Goes to show, whatever goes on the interwebs is never really old and is always fair game to be read. (If you’re a kid and post some teenaged-rant online before your brain is fully developed, be careful. In the future you may mature, you may find new and better information and — god-forbid — change your mind on certain issues. Don’s Word of Caution: Be wary of what you share, lest it be used against your when you least expect it . . . so where was I going with this column? . . .)

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Ah, yes. On July 10, I received an email from Kathleen, “editor in-chief” for LawnStarter’s blog. LawnStarter is, a “Startup bridging the gap between Consumers and Lawn Care providers, sort of Uber for Lawn Care,” based in Austin, Texas. Wrote she to me:
“I come to you, today, bearing just what you always wanted: Another Pitch! I know you are a busy guy so I will get this over as quickly as possible. I stumbled across an article about the Naked gardening day on your website. Interestingly, we conducted some research and found the top 12 cities to celebrate the Naked Gardening Day in the US. The various factors analyzed were average high temp erature for May, average sunshine, rainfall, humidity, wind speed and number of cloudy days.”
“Groovy,” I thought. I penned that column on May 7 and published it on May 9. I first wrote about World Naked Gardening Day (WNGD) way back in 2015, after Lake Orion Police Chief Jerry Narsh warned me my neighbors probably didn’t want to see the whole of me in my garden. (Thanks, Jer!)
Via email, we (Kathleen and I) corresponded. Probably unexpected to her, as any good reporter would, I gave her the proverbial third degree. Figuratively I sat her down in a chair, bound her hands behind her back and put a bright light in her eyes.
“Okay sister. What’s the skinny? How did you find me? Cut the frabba-jabba and get to spillin’.”
I didn’t have to drill her with questions, but wanted to see her squirm; see how she handled the pressure.
In as rapid succession as anyone can asking questions via e-mail, I asked, “How did you find out about Naked Gardening? Do you practice it? How did you find my column? Tell me!”
She fared well. Unphased, she answered.
“I got to know about Naked Gardening through AwayToGarden.com, a popular gardening blog. But I did not know there was a day dedicated to it until much later. I guess one of my colleagues told me about WNGD when we were brainstorming ideas for our blog. I did practice it, but only on World Naked Gardening Day as my neighbors are not so chill. They would freak out if they see me naked in the front yard every day!
“I swear, the truth is, the Internet is a strange place. One article leads to another and so on. I will need to dig up my browsing History to find out how I came across your column!”
Hmm? Interesting. I wonder if she got sun burned?

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Oh, and what about those Top 12 naked gardening cities, as ranked by LawnStarter.com? Did any of our towns make the list? Did any Michigan community rank? Not surprisingly (and maybe a little sadly), no. Not a single Michigan town ranked. Rats!
Number 1, was Miami, Florida with a LawnStarter Naked Gardening Score of 4.206 points.

Here are their averages:

Average high temperature in May: 87
Average sunshine in May: 72%
Average rainfall in May (inches): 5.3
Average afternoon humidity in May: 62%
Average number of cloudy days in May: 9
Average wind speed in May: 9.5 mph

The closest city to us, at 336 miles away, is Indianapolis, Indiana. They ranked #9 with a score of 3.51 points. The last city on their list at #12 was New Orleans, with a score of 3.364.
Never satisfied, I asked one more question of Editor In-Chief Kathleen, “Using your criteria, what is Detroit’s score using your criteria?”

LawnStarter’s naked gardening score: 3.253 points
Average high temperature in May: 85
Average sunshine in May: 62%
Average rainfall in May (inches): 4.8
Average afternoon humidity in May: 61%
Average number of cloudy days in May: 15
Average wind speed in May: 9.1 mph

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I went to WeatherSpark.com and found that in these parts, our average temperature in May (except for this year) is 59 degrees. Check out LawnStarter’s info at lawnstarter.com/blog/gardening-2/world-naked-gardening-day

  don rush, don’t rush me, naked gardening