Friday, March 9, 2007

Fashionable Footwear For Gardening

Decisions, decisions! What to wear and what not to wear in the garden. Trinny and Susannah are of no use whatsoever, they don't do gardening, they might break a nail. That doesn't bear thinking about, does it?

But for the female gardener who wants to be stylish yet practical at the same time, I've come up with a few solutions.

We start at the top from the left with my stylish yet affordable wellies, with deep pink roses all over them. They come in very handy when the garden is rather on the wet side, like it is now. The first week of March had more rainfall already, than the whole of March on average. And my garden is heavy clay, so you do the maths.

Then there are my pink short wellies. Pretty aren't they? And so feminine. I usually wear them when I'm working in the front garden. One has to take into account that one might be spotted by someone and it wouldn't really do to frighten the natives by wearing horrible footwear. People are so sensitive nowadays.

The last pair in the top row belong to my second in command on the gardening front. I'm assured that they are very comfortable and practical. Stylish, however, they are not. Moving on!

My Burberry wellies, a fashion statement if I ever saw one, I usually put on for a bit of Lady of the manor gardening. You know the thing; in the one hand a pair of sharp secateurs, in the other a glass of champagne and with gay abandon one prunes away for Queen and Country whilst swilling bubbly in vast quantities. 'Nuff said!

And now we come down to the grim business of the garden clog. One doesn't want be seen dead in them, let alone alive, but they are very practical in the garden so what's a fashionable garden grrl to do? Wear them in the dead of night of course when there's no one about to see you wearing these "things". Well, that's what I do anyway.

Apparently there are some women about with different views on these matters. Check out Carol's story on May Dreams Gardens blog where she has this and this to say on the subject of garden footwear. Poor deluded thing! :-)

And how about you, gentle reader? What kind of footwear do you use when gardening and is it fashionable or not? Do tell and show!

One had as good be out of the world, as out of the fashion.
Colley Cibber, 1671 - 1757

25 comments:

Green thumb said...

Hats off to you Yolanda for your sheer genius!
The concept of fashionable footwear for Garden is mindblowing.Being a gardening enthusiast myself, I don't consider Gardening as a drab hobby but to glamorise it with those lovely footwear is brilliant!!!

Carol Michel said...

Me? A poor deluded thing?! Too funny. I love my garden shoes and would not trade them for any of yours! We are oceans apart on our footwear choices for gardening, now aren't we? ;-)

Anonymous said...

I like them, purple.

Melanie Chopay said...

Dear Yolanda Elizabet,

Wowza, I need new shoes! Somehow I'll never be happy with my dreadful green garden clogs or my brown crocs anymore. I want PINK!

Now I have something to keep me busy while we are waiting for our frigid temperatures to go away.

Thanks for a great blog!

Melanie

Gotta Garden said...

"Out of world" AND "Out of fashion"...that's me! It had never occurred to me to have a selection...hmmm. And, colors, no less! While not a pink gal, I'm sure, absolutely, there must be something out there for me.

I have muck shoes and boots, but after seeing yours, they are absolutely too boring (besides I slip in the shoes...that won't do); however, I did find these Clarks muckers (or something like that) and I was perfectly happy with them in basic blue (I thought that was hip)...until I saw yours. I just checked the Clarks site and apparently they don't even make those any more, so another color is out of the question.

Well, this is your fault, Yolanda Elizabet. I simply can't be out in the garden in such boring shoes, even if I am wearing stained and ragged clothing. (Don't tell me you dress for gardening, too??)

And here I thought you were going to show us some sort of wild wooden shoe assortment. Silly me, I should have known better...you are far too posh for that!

(Just having fun!)

Annie in Austin said...

Oh Yolanda Elizabet, you really have a fine collection... but cute shoes for me is like music for the tone-deaf!!

Whatever pair of New Balance walking shoes is currently the oldest will be what I wear in the garden - I also have green clogs and sometimes wear sports sandals or Addidas slides if I'm not using spades or garden forks.

Even as a young woman my feet would never fit into fashionable shoes - now my DRESS shoes are black Birks!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Greg C said...

I like the wellies in the top left. As for me being from the south, I usualy go with tennis shoes or dare I say, barefooted. Now with the addition of my two chickens this year, I may not go barefooted again. This winter was really wet so I had to wear waterproof shoes a lot.

Sisah said...

I am quite surprised to see such a collection of fashionable footwear for gardening. And they look astonishing clean and as if you hardly wore them.
I have one pair green plastic clogs for the garden and they are not fashinable whatsoever...may be I should look more after myself in future ...possible my plants will appreciate that??!!

Anonymous said...

Boy, I feel like a garden slob now. ;-) Cute shoes, Yolanda Elizabet, but I'll stick to my unfashionable red, slip-on clogs or bare feet. We don't have a mud season in Austin, so Wellies are out. But your collection is quite fun.

Libbys Blog said...

