In these difficult times, it’s only natural to take a step back and reflect on what’s truly important. Your family, your friendships, your health, sure, sure…but let me ask you this:
Is your gardening wardrobe meeting all of your needs — practical, emotional, and spiritual? Is your gardening attire suitable to wear during a possible global economic meltdown but also fashion forward?
Or are you still going outside every day in that disgusting t-shirt from that Fun Run you did in 1996? If so, let’s get to work on that. What else do you have to do?
I think you will find this next image inspiring. It’s an ad that appears at the back of my English Garden magazine in almost every issue, and it shows how those clever Brits have eclipsed us Yankees not only in gardening but in gardening fashion!
Man: “My shovel has disappeared into the mist.” Woman: “Nigel, come back to the yurt. I made scones.”
Just because the man is wearing the same outfit your great-uncle Jimmy wore as a dockworker in Baltimore in 1935, just because he looks like he is about to walk into a pool hall and punch somebody in the face, doesn’t mean he’s not the pinnacle of garden style. It’s the 21st century! If you aren’t wearing work clothes made from wool or flax — or spun from straw — you will simply not be trending.
Notice what it says in the text about how this couple is going to pass these bespoke garments on to the next generation. Can you say the same about those Hanes sweats you wear out in your sad flowerbeds?
Check this out. Here is the couple’s only son. It didn’t bother him that mum and dad didn’t pass along their vast seaside property; he is happy to have inherited the tan pants.
He would be smiling except that the wool overshirt has caused excruciating rashes all over his torso. But like a true Brit he keeps calm and carries on: through weeds, viruses, Brexit, or dismal English weather.
Friends: the lesson learned is that we can overcome any obstacle as long as we stick together and as long as we are properly attired in heritage rural workwear.
Black Walnut Dispatch 