posted
I eschew gloves when gardening. Oh, I'll wear them if I'm dealing with something prickly or dangerous, but beyond that I can't stand them. Yeah, I get the occasional scratch or cut, and gardening can dry out my hands if I don't use lotion, but for me that's a small price to pay.
For me the need to garden bare-handed when possible is two fold. First, I feel very clumsy wearing gloves, like there is a disconnect between myself and what I'm doing. And I have to keep taking them off to pick up small things, so they are a bother. And if I see a plant that needs light dead-heading or pinching back, I have to stop and reach for the clippers or take the gloves off so I can give the plant a quick pinch. Gardening with gloves in this respect is like trying to cook in them, or play the piano in them.
Second, I love the feeling of the soil and the plants. There is a sensuousness I enjoy in feeling the tender roots of something I'm planting. I like to feel the cool soil as I'm packing it around the rootball. I like the satisfying pop and crunch of crushing clods of dirt or clay. I like to feel each leaf and stem as I check for pests or disease. I like feeling how damp or dry the soil is or how warm the mulch is. I like knowing that bleeding-heart and impatiens feel like they are held up by the sheer force of the water in their stems while zinnias and marigolds feel like they suck their moisture from the ground through paper straws. I like knowing that rose petals feel like velvet and English ivy feels like leather.
Gardening gloveless, for me, makes it a personal experience. I look at the garden and I feel like I know each plant I've touched. I enjoy a veritable playground of pleasure in a garden that I'd miss completely if I wore gloves.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
I'm usually naked the one time a week I remember that my plant needs watering. Oh wait, you said semi-nude. Nevermind...
Posts: 1090 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I don't like dampening any of my senses unless I have to. I use my hands to guide me through so many things - Painting, sculpting, playing musical instruments, sport, dance, cooking, gardening, cleaning, etc. Even when I'm washing up, I prefer to do so without gloves. (Even if it means my hands are about 10 times older than the rest of me).
The same goes with shoes - I'm much more comfortable without, and find shoes tend to get in the way, (although I do see the necessity for them). In a similar way, I don't like listening to my discman or ipod when I'm painting, reading or out for a run. I like to be aware of my surroundings and not try to drown them all out.
posted
How bad is it that I looked at the title of this thread and read, "Semi-Nude Gathering," and thought, "Whoa. Not sure that's a con I want to go to..."
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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I lov the feeling of plunging into the soil bare-fingered as well. However, I put on this weird lotion my husband used to sell called, um, I forget. It is basically like Body Glove, and the dirt washes right off afterwards.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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Ah, Karl! I write this with fingers horribly scratched, nails caked with dirt. How beautifully you express the need to be naked in the soil! I rejoice with each slippery worm I touch, each delicate seedling. I had a lovely day yesterday, grubbing in the dirt.
quote: How bad is it that I looked at the title of this thread and read, "Semi-Nude Gathering," and thought, "Whoa. Not sure that's a con I want to go to..."
Aw, Come'on Megan! Where's your sense of adventure???
posted
I'll find my sense of adventure for semi-nude gatherings when I've achieved a shape that might actually be worth seeing semi-nude.
Of course, if I could go to a semi-nude gathering and just take off, say, my shoes, maybe. But...then, I suppose that would make WenchCon a semi-nude gathering.
Come to think of it...all those people in the hot tub...hmm.
Alright, I take it back. I'd go to a semi-nude gathering. Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Of course, I'm the type that WOULD consider gardening naked. Except for my knees. I insist on wearing kneepads. I garden on my hands and knees, all bent over and nearly prone in the dirt. But when I get hot and sweaty and dirty, I curse being female and therefore unable to take off my shirt without causing the neighbors to talk. I don't have penis envy; I just have ability to go shirtless envy.
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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So you’re saying you need some comfort fit gloves that allow feeling to flow through…. Interesting.
Posts: 2845 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Hi Jenny! In case you didn't guess, I was doing a little gardening yesterday too. I planted my fern garden in the early evening when I got home from work. The weather was wonderful here. I was out almost until 7 pm before it got chilly.
I garden on my hands and knees too, but don't usually think to break out the knee pads. I have a couple of interesting scars because of that.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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I, too, initially read "Semi-Nude Gathering".
