eyes of your neighbors?

And then there are the stones and rocks under foot, the black flies, mosquitoes, horse and deer flies finding tender places to bite and sting, and – have you ever stepped on a bee barefoot? Or on the hole of an underground yellow jacket nest?

I’ll stick to clothed gardening, thank you very much.

Bill Baker

About Bill Baker

Bill's interest in a clean place to live is rooted in growing up in the country – a cornfield across the road and fields, sandstone cliffs and hundreds of acres of woods where he spent many hours.