I wear anything that I don't care if it gets stained or torn up. Consequently, that usually means I'm wearing clothes that are stained and have holes in them. I look like a complete slob!

Deanna

I wander out into the garden meaning to just look and then find myself covered in dirt in a good shirt and pants. Luckily they are usually salvageable. They are immediately treated with spot remover and washed. It happens time after time and I will never learn. It's like my garden hypnotizes me.

Plus I never remember to put on gloves. Except at night when I put cream on my hands to salvage them from forgetting to put on my gardening gloves

I look sloppy but it doesn't bother me..cotton stains and wrinkles but I won't wear anything but cotton..I have shade so I can get by without a hat..if it's hot I wear shorts and a short sleeved shirt..some of what I wear came from my sisters..both of them have given me clothes..they'll say "this is worn out but I thought you could wear it to work outside"..comfort is key..

my favorite long sleeved shirt was my husband's..the sleeves were short on him so I thought "I'll try it"..the shirt had flaps that buttoned onto the pocket..they wouldn't lay flat..so while watching a football game I picked out the stitches and took off the flaps..would've looked fine except the fabric under the flaps was "new" and now I had dark rectangles where the flaps were..wore it for years like that until it finally bit the dust..

My garden clothes are only for the garden and they are stained, ripped rags. I wear them until they are no longer wearable. Short sleeve T-shirts for summer and long sleeve for cooler weather. All were originally bought second hand.

cargo pants or trekking trousers (the men`s version, as the lady`s ones had a very thin fabric and uselssly small pockets)

sturdy shoes, even safety boots if it is muddy and I plan to dig a lot

in summer a long sleeved white cotton shirt as I can`t take the sun as well a whole day long as I used to (like 30 y ago...), a fleece plus a work jacket if it is cold

plus a straw hat

and then I look very "work-ish" but I think that`s fine, and boy are those cargo pants comfy (from Carh*rtt, I think)

once I was asked to write a review on some gardening book for beginners,

and what really annoyed me were pictures of some "garden girl" or rather her feet in tiny thin strapped silvery sandals, when digging with a spade

or on another pic with a yuuuge artisanal wooly shawl on that woman, you know, a shawl that big and long that it gets you stangled just after moving around 3 strides and hanging yourself on the next shrub or rose or what ever

I have Gardening Clothes, as I got tired of destroyed jeans and shirts. I wear Carhartt Double-front Duck pants, and it takes me about 3 years to wear through the knees. I wear Hanes t shirts with a pocket, XXL so they're nice and loose, and I cut off the sleeves. I have steel-toed boots, as we have a ton of rocks and I dig a lot, and I always wear gloves. The long pants came after I realized that the reason I had warts on my knees in the summer was because I was gardening in shorts. The gloves came after a particular nasty splinter ended up under a fingernail - enough was enough. I keep my hair back with a bandana, and I've usually got headphones on - that's why I need pockets on the tshirts, to hold the mp3 player.

I love the Carhatts because they have lots of deep and strong pockets. I admit that I look a sight when I'm working outside, but everyone in the neighborhood is used to it by now.

I'm pretty much covered head to toe in old clothes! The only thing that really shows is my face. I hate being in the sun, and also tend a very wet garden, so I try to cover up against bugs too. I wear old jeans (yeah, I know, kinda heavy but I like the heavier material when I'm wading into shrubs), either a long sleeve shirt, or more often, a short-sleeved tee shirt with a men's dress shirt over it. This way I can switch between long and short sleeves. In really hot weather or when I can't avoid the sun, I'll soak the dress shirt and wring it out, and put it on wet. It helps keep me cool. That's a trick I picked up when I worked on a farm.

ALWAYS socks and muck boots, often my pants tucked into them. One, because as I said I work in a wet garden. and two because my pants are a size too big (for comfort) and also too long, and I always step on my own pants and trip myself haha!

I always start out with gloves but don't always end up with them. I try to keep them on but sometimes just need or want more dexterity.

I always tell myself I should wear a hat, moreso for ticks than the sun. I hardly ever do wear one, and every time a branch brushes my head, which is often, I yell at myself for not wearing a hat. But as much as I always wished we wore hats like the English because they're so darn cool, I'm not a hat person (moreso they don't like me than I don't like them!) and it's often too hot to be wearing something on my head. Bad enough I have very thick hair and dream of shaving my head when I'm in the garden!

