Some rules are meant to be broken in the garden. Safety should always come first, but sometimes the irresistible squish of earth beneath our feet is more important.
There is an unwritten rule in the Avant Garden: no bare feet! With rocks and bees and the occasional thistle, it is best not to tread shoeless in parts unknown. With raised-beds and mulched paths, the garden is generally easy to navigate. Flip flops will do; its not that bad.
If youve ever stepped on a bee, youll appreciate the shoe rule in the garden. Even the most seasoned gardener has encountered the bee diligently gathering nectar and much to their surprise, Ouch, I didnt see it! Itll ruin your day, not to mention the bees.
There are several rules that never get broken in the garden:
No pesticides
No herbicides
No synthetic fertilizers
I will not bend these at all. There are too many alternatives. Nothing removes pests from plants better than a strong spray from the garden hose or a gloved hand with a mission. Pulling weeds is always better than spraying them, only to have to pull them later when they have expired. Why add the extra step? Are you kidding, buy fertilizer?
The shoe rule gets bent a lot, especially by the seven-year-old gardener. Shoes are always at the bottom of the summer priority list for her. The need to be barefoot is something I can understand. It didnt take me more than four decades to realize our feet must touch the earth. I realized that in my first few months.
Much of the time spent in the garden requires work, hunched over, stooping and reaching, itching and sweating work. Dont get me wrong, this is good work. This is the kind of work that validates us, makes us feel self-sufficient and able. When that work becomes food on our table and we see our children eating it wow, there is nothing quite like it.
Work requires shoes sometimes boots sometimes steel-toed. Generally the garden clogs or flip-flops are sufficient. I do not always prescribe to protective eyewear, but I do believe sharp-edged metal tools forcefully heaved into the ground accompanied by grunts is reason enough to protect ones toes.
I stop and think what the seven-year-old is doing in the garden. Shell work if instructed to do so, but shes exploring. Shes exploring with her eyes, with her nose and ears, with her hands and with her feet.
You can feel things with your feet firmly planted on the ground that you might otherwise miss in the safety of a shoe. Dirt, or soil as we like to call it, has a personality depending on the weather and amount of precipitation. It can squish beneath us or be so hot we dare not stay too long.
Without shoes in the garden, I am less likely to work. Being barefoot forces me to sit. Ill see the weeds coming up in the path and pull a few. I always come to one with a tap root that extends below the water table. No problem. Ill just grab the shovel. Bare feet do not work so well with a shovel. So Ill sit a little longer. The lucky weed makes it another day.
