Gardening in a Kilt (Buzz Kidder Canvas)

[Bugbear]

Hi All, I've been doing most of my gardening in a kilt for the last week or so. It has been in a Buzz Kidder canvas kilt, which has become the kilt version of a pair of jean shorts in my mind. I have also exchanged kilt hose with thick, gray, knee high socks from JC Penny.

It hasn't been too difficult to get used to not bending down when picking things up in the same way as when gardening in pants. I haven't attempted crawling up under my trees in a kilt and probably won't. I've been using a foam rubber pad to protect my knees in some cases. So far most of the gardening has gone well while wearing a kilt including digging up small trees and pulling a few weeds.

* I am using canvas tool aprons in place of a sporan. I don't think I will prune my citrus and mesquite trees in a kilt though: too many thorns. I usually have an old pair of overalls for that task as well as moving concrete blocks and slabs.
Just to clear up a little confusion, the knee protection has to be used whether wearing the kilt or not: sharp things and thorns. In the summer... two-hundred degree gravel. *



I've been wearing a Buzz Kidder canvas kilt while gardening for about two weeks now. After all this use, it is not too wrinkly. The ends of some of the pleats are curled a little bit, but not bad. I can smooth out the apron pretty well with my hand and the same with the pleats. I have been folding it up as if I were going to hang it, but this whole time, I have just been laying it on a wire clothes wrack in that folded way. Just to clarify, I haven't ironed or washed the kilt, but I have brushed it down to get the cat hair and so on off of it.

I have read in a few other threads that the canvas kilts ball up in wrinkles as soon as you put them on. It really isn't that bad if you smooth over everything now and then. I do make sure all the pleats and the aprons are smoothed over as I fold it and put it away. I'm thinking, do your pleats have to look crisp and freshly ironed when you are out in the garden and so on. The shorter sewn down fell doesn't really seem to be an issue for me, and I like that the pleats are sewn down at the inside and outside edge. The army duck canvas has a tuff durable feel to it, and I like that a lot. I don't have a PV kilt to compare it to, but I'm sure a USAK casual would be fine for gardening. Basically, when I got past worrying about the kilt it became very nice to garden in it.

* I have removed the pictures and photo essay now that this thread is old. *

[Moosedog]

Hi, Ted,

I garden all the time in a canvas kilt. I even break down and wear knee pads when working in low beds, quite the fashion statement! Although I too have a pair of overalls for the crawling and tree-pruning. Someday when I have time I intend to make a gardening kilt with reinforced pockets suited to pruners, etc. Garden on!

Moosedog

[string]

I am trying to imagine gardening now, as I look out on snow and salt covered concrete.

[Bugbear]

Hi Moosedog and String. I have a canvas tool apron that ties around my waist. It could be bigger or better, but I was using that from before I started wearing kilts. I've found that putting some tools in pockets ends up putting holes in the pockets.

Sorry String, the weather is pretty nice down here. We pay for it in the summer. I do know they do green house gardening quite well over in Iceland. Strawberries come to mind. Don't know if they garden kilted, but I thought I saw someone on the forum from Iceland at one time.

My Florabunda roses are blooming quite nicely, but those end up in sulcotta food, LOL!

** I'm moving the following over here from my post in another thread. It was the post that began the kilted gardening theme that lead to this thread.

Today I've been out there digging up trees in a Buzz Kidder canvas on and off. It works alright, but I'm still a little worried about getting it snagged on a thorn from one of the citrus trees. I think the main thing holding me back from gardening in a kilt was the hose. JC Penny had some thick gray knee high socks with a red stripe around the top and a cable pattern where the cuff would be turned down if they were as long as kilt hose.

I guess I'm not too worried about getting a BK a little dirty because they can be machine washed. I don't have a clothes dryer, so I don't even know about that, LOL. Still, there might be green tree stains to worry about. Squatting down took a little extra care, but wasn't too big a deal. I used a tool apron instead of a sporran. I also took a foam rubber knee pad for kneeling down and things. I have some bonsai in the ground kind of up under bigger trees, and I would have to crawl up under there on my hands and knees to get at them... I didn't try that in the kilt yet.

All and all, I would still say some things while gardening require pants or something other than a kilt, but that is a thorn issue. I did feel that the cost of the kilt was an issue, but then I realized that I could set aside one kilt for all the messy stuff, and even my ceramics. Perhaps a shirt as long as the kilt like the Scots used to wear, or bike shorts would help, so the kilt can be removed when crawling around in the brier patches.