Linaria I have to laugh too when I see photos of gardeners in quaint aprons and clean white tennis shoes with capris or calf-length pants. Obviously posed for the photo op. Like June Cleaver going to do a bit of gardening after her housework in pearls. My daughter once asked me if I wanted her to buy me this gorgeous gardening apron, and I told her there's no way I would wear it to garden. It wasn't functional and wouldn't last a week in the garden without being ruined.

:)
Dee

all of these wardrobe descriptions are so funny..wouldn't a group photo be interesting?.. :-)

Nicholsworth, if we all sent in photos some talented person could engineer 'photoshop" something. Actually, I'd love to see photos of people. OTOH it might diminish the "mystery" aspect of on line conversations.

I love this thread. There was one several years ago where someone waxed poetic about gardening in her cropped yoga pants. I seriously thought about buying some but balked at spending money. My clothes get ruined in the garden.

Gardener's Supply used to carry a gardening pant and vented shirt. I bought them on sale but they were huge. I tried them on last year and they fit. How could they shrink when I never washed them? They are great pants: they stay up but are cut comfortably , double knees and bottom fabric, good pockets. I'd buy them again full price if they carried them.

Now i wear what I have available.

I too wander outside 'for a look'. I get dirt on a dress, work sandals, nice pants etc. Sometimes my nightgown but I can't use a shovel barefoot.

The main thing I look for is a pocket in the pants. I like to wear sturdy but lightweight pants, thick enough to keep the skeeters off but light enough to keep sweat from running. Elastic waist if I can find it. Most of all, they must have a pocket for my cellphone and maybe a tissue. I don’t go outside without my phone as I am clumsy and tend to fall or otherwise damage myself and might need help. (Plus, I don’t want to lose all those steps as I aim for 10,000/day.)

I have a hoodie I wear when it gets cooler and I do all my really hard, dirty work. It’s a size too big and it used to be pink. Now it is dirt colored with a bleached-out front and ratty sleeves. I love that thing.

Marie..I wish I had a pic of my favorite shirt Lol..I think I wore it for 10? 12? years..

So many tempting answers to this questions, none of them helpful or appropriate.

;-)

Same as you, old crappy junk that can get dirty. The one "must" for me is that I wear some kind of sock with my crocs/clogs so that when i go indoors I can take the socks off and not get the house filthy. I look like my dad wearing some old beat up shorts with dark ankle socks. He spent his Saturdays working on cars. I look just like him sans the grease. Also, most of my garden clothes have boat paint/varnish on them, too, as they are appropriate for both chores.

I look positively anti-fetching in my garden chore attire. If something were to befell my husband (and I hope it does not), had I the need to repel a man, I would invite him to garden with me. (Hopefully my husband decides he can handle the attire and hang around a bit longer!)

I love my garden overalls. Plenty of pockets, comfy, sturdy, and cover everything no matter what ridiculous positions I end up in reaching for weeds.

"...I bought them on sale but they were huge. I tried them on last year and they fit. How could they shrink when I never washed them? ...

OMG, Marie, I nearly choked on my water as I read that! LOL!!

After reading Deanna's post I just thought of something else - definitely an "I'm an old lady now and don't care anymore" kind of thing. In this heat I am barely dressed in the house. When I go out to the garden, not to work but to grab a tomato or take a look at things - although now that I think of it, I have gone out to water like this - I throw on a pair of yoga leggings that come down just below the knee. And then slip into my muck boots. I would never have gone out where people, especially the kids in the neighborhood, could see me like that even three years ago. Now I just don't care how silly I look. That has been helped by my new neighbors. They have a vegetable garden very close to our shared boundary (the only sunny spot for either of us) and they are out there looking as silly as I do, so that makes it a little easier to not worry about a fashion statement!

:)
Dee

I have two pairs of gardening pants-one really old, thin, and baggy with bleached spots from cleaning bird baths. The other are newer, heavier and actually not baggy, but very comfortable (Patagonia). I usually wear a long-sleeved tee shirt to avoid at least some of the biting insects-I finally discarded the torn ones this year. I wear socks that come up just below my calves and sneakers that are no longer good for walking, but fine for mucking about. I pull my hair back and wear a baseball cap and my prescription sunglasses. Of course, it seems the baseball cap impedes my peripheral vision, so I am constantly running into branches when I am near trees or some shrubs. I imagine anyone watching thinks I am nuts.

