(LawnStarter) – Can you garden naked anywhere in America without fearing a fine or jail time?
To mark World Naked Gardening Day on May 4, LawnStarter has ranked the best cities for naked gardening in 2024.
We compared the 500 largest cities in the U.S. based on four categories: Nude Gardener-friendliness, local interest, weather forecast, and safety. Specifically, we considered 11 metrics in total, including the number of local nudists, the legality of public indecency, Google searches, and May 4 weather forecasts.
What's the truth? Some cities are tolerant of naked gardening, while in others it's still too cold to go outside in just a hat and gardening gloves. See our methodology for how we rank cities.
(Lone Starter)
City Ranking
See where each city ranks on LawnStarter's rankings.
Garden of Eden: Top 5 Close-ups
#1: Miami, Florida | Overall Score: 75.11
Naked GardenerFriendliness: 2Local Interest: 178Weather: 134Safety: 395
Local tip: Celebrate WNGD with like-minded gardeners at SunSport Gardens Family Naturist Resort in Loxahatchee. Or visit Haulover Beach to explore the park's flora. If you're comfortable baring it all, book a Big Nude Boat Cruise for next year.
#2: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Overall Score: 72.28
Naked GardenerFriendliness: 3Local Interest: 105Weather: 260Safety: 337
Local tip: Celebrate World Naked Gardening Day at home or spend the weekend at a Philadelphia naturist BnB. Sunny Rest Resort is another option, with opening weekend May 3-5. Oh yeah, a few years ago, two Philadelphia TV hosts had a fun time talking about WNGD.
#3: New York, New York | Overall Score: 67.61
Naked GardenerFriendliness: 13Local Interest: 1Weather: 309Safety: 98
Local tip: New York apartments offer great balconies and rooftops for nude gardening, but you can also garden naked indoors. Not scared of being naked? If naturism is your thing, head to the Naked in a Cave event upstate this fall.
#4: Austin, Texas | Overall Score: 66.99
Naked GardenerFriendliness: 1Local Interest: 376Weather: 282Safety: 259
Local tip: Austin residents sunbathe nude at Hippie Hollow, while nude botanists can search for the park's rare plants at WNGD. If gardening naked isn't your thing (or you've done it in your yard), Hill Country Nudists are hosting a May 4th Star Wars party.
#5: Asheville, North Carolina | Overall Score: 64.01
Naked GardenerFriendliness: 7Local Interest: 229Weather: 1Safety: 358
Local tip: In the liberal stronghold of North Carolina, known for its annual topless rally, gardening naked seems like a natural (or natural) backyard activity. But for how long? Asheville has no laws banning people from being topless in public, but state lawmakers are trying to change that.
The Naked Truth: Key Insights
Smile and be naked: Miami, Austin, New York, Philadelphia, and Asheville — LawnStarter's top five nude gardening cities — have looser laws (or no laws) when it comes to public nudity. Austin and Asheville are also liberal-leaning cities in conservative states. Related article: Where gardening naked could lead to jail time and fines
Incidentally, Asheville is ranked #1 in WNGD weather forecasts.
Too Cold for Comfort: It's still winter in Anchorage (ranked 500th) and Duluth, Minnesota (ranked 498th). AccuWeather predicts a high of 51 degrees in Anchorage and 55 degrees in Duluth on May 4. It won't be hot enough to cause frostbite, but it's not ideal for being outside naked.
And Billings, Montana, ranked 496th overall, will finish 500th for Saturday's weather conditions. One possible solution could be to observe WNGD in June to increase participation in the northern US? (More on this later.)
Lack of interest: Dozens of cities were least interested in naked gardening, nude gardening or related Google searches, including Rochester, Minnesota, Syracuse, New York, Flagstaff, Arizona, Rapid City, South Dakota, Tallahassee, Florida, Toledo, Ohio, Springfield, Missouri and Waco, Texas.
Low interest is only part of the reason why many of these cities (and they're scattered across the map) finish in the bottom half of the rankings. For example, Rochester, Minnesota, ranked 483rd overall but has little interest in nude gardening, ranking 484th in nude gardener-friendliness.
Safety is important: If there are a lot of sex offenders in your neighborhood, you probably don't want to garden outside naked. You might have to use a hoe as a weapon. Richmond, Virginia, ranked last on this indicator at 495th, while Flint, Michigan was the runner-up at 494th.
Nude gardening is all about being outdoors, natural, and feeling comfortable with yourself. You don't want to worry about neighbors with criminal records. What are the safest cities to garden nude? Coming in first for this criterion is Bloomington, Minnesota, followed by Plymouth, Minnesota, and San Ramon, California.
Behind the Rankings
First, LawnStarter identified the factors (indicators) that are most relevant to the best cities for nude gardening. Then, they assigned a weight to each factor based on its importance and grouped the factors into four categories: nude gardening availability, local interest, weather, and safety. The categories, factors, and their weights are shown in the table below.
We then collected data on each factor for each of the 500 largest U.S. cities from the sources listed below the table.
Finally, we calculated each city's score (out of 100) and determined its ranking for each element, each category, and overall. A city's overall score was the average of its scores across all elements and categories. The city with the highest overall score was ranked “best” (#1), while the city with the lowest overall score was ranked “worst” (#500).
Final thoughts: Gardening talent and tanned bodies
What is World Naked Gardening Day? While some say the origins of naked gardening go all the way back to Adam and Eve, the beginnings of World Naked Gardening Day in the United States date back to 2005, when Seattle resident Mark Storey and his partners teamed up to make WNGD an annual event.
Why Garden Nude? The WNGD page on naturist education states, “Gardening naked is not just fun, it reminds us that we can be true to ourselves as humans and as part of this planet, even if just for a few minutes in the sun.”
Cathy Walker, president of the American Community Gardening Association, agrees: “Working naked in a community garden is like embracing nature's dress code — natural, with a little extra soil. Just be careful not to get a sunburn in places you don't even know the name of!”
Here's what you need to know:
The WNGD date of the first Saturday in May isn't accepted by everyone. Why? “Most of us who live north of the Mason-Dixon Line aren't very supportive of the current date,” nudist activist Bill Schroer, who runs a nudist B&B in Michigan, recently told Why? The Podcast. (Hint: Start at the 10-minute mark.)
“The first Saturday in May is often not a good day to be outside naked (in Michigan) because it rarely gets to 70-75 degrees. At least most of us prefer it to be warm enough to be naked,” he added.
Schroer would like to move the “day off” to a later date: “If we moved it back to the first Saturday in June or some other date, we would see more people attending,” he said.
In fact, World Naked Gardening Day is celebrated on different days around the world depending on the region and local climate.
A list of WNGD events scheduled for Saturday can be found on the Naturist Education website.
But how can you observe the WNGD safely? Here are some tips:
Wear sunscreen. Everywhere. White parts of your body burn easily. This is true for people who garden naked, regardless of skin color or race, Tessa West of New York University points out in expert comments. Don't use chemicals (such as herbicides) that may come into contact with your body. “If you need gloves to handle gardening chemicals, it may not be a good time to be naked,” West points out. Don't sit naked on the ground. Even if you're tired from gardening, don't rest on the dirt or grass. Ants and fire ants are easily confused, and fire ants bite viciously. Watch out for itchy and thorny plants. Be aware of plants that are around you or that you are planting, such as poison ivy, cacti, and pampas grass. Rashes, stings, and cuts caused by plants can be hard to reach on parts of your body and difficult to treat. Don't hurt yourself. Dig holes to put seeds and plants in. Don't use hedge clippers, string trimmers, or rotary tillers while naked.
This story was produced by LawnStarter and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media.
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