Gardening ruins socks

I wear shoes and socks when I am going to be doing garden work for any amt of time. And everytime my socks(white cotton) get ruined. So dirty with dirt! I am going to invest in dirt brown socks for gardening. What do you wear for socks in the dirt?

My old socks.

I wear white athletic sox and my rubber Berkies. I get so much dirt in my shoes that the soles of my sox are always black. I consider it part of the gardening game.

I don't wear socks when I garden. I have a pair of knock-off crocs. If they get dirty, I just wear them into the shower with me. I love 'em. They're comfortable.

I'd die of heat if I wore socks when gardening. I have a pair of sloggers (those rubbery plastic clogs) and the only disadvantage so far is you really have to check whether something has crawled into them before you put them on. In the winter or when tilling I wear Wellies -- cheap at HD.

I always imagine those croc's or sluggers would be sweaty. That's why I wear socks and old shoes.

Our summer is hovering in the mid to upper 50's, so sox are fine around here! LOL! If I don't wear sox, my feet slide around in my rubber shoes like a greased piston! It drives me nuts. I buy those Russells Athletic crew sox from Costco in packages of 12. When the heels were out, I throw them away. A day in brand new sox gives me happy feet.

I wear some funky-looking black rock climbing shoes with white socks if I am doing any kind of digging or tool work. Otherwise I wear my 2nd-best Tevas, that are half-rotten and more attractive to my dog than they should be. Really now, the roses don't care if you are making a fashion statement....LOL

I wear my rubber sandals, rinse them off when I am through. Only disadvantage is I have to SCRUB my feet when I am thorugh. I would slosh in the mud on the farm barefoot when I was young, so I consider this a step up. I have dark tan lines on my feet, but no one besides family sees those. I only wear shoes when I am mowing the lawn.
I flood irrigate my yard, these are my gardening sandals. Love them

Marie

The sloggers are hot, but they slip right off. They're just so doggone convenient. HE made me wear my old combat boots with the steel toes the first time I got the tiller going. Cotton socks. I was throwing a fit to get them off they were so hot. I guess I'd prefer that to tilling a toe into the ground, but heat stroke is a bigger threat, I think, given my utmost respect for moving metal things.

I used to wear my socks with old runners but then I realized that I was ruining too many pairs of socks. I too bought myself a pair of Sloggers and I love them. They have comfy insoles and linings that absorb sweat. They are so comfy infact that I forget I'm wearing them and end up in public places with them on....oh well!

I have the green ones:

Erynne, they don't get sweaty and icky?

Not really but then I'm not a huge "sweater". If they feel moist, I just take the insoles out and let them sit in the sun.....dry in no time flat! They wash up pretty easy too! I'm thinking of getting another pair for non-gardening use.....they look cool with jeans, lol.

I love my Berkie Professional Clogs. They have neoprine insoles that wick moisture and come out for cleaning. These clogs are expensive, but have backs on them and those wonderful Berkie drop heel fit. I actually have two pair so I can keep one pair by the door to wear inside and another pair to go outside and muck around in. http://www.birkenstockexpress.com/Products/Style.cfm/collection.Birkis/style.Professional%20Clog/id.020820062230-889040/ss.1

I actually wear my crocs to work. I should dress up more than I do--but I don't.

It's flipflops or bare feet for me.

X

I'm so addicted to my Birkies that I use Armor All to polish them for special occasions! LOL! I have a pair of Birkie rubber sandals, as well, but they don't do well for shoveling dirt. We have wet summers, so the sandals leave me slipping around and twisting my ankles.

I wear my Propet walkers, with any old socks. Every year I say I'm keeping one pair pristine for public trotting, but somehow I fail to remember that. I now have three pairs in the garage, by the door and try to remember to take off what's on and replace them with the muddy, stained, rundown old ones but at some point every year, memory fails me and I end up adding another pair to the collection. Oh heck, who needs an excuse to buy new shoes?

If the socks are stained, nobody sees them anyway, they are inside the shoe!

I often forget which pair is the muddy pair, too. I take them out on the porch and pound them over the railing to knock the dried mud out of them every day. My railing is covered with all these little mud snowflake patterns... kinda decorative!

I'm with X!

Cool thread!

I get blisters if I don't wear socks. I have quite a few stained white socks for gardening.
Once in a while I put on a "good" pair that are still white and forget when I go gardening.
The funny thing is that when I visited my mom, I brought those "just once in the garden"
white socks & she was laughing about how thoroughly stained they were. HUH! She
didn't see the ones that I consider stained.

I've got a huge place & I get so grubby dirty that nothing comes clean. So I have a whole
gardening wardrobe - t-shirts, shorts & socks. Lots of 'em so I don't have to do too much
wash.

Tam

I wear DH's old tshirts. When they get too nasty, they go into the dog crates, and from there into the trash. We Recycle!

I try to save some of my clothes for going to town, but somehow most everything becomes gardenwear. I finally bought some black aprons in an effort to save my clothes. Being pretty fat, my belly is the first part of me to get grubby, other than my hands, and there is nothing very fetching about an old gal in a tee shirt with a dirty belly!

I gradually move stuff from good to wear around the house to gardening and digging holes, including tee shirts, shorts, jeans, shoes, and socks. And a lot of my socks are black because I wear them when I'm wearing my black karate pants. When my tee shirts get worn and hole-y, they go into their own pile in the closet.

I wear the $10 rubber boots from WalMart and men's athletic socks. I would prefer to go bare foot, but between hot sand (you really CAN cook an egg on it some days) in summer, scorpions and snow in the winter, and thigh-high tumble weed covered in thorns, I decided I'd better run around with protection. The socks insulate my feet from heat and cold. Since the boots go up past my calves, most of the sand/wet sand (no dirt/no mud here-yet!) stays outside and away from my feet. I do make sure to dump them out before putting them on, and they are stored in doors, lest they become spider nesting grounds.

I'd love to go shoeless all the time. But between the spiders inside, and the roses and sharp rocks outside, I'm afraid I have to protect my feet.

I, too, have gotten into the habit of shaking clothes out or knocking shoes against the wall several times before I put them on. I saw Arachnophobia.

Weezin's - I know just what you mean! Made me smile - my shirts tend to get
dirtest just where you said. I like the think it's cause I carry the dirt & pots right
at belly level though.
Tam

This message was edited Aug 6, 2006 7:17 PM

I'm so arachnophobic I always store my gardening and work gloves in zip-lock bags. This goes back years to my grabbing a pair of gloves I'd left on the porch and getting a nasty spider bite. My family thinks I'm nuts... they've seen me jump up and down on a pair of gloves left sitting just a few hours. Don't care!

KatyMac, I have never had that happen but I always "drop" my garden shoes that are stored in the garage before putting them on. zip lock is a good idea for gloves.

I keep my gloves in the house after putting on a pair stored in the shed & finding a spider
in them. I'm not terribly afraid of them but prefer to leave them to their business & not come
into direct contact!

Tam

I imagine the spider was pretty surprised, too!