I couldn't care less how I look, although I will turn or straighten up cars or neighbors are coming my way as I bend over to pull weeds. Usually though, I am sitting in the dirt to weed and scooching along from spot to spot. I am the only person in our neighborhood who actually does her own gardening I think.

Dee, I think I need leggings and muck boots. I bet you look adorable. In fact, I am pretty sure we all look quite adorable out there. ;-)

Yes - special clothes; special old clothes. And shoes. But, the most important thing just could be the sweatband I wear around my head/forehead ... to catch the dripping sweat before it drips down into my eyes. Once the sweatband is too full to hold any more sweat, I know it's time to go inside.

Um...I'm glad some of you mentioned hole-y clothes so I'm not the only one --- I was too embarrassed to admit that! LOL!

I love Duluth Firehose pants for heavier garden work. They're rather heavy but man are they tough, and they're much more flexible that you might expect:

https://www.duluthtrading.com/womens-duluthflex-fire-hose-relaxed-fit-pants-34701.html?dwvar_34701_color=NVY&ev3=#q=womens%2Bfirehose%2Bpants&lang=default&brandName=duluth&start=1

I also have the Duluth Heirloom Gardening pants (which I don't wear for gardening, because they're nice, comfortable bumming around pants):

https://www.duluthtrading.com/womens-heirloom-gardening-pants-16765.html

I usually end up gardening in my PJs early in the morning. But it’s really just a tshirt and sweatpants or shorts so no one would know but me.

I tend to wear the same clothes I wear when I paint, so you'll see palette knife marks, places where I wiped small brushes and large, and every color from Prussian blue to cadmium red.

These are the same clothes I wear around the house during this whole COVID thing, so I'm eternally colorful, at least.

What a fun thread. When I am planning to garden I do have gardening clothes, either old, stained jeans if the weather is cool, or some LLBean men’s tropic weight cargo pants which have lots of pockets but are light enough cotton fabric so I don’t overheat. I live in the land of black flies and ticks, so in May and June, when I do a lot of the actual garden work, I wear long pants tucked into socks, low boots, a bug net over my head, and a sun hat. I live on a busy commuter road, and if I am outside during commute time I sometimes wonder what the neighbors think, but I don’t much care.

At this time of year when the ticks are in brushier areas than my yard, and the black flies in larval form I often find myself out in the garden in a skirt when I wander out after work and get sucked into weeding. I have gotten fairly good at stain removal with laundry!

Babs you've given me something to think about with the bug net! This year the little bugs and gnats or whatever they are were absolutely torturous! Ugh they drove me crazy. I might just consider a bug net for next year.

Funny that you mention wandering out after work. I tend a garden for a woman in the neighborhood, and one evening after work I stopped by to check on things, still dressed in my work clothes. I decided to do a quick spray of deer repellent. I pointed, pulled the trigger on the bottle, and immediately a breeze blew up and blew it all back over me. It was disgusting. All over my work clothes, in my face, in my MOUTH. Then I realized it would be in my car as I drove home. I took a shower immediately but later that night I swear I could smell in on my hair on my pillow. All this from one little squirt. Ugh. I mean, not that it would have been any better in my gardening clothes lol, but maybe I wouldn't have been in such a hurry and paid more attention to prevailing winds - which I do now, after that experience lol.

Morpheuspa, lately I've been wandering out in the garden in paint-smattered clothes too! Being stuck home I've been doing some home projects, and sometimes break up the day - a bit of gardening, a coat of paint, let the paint dry and go garden, come back in... They're "new" paint clothes though, so so far mostly only white primer lol. The color will appear when I finally decide what color I will finally pick!

:)
Dee

This just made me realize that I have been deluding myself by thinking I have been gardening... Which I should call growing in pots (100-120) on my balcony. I never thought of wearing anything different and muck boots obviously.

Get going you are gardening! Just because you don't go out into a dirt yard does not make what you are doing any less than gardening. I think that you are here proves that you are gardening. 🙂

Dee--white's cool! There's a ton of titanium and zinc white on my clothes as well as we tend to use about twice as much of that as any other color anyway. :-)

And yes, Getgoing, that's still gardening, even if you can do it in your silk pajamas. :-)

I used to be on gardenweb under a different name. This is such a fun thread that I thought I'd add in my "fashion" choices.

