Best pictures from this year’s World Naked Gardening Day

Did you know that on the first Saturday of every May gardeners around the world strip off into nothing but their green fingers?

It’s true. Saturday marks the 17th annual World Naked Gardening Day (WNGD).

According to the event’s dedicated website, people across the globe are encouraged to “tend to their portion of the world’s garden unclothed as nature intended.”

Sure, it may not be the best weather for getting down into your birthday suit, but plenty of fans have taken up the challenge and posted the evidence on social media.

From trimming bushes to getting dirty with those wheelbarrows, we’ve taken a look at how Twitter users have marked the occasion.

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Here are some of their best snaps:

Some readers may be wondering what’s the point in the whole exercise.

Well, according to the WNGD site: “First of all, it’s fun!

“Second only to swimming, gardening is at the top of the list of  family-friendly activities people are most ready to consider doing nude,” it continues.

“Moreover, our culture needs to move toward a healthy sense of both body acceptance and our relation to the natural environment.

“Gardening naked is not only a simple joy, it reminds us--even if only for those few  sunkissed minutes--that we can be honest with who we are as humans and as part of this planet.”

There are still plenty more hours in the day if you want to get involved, so here are the WNGD’s key tips for making the most of the annual celebration:

• Do it alone, with friends, with family, with your gardening club, or with any other  group collected for that purpose.
• Do it inside your house, in your back  yard, on a hiking trail, at a city park, or on the streets. Stay private or go public. Make it a quiet time or make it a public splash.
• Just get naked and make your part of the botanical world a healthier and more attractive place.
• Secondly, tell someone about your experience.
• No one owns this event, so it does not really matter whom you tell, but tell someone.
• Tell your friends about your day of naked gardening; write down what you thought of it and email it to your local newspaper; post your thoughts and images onto an Internet site; submit stories and photos to your club newsletter.

Happy gardening, everyone.