I celebrate World Naked Gardening Day – 3 things keep me from doing it year-round & neighbors aren’t the worst issue
THIS Saturday, you may be tempted to step outside in your garden to enjoy the nice weather.
Don’t worry about choosing an outfit. It’s World Naked Gardening Day, so the best thing you can wear is nothing at all.
The unusual holiday is observed on the first Saturday in May, and it’s gaining new fans every year.
Chera Perry (@knottyandfrayed), 38, exclusively told The U.S. Sun she’s celebrating for the third year in a row in her Texas backyard.
While some gardeners worldwide participate en masse, or in public spaces, Perry is happier in her private backyard sanctuary.
Perry considers herself a bit of a newbie “plant mom,” since she’s only been seriously gardening for around six years.
But from an early age, she learned to respect nature. As an adult, plants helped her feel grounded during “a weird and lost place in life.”
“My stepdad is Hawaiian and taught me that the plants in the earth, the rocks, everything has life and meaning,” Perry said.
“That always stuck with me. I think that’s why I enjoy plants and gardening and nature so much,” she explained. “I can feel that connection.”
Now, Perry spends more than half the year outdoors, cultivating her plants and her relationship with them.
“I garden from spring to mid-fall,” Perry said. “And I like to be outside as much as I can once the average temps get above 65 degrees.”
Prior to the first Saturday in May of 2021, a trend on social media caught her eye.
In a Facebook plant group, she saw photos of an Australian couple, Wil Kemp and Melanie Meaglia, participating in the global event.
“They had shared some hilarious and cleverly-taken photos out in their garden in the nude,” Perry said.
Though she was nervous, the wheels were already turning in her mind.
“I thought maybe I could be brave enough to join in on the clever, ever-so-slightly risqué celebration,” she remembered.
It seemed like a good fit for her personality. She said, “I honestly just wanted to be a part of the movement, to feel natural, naked, and feminine.”
So that’s when she stepped outside wearing nothing but a smile, and documented the occasion.
To create a safe-for-work photo opportunity, she did enlist some of her own macrame craftwork (plant hangers, of course) and creative poses.
Luckily for Perry, the all-nude uniform of World Naked Gardening Day isn’t so far from her regular gardening clothes.
She said her “naked dresses” are her favorite thing to wear when she’s working in the garden.
“They are very thin and sheer dresses that feel so lightweight, like I’m barely wearing anything at all,” Perry said.
Perry has some sturdier gardening clothes in her wardrobe, too.
“If I am going to be doing some serious work involving some high grass, tree limbs, and things like that, I will put on a pair of pants,” she said.
Unfortunately, she’s learned that the hard way.
“The last time, I got dinged up pretty bad on my legs when I wore shorts,” she confessed.
Cuts and scrapes are an increased risk when you’re gardening in the nude.
That’s why Perry advises first-time naked gardeners to pick some lower-stakes plants when they’re heading out in their skivvies.
Perry said, with relief, “I don’t have anything that’s really thorny or anything like that to worry about encountering.”
She does need to account for other hazards outdoors. Insects, for example, love the Texas climate, too.
“The mosquitoes are insane, and the biting flies,” Perry warned her fellow Texans.
She insisted that if you’re celebrating World Naked Gardening Day, you should have bug spray at the ready – bonus points if it’s all-natural.
“Just, you know, be careful of your downstairs area or rubbing it in your eye,” she said.
While you’re at it, she said, add some sunscreen, and make sure to get every area the sun doesn’t usually shine.
There’s one other thing to be mindful of, and it’s the primary barrier keeping Perry from gardening in the nude year-round.
“I am surrounded by neighbors and they have a pretty good view into my yard,” Perry said. “I always have to plan this strategically.”
With those potential pitfalls at front of mind, Perry is eager to step out this year, and hopes others do the same.
Fellow plant parents or the botanically-curious can find out more the same way Perry did.
“Look up the movement. It’s just a couple of clicks away on Google,” she said.
“There’s so many people around the world involved for different reasons,” she said, reflecting on her own motives.
“Plants have shifted and moved my life so much,” she said, and she loves strengthening her intimate connection with nature.
Perry encouraged others to deepen that bond with the earth, and most importantly, “Embrace YOU.”