I always wear a neck gaiter pulled up so that it functions as along hair scark to keep my unruly wavy hair out of my face.

When it's warm out a March of Dimes t-shirt (my oldest has participated in the walkathon for 27 years in a row, so plenty to choose from.) If it's cooler I add a sweatshirt.

A pair of cotton shorts - they are called "cheer" shorts and they are short! I'm sure the neighbors are amused by my butt up in the air while I yank weeds. If it's not too hot I switch to sweat pants.

Cotton socks.

Sneakers.

Atlas gloves.

And most important - a pair of Kneelons - greatest thing ever. I usually have to replace them every year as I wear out the velcro.

My gardening shorts have all sorts of mysterious blotches from various plants. And my favorite sweat shirts finally got so ratty they were more like holes with a small amount of fabric.

Like most folks here, I wear old and tattered until they don’t cover what needs to be covered! i used to use old worn shoes but as I age I find I must wear good supportive shoes. My go to shoes are Merrill Jungle Mocs, 2 new pairs a year.

slightly OT but then still, about them pockets,

that is another pet peeve of mine, which blo*dy effin cloths designer would think that women sure dont need pockets, or front pockets at their trousers?

I find it hard to go clothes shopping as most often the current style is just not for me, so I was over the moon when they stocked jeans with a slightly flared leg (boot cut?),

But, a big but, front pockets were just for show, completely sown shut. I weighed the pros and cons and got two pairs,

only to despaire when wearing them, so into hibernation they went. yesterday I tried one again, and then just sat down and added a pocket right on the front it...

it may look odd but I am so delighted every time I reach for my keys or something (back pockets are full with mobile phone and wallet (so, yes, I am no purse- or handbag-person...)

the second jeans is at a taylors shop (the kind for altering and mending) right now as my old sowing maschine is iffy. The owner looked at my funny but smiled when I mentioned the

need for another pocket, and the second pocket will look a bit more civilized with the typical twin stitching in denim yarn yellow

I wear bug spray most of the time when I am planning to be outside for more than a few minutes, and loose-fitting clothes, sandals. I have a pretty large collection of casual, around-the-house clothes that I wear at home, whether gardening or not. It's not possible to be concerned about your appearance when sweat is dripping into your eyes and you're only 75% conscious. Can't do anything in the sun long enough to worry about sunscreen. I only use that on beach & boat days. Lengthy out-in-the-sun chores are reserved for Oct-April. During the heat, I water and take pics & stumble back inside.

When out-of-the-house shoes aren't suited for public anymore, they become yard shoes.

I do dress for gardening because I have to go somewhere to do it (not just step out of the door) So I expect to have to put in some hours, either at the allotment or wood or at my few remaining customers) so yep, I have separate gardening clothes to non-work clothes...but not really any different, just grubbier.

Tweed. Quite a lot of it. And stout leather shoes or boots. It will be a dark, dark day before I suffer either jeans or trainers UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Or T-shirts for that matter. Or especially shorts. Just because it's a bit wet, cold or muddy, doesn't mean style has to go out of the window...and anyway, I find that wool hacking jackets and linen shirts(for summer) or my handknitted jumpers,(winter) improve with age and wear. I don't wear wellies or coats either (shapeless, horrible and cold). I don't really like wearing trousers but I do put up with leather ones for winter. I have several pairs of leather pants which I have worn for many years. Every winter, I am always somewhat cheered that another year has gone by without my bottom increasing in girth - although, tbf, leather, especially old, saddlesoaped and oiled leather, has a certain flex which is forgiving on my thunder-thighs. I always wear a hat (whether I am gardening or not) because I like them. Hats, that is.

In summer, I tend to wear loose cotton frocks. And leather shoes. I never, ever garden in sandals., no matter how hot..and as for bare-feet...just no. I make a lot of my own clothes so I can use durable fabrics and include capacious pockets.

I have a gardening neighbour at the allotment who has been wearing the same black and grey striped sweater for over 20 years.

My family says I dress to embarrass them! lol

Whatever makes me comfortable weather wise. Anything I don't care if it gets dirty or gets holes.

I look like a ragdoll in the garden. No....worse. And I don't care!