Mary Lowther column: How will you mark World Naked Gardening Day?

While most of us observe the arrival of spring by pulling out our gardening clothes there are some who believe we should be taking them off! In 2005, Mark Storey, editor of Nude and Natural magazine, joined permaculturalist Jacob Gabriel to designate the first Saturday of May as World Naked Gardening Day in order to stimulate interest in agriculture. While this septuagenarian approves in general of any attempt to increase public involvement in food production, she suspects this initiative will appeal mostly to adolescent males.

Naked gardening doesn't appeal to me at all. Direct ultraviolet rays risk melanoma, and even if one survives that the blazing sun will likely burn us as red as a beefsteak tomato. One should also consider the dangers in distracting passing aviators. Besides, while my 74-year-old body might disappoint the increasingly prevalent drone operators, David does not want his shortcomings exposed on Youtube.

Maybe next year.

This year my records indicate that our last frost date was April 23, so I can safely pull the protection off the precious rose bush that I paid $40 for, and set out my tomatoes in their Walls O' Water that I have already filled with water for the sun to warm up. One year I didn't preheat them and every tomato plant died after the leaves that were touching the plastic shriveled in pain. It's tricky to move the warmed water filled protection over the tomatoes and then later to remove them, but several extra weeks of growth make it worth the effort.

I was chomping at the bit when the weather warmed up for a few weeks in January, and I sowed some peas outside. Sure enough, when it got colder and wetter all three batches got eaten almost to the ground (a whole 60-foot row!) most likely by slugs or sow bugs. It's a good thing I plan for disaster and sowed more in flats indoors to transplant when the weather becomes reliably hot enough to hopefully deter the predators.

The rosemary I had protected with leaves piled up inside a tomato cage and wrapped in plastic has died above ground but the roots may still be alive. On the positive side I discovered three almonds tossed into the compost heap last year have sprouted, so I've potted them up. Apparently they require a lot of water; if they survive I'll plant them somewhere sunny and wrap tree watering bags around them. I first saw these bags in Lytton before the town burned down and figure that if they were good enough for the town to spend money on them, they must be a worthwhile investment.

David says that if the Goddess had wanted us to garden naked, she would have given us pockets, and I won't tell you what else he said because this is a family newspaper and it doesn't bear thinking about.

Please contact mary_lowther@yahoo.ca with questions and suggestions since I need all the help I can get.