* I might add that there are only chain-link fences between me and the neighbors. If there were nice seven or eight foot walls around my property, I probably wouldn't care about some of these things...

And to end the day I strapped on a BK this evening, walked out to the citrus trees and picked a couple of grapefruits.
* picture removed. *

There are five of them making a hedge across the back of my property. This one is a Washington Navel, and they are very sweet.

[string]

it's a wee bit warmer in Kentucky than it is in Iceland.

[Bugbear]

it's a wee bit warmer in Kentucky than it is in Iceland.

Yes, but Iceland has volcanic thingies to help heat the greenhouses. I did have a greenhouse/shade house out here, but I am re building the walls and all the stuff is out of there now. That was so nice because it is attached to one side of my trailer, and I have a door from my bedroom to the greenhouse.

Perhaps in your spring, String, you can do a bit of gardening.

* Picture removed. *These are the California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) growing in my front yard. A patch of elephent garlic (Allium ampeloprasum var. ampeloprasum) can also be seen. *this album picture might be too small to see much *
I am wearing a Buzz Kidder canvas kilt. My shoes are hiking boots, and the gray, knee-high socks are from JC Penny. I prefer these socks to hose for casual dress in some cases.

[string]

Yeah, I have to admit the use of volcanic energy is pretty dang cool

[Bugbear]

Yeah, I have to admit the use of volcanic energy is pretty dang cool

I don't know a lot about that. You would think we could use the solar and stuff out here, but it doesn't quite work out. It probably would if the area were just being settled. Still I don't know a lot about that stuff either. I'm just a grizzled hermit in a kilt.

* Picture removed. *


In that picture, I am holding my favorite garden tool: the mattock. Also, these are the type of ankle-strap sandals that I prefer to wear with my casual
kilt. It is the desert after all.


** Moving this here from my post in another thread.

I mostly just checked plants today. Some of the tiger aloes are blooming, as well as the tiger jaws. The fig trees have lost all of their leaves and are ready to transplant and also take cuttings. I always start several fig trees (Brown Turkish Figs) and then give them out to people. I do the same with all my plants that can be rooted without grafting them onto a rootstock like the grape vines and so on.

I was wearing the usual BK canvas and the socks I talked about before. There is a tendency to bend down and pick things up off the ground that I have to be on the gard against. I try to keep that in mind all the time though and I've stopped myself just as I start.

Mrs. Marmalade said she would be starting the marmalade making soon, and it will be picking time.. I will try to get her to bring her camera and get some pictures of a little bit of kilted gardening.


String, I am going to talk Mrs. Marmalade into adding a little honey to the marmalade. Neither she nor I have or handle bee hives, so it will have to be store bought honey for now. There is an issue out here with the Africanized bees. From what I understand, the bee handlers are trying to breed them back with the European honey bees in some way to calm them back down. I don't know enough about this to speak on it; just that the bees and other buzzies love my citrus and other plants.


Guess I do feel a little more at home with garden stuff... Kilt or no kilt, LOL! To end the day, my florabunda rose bush is blooming quite well. The roses end up as sulcotta tortoise food though.

* Picture removed. *
Those sandals I am wearing in the picture are dressey slides and I normally wouldn't garden in them.

[SFCRick]

I am not allowed to garden. It is my Bonnie wifes sole domain. I am however allowed to smoke a cigar and sip a wee dram while I watch her.

[Bugbear]

Ah, I am not married and live alone. On the other hand, I don't smoke or drink. Guess I'm free to garden all I want in my kilt.

In another thread, we were talking a bit about growing pineapples. I think I will start growing them again. MMM pineapple marmalade.
** I'm taking the following out of a post of mine in another thread and putting it here so it doesn't get lost.

It might be interesting to put pineapple into marmalade.
I might bring up too, the pineapple top, being used as a cutting, can rot from the base or the end that is being rooted. Also in the center core. I've used a tiny bit of garden dusting sulfer both at the base and the center to combat this tendency. As well as, rooting it in a sharp sand or well draining planting medium. Just in case anyone wants to try it. They can grow inside quite well, but might not ever make a fruit. Interesting house plant though... There are some other tricks to get them to make a pineapple, but it would be a bit difficult to explain here.

* I am not an expert in pineapple growing, and I do not work in a pineapple agrocultural business. Nor do I sell agrocultural products of any sort commercially.

* Picture removed. * That's my decrative scarecrow in the front yard, and a crow lives in a palm tree overlooking that area. He's not very scarey I guess.