Designer garden clothes get a dressing-down from Peter
You don’t need fancy clothes to keep warm, says Peter
THEY say there’s no such thing as bad weather – just inappropriate clothing for gardening. Reading an article in a broadsheet newspaper on this subject, I felt their recommendations were expensive and inappropriate. You need plenty of layers to keep out the cold and a fabric that is lightweight and waterproof when it rains.
Surely I am not alone in wearing old clothes to garden – especially in the winter, when most things handled are wet, grubby and all too often muddy? Bob Flowerdew is often pictured in a boiler suit, while I prefer bib and brace overalls. Both have plenty of pockets for string, labels, pencil, secateurs, folding measure and the like.
A TV cameraman who worked on Match of the Day, way up in the stand in freezing wind, told me he always used ski pants under his trousers, and this was excellent advice. I wear what I have always known as Long Johns, under trousers and overalls, and these keep the whole body warm in the coldest of winter conditions.
When it comes to footwear, the obvious choices are boots when the surface is fairly dry, and wellingtons when it is wet, and both coupled with a thick pair of woollen socks. People have laughed at my wellingtons with the tops turned down (akin to Compo in Last of the Summer Wine) and socks folded over them – but they work.
This combination achieves two things: it stops the top of the wellies from flopping back and forth, and it prevents bits of soil, twigs and especially prickles falling into the wellington. I also have a pair of wooden clogs, bought in Holland, which with thick socks are remarkably comfortable when digging on wet soil. None of these featured in the broadsheet column… I wonder why?
“Most things handled are wet, grubby and all too often muddy”