2024’s Best Cities for Naked Gardening

*Due to inaccuracies in the Virginia State Police’s sex offender registry, the data used in our study related to sex offenders in Virginia may be incorrect. We will update our findings as soon as accurate information is available.

Where in the U.S. can you garden in your birthday suit without fear of being exposed to tickets or jail time?

Ahead of World Naked Gardening Day on May 4, LawnStarter ranked 2024’s Best Cities for Naked Gardening.

We compared 500 of the biggest U.S. cities based on 4 categories – Nude Gardener Friendliness, Local Interest, Weather Forecast, and Safety. Specifically, we considered the number of local nudists, legality of public nudity, Google searches, and forecasts for May 4, among 11 total metrics.

The naked truth? Some cities are more accepting of nude gardening, and it’s still too nippy in some cities to be outside wearing just a hat and gardening gloves. To learn how we ranked the cities, see our methodology.

Contents

• City Rankings
• Gardens of Eden: Top 5 Close Up
• The Naked Truth: Key Insights
• Ask the Experts
• Behind the Ranking
• Final Thoughts: Green Thumbs and Sunburned Bodies

City Rankings

See how each city fared in our ranking:

Gardens of Eden: Top 5 Close Up

Check out the slideshow below for highlights on each of our top 5 cities for nude gardening.

The Naked Truth: Key Insights

Grin and Bare It: Miami, Austin, New York, Philadelphia, and Asheville – our 5 top cities for nude gardening – all have lax laws (or no laws) when it comes to public nudity. Austin and Asheville are also liberal-leaning cities in conservative states. See Related: Where Naked Gardening Could Lead to Jail, Fines

Asheville, by the way, finishes No. 1 for the weather forecast for WNGD.

Too Cold for Comfort: It’s still winter in Anchorage  – at No. 500 – and Duluth, Minnesota – at No. 498. AccuWeather forecasts a high of 51 for Anchorage and 55 for Duluth on May 4. That’s not frostbite weather but not ideal to be naked outside. 

And Billings, Montana, at No. 496 overall, finishes at No. 500 for weather conditions on Saturday. One possible solution: Maybe observe WNGD in June to increase participation in the northern part of the U.S.? (More on this later.)

Lack of Interest: Dozens of cities tied for being the least interested in naked gardening, nude gardening, or related Google searches. Among these: Rochester, Minnesota, Syracuse, New York, Flagstaff, Arizona, Rapid City, South Dakota, Tallahassee, Florida, Toledo, Ohio, Springfield, Missouri, and Waco, Texas.

Lack of interest only partly explains why many of these cities – and they’re all over the map – finished in the bottom half of our ranking. Rochester, Minnesota, for example, No. 483 overall, has little interest in gardening in the buff and ranks No. 484 for Naked Gardener Friendliness. 

Safety Matters: You don’t want to be gardening naked outdoors if there are a lot of sex offenders in your neighborhood. You might have to use your hoe as a weapon. Richmond, Virginia, finished worst in this metric, at 495, and Flint, Michigan, was runner-up at No. 494.

Naked gardening is all about being natural outdoors and comfortable in your own skin. You don’t want to worry about neighbors who might have a criminal past. The safest cities to garden naked? Bloomington, Minnesota, which finished No. 1 in this metric, Plymouth, Minnesota, at No. 2, and San Ramon, California, at No. 3

Ask The Experts

Public nudity can be a touchy subject. We reached out to a panel of fully clothed experts to offer their tips for safely gardening in the buff. 

1. In many European countries, nudity is socially acceptable. Why is nudity treated as taboo in America by comparison?
2. Does public nudity support the body positivity movement? Why or why not?
3. Public nudity is allowed in very few U.S. cities. What do these cities have in common, if anything?
4. What are three benefits and three dangers of gardening in the nude?
5. What are your three best tips for first-time nude gardeners?

Tessa West

Associate Professor, Department of Psychology

Leslie Gielow Jacobs

Director, Capital Center for Law & Policy, Professor of Law

Tessa West

Associate Professor, Department of Psychology

New York University

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Tessa West

Associate Professor, Department of Psychology

New York University

In many European countries, nudity is socially acceptable. Why is nudity treated as taboo in America by comparison?

America has a complicated history with puritanism. Social conservatism — and with that a belief that people should dress conservatively and not show their private bits to the world — still runs strong through our American veins.

The places where public nudity is illegal tend to be more conservative places. In Alabama (a conservative state), for example, the punishment for public nudity can include a year in jail, $6,000 in fines, and being forced to register as a sex offender.

Does public nudity support the body positivity movement? Why or why not?

This probably depends entirely on where you live. In places where public nudity is socially unacceptable (even if legal), there is probably such a strong norm against it that the simple act of doing it would lead to social ostracism, which isn’t exactly good for the body positive movement. But in places where being barely clothed or not-at-all clothed is socially acceptable (think South Beach in Miami), it certainly could.

Beliefs about what is beautiful take time to change, so my guess is one act of public nudity won’t move the needle, but lots of it — coupled with positive messages about the benefits of public nudity — definitely could. Modeling behavior is important. If people see different types of bodies out there and people feeling truly comfortable in their own skin, that could make them realize, “Hey, I look beautiful in the nude, too.”

Public nudity is allowed in very few U.S. cities. What do these cities have in common, if anything?

Social conservatism. Politically liberal places are much more likely to allow nudity than conservative ones.

What are three benefits and three dangers of gardening in the nude?

For benefits, I would say an increase in vitamin D, learning to feel comfortable in your skin, and exploring new physical sensations.

Dangers include sunburn, accidental injury if you’re not careful (hint: don’t sit down in the dirt!), and bug bites where you don’t want them.