I tend to garden without gloves either, but I hate all the dirt getting under my fingernails.
I guess I have gardened semi-nude. I used to mow the lawn in my underwear. I don't have a lawn at the new house yet - I've just started working on the backyard.
Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Gardening IS hot and sweaty and dirty and uncomfortable. But...you get to be an intimate part of Nature; Life and Death are in your hands. You don't want to wield that power irresponsibly. It feels sacred to have your hands bare when you are touching Mother Earth.
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
If you don't like dirt under your fingernails, scrape your nails over a bar of soap before gardening. You'll still get a bit of dirt under there, but those deep-under crevices where dirt seems impossible to get out without hurting yourself will be pre-filled with soap which washes out much more easily.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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I love the feel of soil. Texture more than anything else tells me whether the soil is too sandy, or has too much clay, or if it's just right. Putting my hands in nice dark loamy soil is like the tactile equivalent of eating an especially delicious piece of chocolate cake.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
Wow - not what I expected when I opened the thread either! Though I was expecting Karl to talk about gardening with your shirt off, something I can't relate to.
I don't have much of a green thumb, but I try. Less than half of my day lilies seem to be coming back. However, I also enjoy gardening without gloves. As long as I can protect myself from sunburn, I love being outside and in the dirt. Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I don't know how to say what I mean. Nature's way of seeing what sort of thing you are, what you intend, how you fit in to the world. Like getting to know you.
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
Gardening with gloves on is like painting with your eyes shut or running a chainsaw while you listen to a tragic symphony. You just can't get the feel of it like that! I was a groundskeeper a couple years ago for a summer and everyone called me crazy because I only wore gloves to weed the thistles. I think they're the crazy ones for not liking to touch plants and dirt. Don't all you glove-wearers and grass-avoiders feel totally disconnected from the earth, never enjoying being in contact with it? It's like never letting yourself touch another human being! I'd feel so isolated! It's like Jenny said, it's Nature's way of getting to know you, and vice versa.
In conclusion: Tom, scottneb, etcetera, you're crazy. And I would like to join the Sacred Ick crowd.
Posts: 624 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:If you don't like dirt under your fingernails, scrape your nails over a bar of soap before gardening. You'll still get a bit of dirt under there, but those deep-under crevices where dirt seems impossible to get out without hurting yourself will be pre-filled with soap which washes out much more easily.
This does not work with acrylics, which is why I wear gardening gloves (well, I used to - Hollins won't let us do any landscaping). Also, I can match the gloves with my clogs and hat, which is always good.
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
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KarlEd, I'm totally with you. I hate to wear gloves gardening for all the same reasons.
The only issue I take with it is when I can't fully get the dirt out of my skin afterwards. For days I have tiny dirt crevices in my skin that I just can't seem to get rid of. If I had better, smoother skin on my hands, I don't think it would be such a problem.
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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I garden gloveless too...I love the feel of dirt and plants and especially a pile of well-done compost rich with worms. I could wax poetic about the the feel and smell of vermiculture, if I was at all poetic.
Plus it gives me a good excuse to buy the expensive Burt's Bees Gardener's Gift Set, for myself.
Posts: 1021 | Registered: Sep 2004
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So, hon, how did you get the tulips in the ground then on Monday if you didn't touch the "ick"? *giggle* And tree sap doesn't count as ick, or did you just persevere?
I have all kinds of hopes for gardens in our yard. Sounds like I need to bribe Karl and Jenny over to help! Spring always gives me such good intentions for beauty and bounty.
I've always gardened gloveless. There is something very refreshing about packing the earth around new roots.
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"So, hon, how did you get the tulips in the ground then on Monday if you didn't touch the 'ick?' *giggle* And tree sap doesn't count as ick, or did you just persevere?"
There are many things I consider icky and actively unpleasant which, in order to achieve a pleasant result, I find myself forced to do. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I don't have a lawn at the new house yet - I've just started working on the backyard.
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However, I also enjoy gardening without gloves. As long as I can protect myself from sunburn, I love being outside and in the dirt. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
I don't know how to say what I mean. Nature's way of seeing what sort of thing you are, what you intend, how you fit in to the world. Like getting to know you.
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