According to some accounts Lady Godiva, on her horseback ride sans clothes through medieval Coventry, was followed by an enthusiastic gardener bearing a bucket and shovel.
This might have been the inspiration for World Naked Gardening Day. Apparently though, it was not. Instead it owes its beginnings one day in 2005. It was then that the Body Freedom Collaborative organized an event in Australia when something more than leaves were shed. Since that auspicious date, the celebration has taken on an international aspect, run on the first Saturday in May--this year on the 5th.