Er....don't you all wear shoes when you garden? I don't understand this "garden feet" thing. Or hands - I pull on gloves! I have a couple different ones for different jobs. I wear the rubbery ones for planting out and weeding cause I have more control. I wear the big ol' leather ones for hoisting blocks and bricks and sacks of stuff. They help me avoid blisters and such.

But my feet? Sneakers. Nice, solid Keds...I'd wear socks too but it's too hot. What am I missing here?

I always have sturdy shoes on as well, and gloves most of the time. When I was a kid, we went shoeless at home after May 1 (a date of great celebration when we could go "barefoot" outside), but my current home was built on the trash pile of an old plantation house, so I'm constantly finding broken glass, pottery, and metal, and I'd prefer NOT to find those with my feet or hands. Add fireants which seem to move in very quickly and stay hidden until you either step on them or pull a weed near them, and you make sure to stay protected. I miss going barefoot.

I wear flip flops which protect your soles just fine, but you get a grunge strip around the edge of your foot that's a beast to scrub off.

I wear waterproof hiking boots, with steel toes and steel arches. They're the just-over-ankle models, with lots of ankle support/padding. How in blazes can you work a spade, or a lawnmower without proper shoes?

I also wear gloves, and I have a wide variety of them, for different purposes. My new favorites are Atlas 370 nitrile coated garden gloves. Fantastic invention. Tougher than the cheaper latex coated versions, and have incredible dexterity and feel. My other favorite gloves are IronClad Framers, with thumb, index and middle fingers open, and tons of protective layers and padding.

I wear sturdy footwear too. I wouldn't do without.

I guess it might depend on where you are. I do remember going flipflop when I lived in the city and just had small gardens, but here I don't dare walk off the deck barefeet or with anything but my super sneakers.

A couple of years ago I went to get leaf mold in one of my piles and stepped into a hornet's nest. Most of them are underground here. Had I not been wearing proper footwear, I would have had more than the 16 stings on my legs and would not have been able to walk for a few days.

As for my hands, I like to feel the dirt. There's just something about it...

Crocs on my feet and naked hands. At the end of plantout season, I get a manicure and pedicure. It's been delayed because of the unseasonal weather we have been having and I am feeling cranky about that.

Are you kidding me steel toes to garden, that is some serious gardening going on at your place.I go bare foot no gloves both drive me crazy.But this is just weeding,planting out watering.If I were to do a new bed or some other big thing that would be different.

flowered-corners
lol you know MEN usually have issues about their feet. It's like they're scared to let anyone see their toes. It might expose their soul or something like that.
Me, I'm a barefoot girl in the summer.

I may give peroxide a try. It is inexpensive and certainly couldn't hurt my feet. Did it noticeably lighten your skin?

Most often, I wear flip flops or croc-style shoes, which protect my soles, but still end up with dirt over most of my feet. I like to go barefoot from time to time as well. If I get out my pickaxe, I try to remember to wear sneakers though :)

I own garden gloves, but don't use them most of the time. There's something about playing in the dirt that's just fun.

I wear very good quality sneakers to garden (have bad feet so also have good shoes!) but it's amazing how quickly they can get wet. So despite the heavy sneakers and thick socks, my feet do always get dirty. I really need to get a good pair of work shoes, but I'm too cheap, lol! Even my gloves - the rubber coating on the fingers wears thin or cracks, and sure enough, I have dirt under my fingernails, even with wearing gloves.

Last month I won a basket with bath soaps, etc. at a raffle at my son's hockey banquet, and there was a foot care package in it - soaking salts, a footscrub lotion and brush, and moisturizer. One night I decided to give it a try - amazing what spending a little time on oneself can do, lol! My feet hadn't looked - or felt - that good in goodness knows how long, and better yet, they stayed that way for quite a while. Now if I only had more time to myself...

:)
Dee

If I'm just watering I wear flip-flops. They're cooler and I can squirt my feet and legs to cool off. Well, in this weather, sometimes the rest of me too. If I'm planting and digging and composting and doing heavy work with shovels and forks, I wear my heavy, designated garden sneakers. In fact, I have 2 pairs of shoes to change when they get wet and/or muddy. I also have a pair of LandsEnd winter mocs, waterproof and heavy, for mud. I can just squirt them with a hose.

Karen

I don't have time to be changing my footwear to suit the activity. I wear the hiking boots from 5am to 7pm, and change to Teva clogs. With the boots, I can walk through 6" of mud and just hose them off when I'm done. The steel toe helps me kick stuff out of my way, or into place, and the steel shanks support my full weight when I'm dancing on the nursery spade. I garden and/or fish at least 14 hours a day, and need the support the boots provide.

don't get me wrong, i do believe boots have there place.as a working lady I manage a maintenance team, we change sinks and tubs lift heavy furniture and such.I climb a ladder alot and it is not in my bare feet! However for me gardening is a pleasure not a job.I like to feel relaxed and bare footin' it is.I have been wearing hospital gloves this year some.I hate gloves for planting out and such.I would never have any babies if I tried to do them with gloves.but with the latex I can feel what I am doing.

I was just discussing yesterday with someone whether I should try those latex gloves for gardening. I hate wearing gloves, especially for things like transplanting ande deadheading. I have yet to find a pair of gloves that I really like.

donn, I agree changing shoes is a PITA. And I wear orthotics, so I have to not only change shoes, but take the orthotics out of one pair of shoes and put them in another - gets annoying when it happens several times a day. Oh, to be able to garden 14 hours a day (she says staring off into space and her eyes glazing over...)