What are your three best tips for first-time nude gardeners?

1. Wear sunscreen — everywhere! Remember, some of these body parts have never seen the sun, so they are very vulnerable. This is true for all skin tones and races.
2. Make sure you aren’t using any chemicals (like weed killer) that might come in contact with your body. If you need gloves to handle your gardening chemicals, it might not be a good time to go nude.
3. Bring a towel or blanket. Crouching down over your plot of land to dig out beans is fine, but most of us naturally sit down when our legs get tired — it’s an automatic behavior we don’t think about. Think proactively, and put something down on the ground that will be kind to your behind.

Leslie Gielow Jacobs

Director, Capital Center for Law & Policy, Professor of Law

University of the Pacific

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Leslie Gielow Jacobs

Director, Capital Center for Law & Policy, Professor of Law

University of the Pacific

In many European countries, nudity is socially acceptable. Why is nudity treated as taboo in America by comparison?

Different attitudes in different countries about public nudity stem from their different histories and cultural values. Attitudes in the United States likely stem in part from various religious doctrines that equate nudity with sexual desire and sexual desire with shame.

The U.S. Constitution permits states and cities to restrict public nudity so long as it is only conduct, not a form of speech. Interestingly, the U.S. Constitution more severely limits the ability of governments to restrict nudity that is part of speech, including pornography and live nude dancing, than do the free-speech guarantees of most other countries. So, European countries may allow more public nudity but also restrict more pornography than in the United States.

Also, U.S. women have successfully challenged public nudity restrictions that apply unequally, prohibiting them from displaying their breasts and nipples, for example, when men may do so.

Behind the Ranking

First, we determined the factors (metrics) that are most relevant to the Best Cities for Naked Gardening. We then assigned a weight to each factor based on its importance and grouped those factors into four categories: Nude Gardener-Friendliness, Local Interest, Weather Forecast, and Safety. The categories, factors, and their weights are listed in the table below.

For each of the 500 biggest U.S. cities, we then gathered data on each factor from the sources listed below the table.

Finally, we calculated scores (out of 100 points) for each city to determine its rank in each factor, each category, and overall. A city’s Overall Score is the average of its scores across all factors and categories. The highest Overall Score ranked “Best” (No. 1) and the lowest “Worst” (No. 500). 

Sources: AccuWeather, City-Data.com, CriminalDefenseLawyer, FindLaw, Google Trends, LawnStarter Urban Gardening study story, True Nudists, and World Population Review

Final Thoughts: Green Thumbs and Sunburned Bodies

What is World Naked Gardening Day? Some say naked gardening goes back to Adam and Eve, of course, but the observance of World Naked Gardening Day in the U.S. dates back to 2005 when Seattle residents Mark Storey and his partner helped make WNGD an annual event.

Why garden naked? Naturist Education’s WNGD page notes: “Gardening naked is not only a simple joy, it reminds us – even if only for those few sun-kissed minutes – that we can be honest with who we are as humans and as part of this planet.”

Cathy Walker, president of the American Community Gardening Association, agrees. “Working in a community garden naked is like embracing nature’s dress code: au naturel with a side of soil. Just make sure to watch out for those cheeky sunburns in places you didn’t even know had names!”

Here are some things to know:

The date of WNGD, the first Saturday of May, is not embraced by all. Why? “Most of us north of the Mason-Dixon Line aren’t very supportive of the current date,” naturist activist Bill Schroer, who owns a naturist B&B in Michigan, said on the Why? podcast recently. (Tip: Start at the 10-minute mark.)

“The first Saturday in May is not often a good day to be outside nude (in Michigan) because it’s rarely 70 to 75 degrees, which is when at least a lot of us like it to be warm enough to be naked,” he adds.

Schroer would move the “holiday” to a later date. “We could simply get a lot more participation if we moved it back to the first Saturday in June or some other day,” he says.

In fact, around the world, World Naked Gardening Day is observed on different dates, based on the local or regional climate. 

You can find a list of some planned WNGD observances Saturday on the Naturist Education webpage linked above.

But how to observe WNGD safely? Here are a few tips:

• Wear sunscreen. Everywhere. Pale parts of your body will easily burn. This applies for naked gardeners of all skin tones and races, notes New York University’s Tessa West in her expert comments above.
  
• Don’t use any chemicals (like weed killer) that might come in contact with your body. “If you need gloves to handle your gardening chemicals, it might not be a good time to go nude,” West notes.
  
• Don’t sit naked on the ground. You’re tired of gardening, but don’t rest on the dirt or grass. Ants and fire ants are easily confused, and fire ants have a vicious bite.
  
• Watch out for itchy, prickly plants. Be careful about what plants you are around or planting – poison ivy, cactus, pampas grass, etc. Plant-caused rashes, pricks, and cuts can be hard to reach and treat on some parts of the body.
  
• Don’t hurt yourself. Do dig some holes for seeds or plants. Do not use a hedge clipper, string trimmer or rototiller naked.

Whether you garden naked or not, do not operate a lawn mower – push mower or riding mower – naked. Better to hire a local LawnStarter lawn care pro to keep your grass green and healthy while you juggle all the other things you do every week.

Media Resources

• High-resolution images of cities
• 2021’s Best Cities for Naked Gardeing ranking results
• 2022’s Best Cities for Naked Gardening ranking results
• 2023’s Best Cities for Naked Gardening ranking results

Main Photo Credit: Tainted Fruit / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

Jeff Herman

Jeff Herman, editor-in-chief of LawnStarter, mowed lawns as a teen, and his uncle owned the biggest sod business in St. Louis. Previously, Herman worked at The New York Times, CreditCards.com, and most recently at AllAboutVision.com. Now Herman is All About Lawn Care.

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