Holy Rasputitsa, What a Quagmire! Stylishly Rockin’ the Mud Season Ball…

“In New England we have nine months of winter, and three months of damned-poor sledding”.—-Old New England Proverb

Welcome to Rasputitsa! Looks like this is the official start of mud season —Vermont style— and as they say: you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! I was introduced to the term ‘rasputitsa’ by a friend of mine —a world-class pruner and heirloom apple grower of Russian descent— when we were working on an orchard restoration a few years back. Pruning season usually ends up overlapping mud season around here, and boy, was that year a doozie. Rasputitsa is the Russian word for the season between winter and spring, when everything in the countryside comes to a screeching halt due to impassable, muddy roads. They certainly have an incomparable mud season in Russia, but here in Vermont, we also get a bit of late winter/early spring quagmire. Two months of rasputitsa… More or less. I call it the annual mud-season ball. See what I mean…

Here’s a Scenic Section of My Road!

Yes, it’s easy for me to find all of this amusing —right now— but my mood may change by the end of April. I’ve helped two neighbors get unstuck so far this year, and we’re still in March. This is genuine 4-wheel drive country, and in addition to “Dusty” —my blue, 1986 Chevy pick up— I also have the right foot-wear. Some women have shelves filled with Manolos. I have a closet of Muck, Hunter, Town & Country and Tretorn. OK, I have girl-shoes too, but you get the idea…

My Tretorn Sofiero garden boots. I ordered this great pair of vermillion-laced, waterproof boots from Terrain. You can find this style and other great Tretorn garden/rain boots from Terrain by clicking here.

I’ve said before that I will only mention and recommend products that I actually know and personally use, or have seen, used and tested. And that still holds true. I own one brand of boots (they shall remain nameless) that will not appear here, because I can not recommend them. All of the garden boots mentioned and pictured in this post are excellent, and three of them also offer cuteness (a nice perk if you need to run into town). At the moment, I am wearing my vermillion-laced Tretorns (pictured above) but I rotate boots depending upon what I will be doing on any given day. The Muck-brand boots (pictured at the bottom of this post) are my favorites for truly demanding tasks, sites and weather. My Muck boots are also the most expensive pair of garden shoes I own, but they have lasted me a decade and they are still going strong. The stylish Tretorn and Town & Country boots, however, are lighter weight and more comfortable; particularly as temperatures rise. All are completely waterproof and very sturdy. In mid-summer, I do wear garden clogs. But in general, unless I am doing very light weeding, I prefer wearing high garden boots to protect my legs from brambles and the threat of poison ivy if I’m not familiar with a site. I have tested all of these boots, and actually own three of them.

I’ve owned a pair of red Town & Country Wellington boots forever —available for $84.95 via Amazon.com— that I love for both light garden work and general rainy-day, run-around-town use

I don’t own this pair of Tretorns —but a friend of mine does and I have borrowed them: they are very comfy— plus robin’s egg blue is always pretty: Tretorn Waterproof Skerry Boot, $60 at Terrain

I’ve owned my Muck Boots for ten years —available here from Endless for $104.95 with free two-day shipping— and although they aren’t very pretty, they are the best heavy-duty, all-terrain, all-weather work boot that I have ever owned. I can even wear them during pruning in winter with warm socks.

Do you have a favorite pair of Garden Boots? I’m game to try anything. Let me know in comments and I’ll check them out!

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Article and photographs (excepting linked product photos) are copyright Michaela at The Gardener’s Eden, all rights reserved. All content on this site, (with noted exceptions), is the property of The Gardener’s Eden and may not be used, reproduced or reposted elsewhere without written consent.

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4 Replies to “Holy Rasputitsa, What a Quagmire! Stylishly Rockin’ the Mud Season Ball…”

  1. Kristl

    Wow…. that is SOME mud! Back in Alaska we have our annual “break up” that gets pretty nasty… I feel for ya! And, thank you for the recommendations on the boots!

  2. Michaela

    @ Kristl, I bet you have a serious quagmire season in Alaska. In fact, it probably rivals Russia. The colorful, girlish boots keep me feeling upbeat and feminine even in the worst of rasputitsa! Good luck with the season, Kristl! xo M

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