:)
Dee

I wear hiking boots but can't stand to wear gloves. -The few times I've tried, they have mysteriously disappeared from my hands after a few minutes...

P.S. I've read that, if you are prone to foot or toenail fungus, you should avoid getting your feet dirty as these fungi can be soil-borne.

I'm a flip-flop wearer too unless I'm doing some type of hard labor like digging a new area.

Vera

Yep, flip flops & knock off Crocs for just roaming around. I do have some nifty rubber boots I got for my birthday but I only wear them when I need to shovel, turn compost or weed whack. Gloves only for lifting/collecting rocks or shoveling.

I have a bit of perma dirt on my heels and fingers, hubs calls me Pigpen.

I wear flip flops too.I have several pairs lined up in the carport.I take them off when I come in and if they are dirty,I drop them into the washer.I wear gloves for digging but planting out,off comes the gloves.I go for comfort.I also have to wear visors or my big floppy straw hat over a sweat band.Can't stand to sweat..lol
moonphase

I scrub my flip flops in the sink with a brush and place them out on the back steps. The next morning I walk out of the kitchen barefoot and step into my flip-flops and off to the garden I go. I have a few durable pairs. Hubs got me some last month at BJs and they're quite nice wiht cloth straps--I don't get that blister inbetween my toes. I've also got something more durable called pool sandals--just a fancy name for flip-flops made from firmer plastic.

I agree about the head sweat--wow is that annoying. Liz and I both wear bandanas She a bit serious about them, I do get them for her for rewards for good behavior, and when I come home from the store with a new one for her she's all attention and want it out on NOW. I wear one too, but mines around my forehead and hers is above her collar. Last weekend I had forgtten my shades when we went to the Bronx botanical garden so Hubs bought me a BBG baseballcap--the only make them in winter weight (DUH!) so my head feels like its roasting. Sigh. So the flip-flops, at least, keep my tootsies cool. I HATE HOT FEET!

I don't think I could ever go out into my gardens without socks and shoes/sneakers. My best working shoes are sketchers - they are like small hiking boots. I've noticed that my back feels so much better when I wear really good shoes. Also, in case of red ants, I feel safer with socks and a heavier shoe.

Carrie

Sneakers - definitely sneakers. Very expensive sneakers since I am training for a pair of permanent orthotics. Feels funny going barefoot in the garden. I also like latex gloves for flexibility. They rip easily, but by then my hands are used to dirt.

I also wear a wide rim hat. This is my favorite hat. It keeps my face in the shade for the most part of the day. Very nice ventilation too since the hat does not sit right on top of your head:

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:396075}}

widebrim....

I had to tippy toe around some seedlings today to prune back an aggressive dogwood bush. I was in bare feet..I find I'm much less likely to step on something, and I was in my "best" i.e. well groomed bed. I use the closed toe crocs (no holes) most of the time, keeps the dirt out.

I bought a dollar store spin toothbrush, and used it for my home-grown pedicure. Amazing how it cleaned up under the nails and the cuticles. (I also didn't have to reach so far down ;o)..amazing how your feet get further away from your hands as you age!).

Just be sure to pack the brush away with the nail polish & pumice stone! Wouldn't want it to be used for anything else!

LOL Wendy!

Reef flip-flops, cheap pair of cloth gloves from Lowes, white, old lady, golfing sun visor from Walmart along with J-Lo/Brittney Spears type sunglasses.... Wow, what a visual I must be painting here!

All you flip-flop wearers...any of you have the bright, white strip going across the top of your foot? I get teased all summer about mine. Even strangers have been known to chime in on my tootsie tan line!

I wear the rubber, lines slip-ons that I get from our farm store, during the wet mornings, can't stand wet feet. Then, when it dries, I slip on some type of slide-on sandels, protects the bottom of my feet, but I still stay cool.

I don't like sneakers, because I'm constantly in and out of the house, and don't want to track the dirt in, so the shoes go off before I come in. Slip-ons make this much easier.

Wendy - that toothbrush idea is brilliant! Next time I am at a discount store I am going to pick one up. Have you tried it on fingernails (I hate wearing gloves)?

Nancy

I hate hot feet, too, Trudi - but my partly wooded yard backing up to the woods is a deer tick breeding ground here. I wear sneakers, socks, and long pants in the garden always. If I won't die of heat, I wear a long-sleeved shirt, too. Even so, I do a complete tick check when I come in.

Besides the yard, every place else in the summer, it's sandals for me.

It's a hot head that I can't tolerate. I try daily to wear a hat or visor while garden but very quickly abandon it because I'm too hot! Even just a visor I find makes me hot and my hair sweaty and wet.

Karen

Karen, you need a hat like mine.
These are my favorite gardening hats. Greatest ventilation ever:

The top is a bit worn already but keeps me protected in the mid day sun:
{{gwi:333066}}

The underside:
{{gwi:333067}}

Another favorite. This one really keeps the sun off my face:
{{gwi:333064}}

The underside is cleverly made so it is very well ventilated just like the one above:
{{gwi:333065}}

I also use a beach umbrella around my garden. Works pretty well.

P,

Where did you get those hats? Is there an online link?

In the past I've gotten a rash when my sweat interacts with the bamboo/straw, I got a really bad rash from a straw hat a long time ago--I erupted in aband of pimples across my forehead that looked like a purple bandana ;-( So, if these are okay for you then maybe I will try them, the "lampshade" one looks really fablulous.

crocs (well a mock version) here too. I prefer barefoot, but since we have more weeds that grass yet, it's a bit prickly on the feet. but w/ this wonderful rain, I've been able to go bare foot!! No gloves or hats either.