Dressed to Till : What Gardeners Choose to Wear or Bare When Spending a Day in the Dirt Says Plenty About Them

Gardening fashion? There’s an oxymoron. But scratch the muddy surface of most amateur gardeners and you’ll find something even better--personal style.

One man always wears his yarmulke; another swears by rubber flood boots. An actress and veteran gardener throws caution to the wind, working in the sun without a hat or gloves.

Although some companies have tried to capitalize on the gardening vogue with clothing lines, it’s rare to find the gardener who buys a gardening “outfit.”

Smith & Hawken, the catalogue for upscale gardeners, recently stopped publishing its separate clothing catalogue. Why? Partly because customers complained about the prices, says company spokeswoman Elizabeth Dunn, and partly because hard-core gardeners “didn’t get it.”

It seems serious gardeners would rather buy new plants than new clothes.

Here, five gardeners tell us how they dress for a dig in the dirt.

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“I have a uniform,” says photographer Steve Gunther, who’s tended his eclectic garden in Ramirez Canyon for 10 years. Either jeans or “shorts from the Gap--green, black, blue and orange. They’re cotton with an elastic waistband. Black gardening boots that come up to my knees . . . the boots everyone sells out here when it starts to flood. I put in arch supports. They’re cheap--$20 at Agoura Lumberyard.

“I should wear a hat, because I’m fair-skinned, but I don’t. I break off an aloe vera leaf and smear myself with it. It prevents me from peeling. I always wear gloves. I’m not into the sensuousness of the soil. The canvas and suede ones from Home Depot are really cheap. Oh, and a cordless phone, so I don’t miss any assignments. I try to look cool. Why not? It’s your own creation.”

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When Elizabeth Hoffman tends her garden filled with hollyhocks, lavender and old roses, she’s not fussy about how she looks. Anything that’s cotton and “you can sweat in” fits the bill. “I do a lot of film work and I really should wear a hat. But I don’t. Sometimes, when it’s really hot I wear sunscreen. My feet really don’t like shoes. In the morning I wear Uggs, those shearling-lined shoes they have at surf shops, with crepe soles.”

The Malibu actress, who is in England now, playing Meryl Streep’s mother in “The River Wild,” doesn’t particularly like gloves either. “I can’t feel the dirt.” Which is really the point. Gardening, says the actress, “keeps you real.”

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While planting the terraces of her 1920s Spanish home in Beachwood Canyon with tulips, freesia, hyacinth and a vegetable garden, novice gardener Julia Solarz prefers to dress in basics. “I wear white Keds, a beat-up pair. And Gap sweats. They’re thick and something I can get dirty in. Plus, I’m pregnant and they can stretch. If it’s hot I’ll wear shorts. But I don’t wear a hat or sunscreen. I’m in the sun so little that it feels good to get some on my face once in a while. But I do wear gloves.”

Solarz’s favorites, which have less fabric in the palms than gloves made for men, are made by a company called WomansWork. “They fit really well. I like to protect my hands. Not only from the dirt, but from bugs too.”

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“I aspire to wearing gloves,” says Marlene Frantz, who tends the family’s organic garden with husband Ben Katz in Topanga Canyon. “But I always worry there’s going to be a spider inside. I even prune my roses without gloves. I’ve always gardened in jeans because they have pockets for stashing a packet of seeds or clippers. I like slip-on Keds. And I always wear a hat, usually a seed cap from some Iowa gardening company.”

Sunscreen? “I never remember.”

Katz, who installs drip-irrigation systems for a living, wears “Oshkosh farmer pants” from Sears. “They’ve got triple-stitched seams down the sides and they’re loose in the leg,” he says. “They’ve got a tool loop and big, square pockets. But mostly, they’re not Smith & Hawken. If I’m digging, I wear old Redwing boots. I’ve never been able to wear gloves. I can’t feel the shovel, plus, I like the calluses. And I always wear my yarmulke,” although it’s sometimes hidden under a baseball cap.

Where to Get in Gear

No gardener wants to look like Mr. Green Jeans, dressed from head to toe in gardening togs. But specialty items have their place in a serious gardener’s wardrobe, and with good reason.

Why muddy up good sneakers when Birkenstock’s nerdy rubber clogs, $33, are so darn washable? Why have craggy old gardener’s hands when gloves cost less than $1? And why stick your little pruning shears in your waistband when Hermes’ $1,050 two-toned suede gardening apron has loads of pockets?

Martha Stewart, long a glove-less gardener, now layers cotton work gloves over rubber surgeon’s gloves for “some semblance of cleanliness” on camera, she says. “Like this morning on the ‘Today’ show, I showed things you could make out of corn.” She may have planted and harvested the corn, but you couldn’t tell from her hands.

What follows is a select listing of places where you can stock up on gardening clothes and accessories:

Target, Southland stores. These stores are loaded with the sort of stuff that makes great gardening apparel, like $1 baseball caps; rust-colored Bugle Boy denim overalls, $20; Sostanza work boots with crepe soles, $16; pigskin gloves, $10; strap-on neoprene kneepads, $7.99.

Hermes, 343 N. Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills; (310) 278-6440. The place to satisfy high-end gardening fantasies, this French company makes a beautiful suede apron or “gardening pinny,” (for pinafore) as the British call it, with matching two-toned suede gloves, $195. Hermes also offers a large silver whiskey flask, $2,295, for inspiration among the roses.

The Surplus Store, 10341 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles; (310) 841-0289. Probably any military surplus store would carry items suitable for gardening. This one has lots of soft, short denim overalls by Weeds, $28.95; long overalls in pale, wheat-colored denim by Pointer Brand, $24.95; rattan safari hats, $16.95; Army-green canteens, $6.50; and bandannas in every color, including camouflage, $1.99.

Seeds, 126 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 965-8119. The ambience and the merchandise in this tranquil little store would make a gardener out of anyone. Here, you can buy a fully lined, tailored jacket by Utility Canvas, $129, and overalls with built-in pockets for kneepads by Greenknees, $54. Pigskin gloves made especially for women--with less fabric in the palm--are $20; gauntlet-style gloves, for pruning roses or cutting pampas grass, $42. British-made Kent scrub brushes with angled bristles for really getting dirt from under nails are $17. Light-as-a-feather fiber string bags are $3.

Nordstrom, Southland stores. As befits a fashion retailer, Nordstrom carries gardening items that have a bit of whimsy. Seattle-based artist Roseanne Stanzione’s Miz Rose line includes canvas gardening gloves hand-painted with carrots, $14, and straw hats that tie under the chin to keep them from blowing into the neighbor’s garden, $29. We also found a water-bottle holster made of grass-green vinyl by Kerri Kahn/Headgames, $14.

Armstrong’s, 11321 W. Pico Blvd., West Los Angeles; (310) 477-8023. This gardeners’ paradise carries handmade stationery but surprisingly little yuppie gardening garb. It does, however, sell Birkenstock clogs in red, navy, green and yellow for $33, which do, occasionally, go on sale.

Smith & Hawken Catalogue, (415) 383-2000. Even though this Mill Valley, Calif.-based company has discontinued its separate clothing catalogue, several of the most popular items are still available in the gardening catalogue, like the flattering Garden Boater, with its low, generous crown, $24; Eco-Sneaks, $65, made from recycled tires; and a so-corny-it’s-cool collapsible Madras Sun Hat, $25.--DEBRA GENDEL

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