World Naked Gardening Day

World Naked Gardening Day is an annual international event generally celebrated on the first Saturday of May by gardeners and non-gardeners alike. The best way to celebrate today is to have some fun getting naked outside with someone you love.

Yes, it’s true. Every person on the globe who loves both flowers and fig leaves will be tip-toeing through the tulips with nary a stitch on this Saturday. Why? Because planting a tuber in your birthday suit gives you an au naturel joie de vivre that can’t be matched any other way. As Barbara Pollard puts it, “When you’re out there with a gentle breeze on you, every last hair on your body feels it. You feel connected with the natural world in a way you just can’t in clothes.”

Now I know some of you are a little shy about appearing outdoors totally naked, but you shouldn’t be. For one thing, some of our most prominent political leaders are totally on board with it. For example:

Former President Barack Obama: “Once we discard the trappings of clothing, we see that people are just plain folks,” says the President. “We need to focus on things we have in common that bring folks together and gardening naked is one. Count me in.”

World Naked Gardening Day has no political agenda. Thus, it garnered widespread support from Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Tea Partiers, and Rush Limbaugh.

Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell gave naked gardening the thumb’s up. “We’re all about horses in the Bluegrass State,” said Mitch, “and gardening naked makes me feel like a stud.”

Undress yourself of all that is superfluous, walk on the earth barefoot, touch the green leaves of the plants with your own hands and smell them; at least enjoy nature today in all its splendor, as it should really be experienced. Undress! You will feel free!

A Word of Caution

Whether with your friends or all alone, gardening naked has its risks. First of all, men should keep their distance from hedge trimmers, shears, pruners, saws, scythes, and even weed whackers.

Secondly, May marks the beginning of tick season in many areas of the world. So be sure someone spends at least 20 minutes giving you a thorough inspection following your naked day in the garden.

What To Plant

Although you’re free to plant anything you want on World Naked Gardening Day, some plants seem perfect fits. They include:

• ‘Buff Beauty’ rose
• Naked ladies (Lycoris squamigera)
• Fanny’s aster (Symphyotichum oblongifolium ‘Fanny’)
• Madonna lily (Lilium candidum), because Madonna is often naked.
• Led Zepplin’s Robert Plant totally naked… 🙂

What NOT to plant:

• Thorny plants and bushes.
• Cacti.
• Nettles or stinging plants and herbs.

About World Naked Gardening Day

The first annual World Naked Gardening Day took place on September 10, 2005. In 2007, the event date was moved to the first Saturday in May; as of 2018, the event still takes place on the first Saturday in May. In 2018, however, the New Zealand Naturist Federation adopted the last weekend in October as World Naked Gardening Day; this date was deemed to be better suited to the climate of the Southern Hemisphere.

According to NBC’s Today News, WNGD “has become an annual tradition that celebrates weeding, planting flowers and trimming hedges in the buff. While it’s linked to a movement of nudists who promote wholesome and unashamed acceptance of the human body, the day is meant to be funny, lighthearted and non-political, founders say.”

Organizers assert that “besides being liberating, nude gardening is second only to swimming as an activity that people are most ready to consider doing nude”.

Beyond body positivity, Corky Stanton of Clothes Free International, an organization that promotes nude recreation, has asserted that the event offers the “fringe benefits of bare, unabashed recreation: the satisfaction of exercising in the great outdoors; the attractiveness of an all-over tan; more Vitamin D on your whole body; the unbeatable experience of skinny-dipping if the naturist event involves a beach or a lake.”

While the event is most often celebrated in secluded areas, BFC first kicked off the event with its trademark “guerrilla pranksterism” and did a photo shoot in a public park. In another year, Storey and Gabriel enlisted the help of local free beach users at an unofficial clothing-optional beach park on Lake Washington, in Seattle. Many people choose not to venture beyond the relative safety of non-public areas. During the fifth annual World Naked Gardening Day in the United Kingdom, celebrated in 2010, organizers encouraged people to go naked either in their private gardens or in public parks.

Sources:

• Wikipedia
• Southern Living