Wow! what a selection! I wouldn't have room for all of those! I'm a green wellie wearer for working in the garden. For pottering or pottling or checking the chickens I wear my clogs!!!!

To get the pics where you want them I always choose lareg and centre for the image, I type what I want, up load the image which for me always goes to the top of the page so I cut and paste it to where I want!! Hope that helps!!

Carol Michel said...

Yolanda... I've challenged all garden bloggers to show us their gardening shoes! http://maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com/2007/03/garden-shoe-challenge.html

I bet more have shoes like mine that like yours! :-)

Carol at May Dreams Gardens

Garden Cats + Crafts said...

Hello Yolanda Elizabet, your big collection of garden footware. The pink short wellis lookes very feminin. I haven`t so nice shoes. I only have normally deep blue "Gummistiefel". I dont know, how named in English. And than I have green garden clogs. When I see your pretty garden footware, I think I must by most beautifully shoes. I wish you a lucky weekend in the garden. I will send you the sun from here. Many regards, Birgit

Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen said...

Hi all,

Thanks for all your comments, some of them just cracked me up (Annies and Gotta Garden). Thanks also for making me feel very fashionable, if only for a minute or two, because as soon as I looked into the mirror .........

The point I was trying to make with this post is that we can wear very practical footwear and look good too. For those of you who would like some practical, fun garden footwear, I hope you find it. Over here we are spoilt for choice.

Carol, I don't think we're oceans apart as far as garden footwear is concerned. Take a good look at the picture and in the bottom right hand corner you will find a pair of brown erm, it starts with c and ends with logs. :-)

Libby thanks very much for your answer to my question and yes, it was very helful! Wellies are great in the garden aren't they?

Birgit, Gummistiefel are wellies (Wellington boots) in English and it's fine if you comment in German because I can read that too, no problem. The choice is yours. And thank you for the sunshine on saturday. :-)

Sisah, the rose wellies are only 1 year old but the rest is not. I just cleaned them up a bit before I took the picture. ;-)


Green Thumb, gardening can be fun on so many levels, even down to our footwear. Thank you for your kind words and I hope you'll find some fun footwear for the garden too.

Carol Michel said...

Yolanda Elizabet, I saw those brown clogs and I suspected those are the ones you wear the most!

I've had great shoe fun, too. Maybe I'll just get a flowery pink pair of clogs to shock everyone?

Shall we move on with a challenge to show what we really wear in the garden... hats, shoes, and pants?

Carol at May Dreams Gardens

Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen said...

Melanie, I hope you find some fun garden shoes/wellies/clogs to wear too! And welcome to my blog. :-)

Carol, I think I wear the wellies and the erm c l o g s about 50/50. Now mostly wellies because of the very wet clay. Can we spell ankle deep mud? ;-) For mowing the grass the wellies are best too, they keep my jeans and socks from getting grass stained.

And yes please, get yourself a pair of flowery pink clogs, they will go so well with your pretty floorlength pink and white dress. ;-)

Carol Michel said...

Oh, my, I had forgotten about my profile picture! As my sister said "so not you, Carol!" But until I find another one, that's what I've got.

I shall be posting about fashionable clothes for gardening in a few days!

Lis vom Lindenhof said...

Oh, ich hab nur drei Paar Gartenschuhe. Die einen ziehe ich an wenn es trocken ist, dann habe ich noch ein Paar Clogs und Gummistiefel für Matschwetter im Herbst. Das muss reichen!

Layanee said...

Love the talk on garden shoes! At least there are none with heels! Just bought a pair of crocs for the garden. Stay tuned to see if the holes let in too much debris or are just perfect for air conditioning! They come in pink and purple but with big feet I could only get navy. Oh well, maybe I will paint some polka dots on them!

Gotta Garden said...

Thanks for taking care of that second comment for me! Appreciate it! (Think I had a brain freeze or something....geesh)

Boxwood Cottage said...

LOL I also own a pair of rose wellies, but in a softer pink and a pair of short black wellies as well as a pair of lightgreen garden clogs.

Kylee Baumle said...

Thanks for this post! I will be addressing this in a future post on my blog, now that you've brought it up. This post also reminded me that my red Ladybug clogs need replacing, so I'm going to order some this week. Mine have cracks across the tops of both of them. I think I'll spring for both clogs AND Wellies!! Woo hooooooooo!!

Silvia Hoefnagels . Salix Tree said...

I love the clogs, personally. I would definately wear them into my local village, they would look much more fashionable than all the wellies we see here!
I too have a post with my very fashionable garden footwear. ;-}
http://windywillow.blogspot.com/2007/03/high-fashion-in-bogs.html

Anonymous said...

Adorable collection.! I think those shoes are best for gardening. Those seems stylish yet affordable.

Anonymous said...

i love these shoes

Laetitia Maklouf said...

Deeply chic...love your collection...but you need some truly spiky heels for your lawn (preferably pink) x