Gardeners get their gear off
The warm spring sun fell on their shoulders . . . and their nether regions.
There are no tan lines for members of the Southern Naturally club, who like many Southlanders were out in their garden during the weekend, waking their gardens up from the long winter, planting seeds and pruning back growth. Except at their Otautau club, members garden in the buff, and on Saturday they embraced New Zealand Nude Gardening Day, giving their gardens a bit of a spring tidy up, club member Wilma Kremer said. ‘‘What’s not to love about it? I’m out in the garden and the sun is on my back and it’s just wonderful.’’
Kremer has been a
naturalist for more than 20 years and said she loves the freedom of being clothes free.
‘‘You get out of your caravan and you’re already dressed. You don’t need to worry about a bra and all those clothes you just get up and you’re ready for the day.’’
And while there’s still some snow on the hills in the deep south, there was no chance of frostbite.
‘‘It got up to about 18 or 18 degrees. We were so lucky with the weather. I heard rain on the roof early in the morning and thought oh no but it was a beautiful day.’’
Nude Gardening Day is held internationally in May but the NZ Naturist Federation decided to strike their own day and not follow the rather nippy international May date.
Not that the weather is a deterrent to club members getting about in their birthday suits. While most club members visit the grounds, which include a pool and tennis courts, during the summer months, they also occasionally brave the south’s cold winter to be at one with nature.
‘‘We’ve had snow here, one club member got snowed in for two days once.
‘‘We still go nude, we just have the fire going in the clubhouse and we sit around and read and do jigsaw puzzles.
‘‘It doesn’t really bother us.’’ The club also celebrated Swan Plant Planting day by sowing seeds, which by December will provide a home for monarch butterflies.
They also got stuck into some weeding, pruning and planted a veggie garden.
‘‘We don’t grow any prickly plants, but if we did we have clothes we could put on when we deal with those.’’