By Mike Pulfer
The Cincinnati Enquirer

To divert unexpected visitors, Judy Mitchell blocked the driveway with her car. Then she headed back to the house and a few minutes later climbed aboard her Kubota tractor.

Naked.

Judy Mitchell posed on her Kubota tractor

It was not her usual Indian Hill routine.

As if talking to their plants weren't enough, Ms. Mitchell and 14 other local gardening buffs (har-har) decided to strip for them. And for the Civic Garden Center of Greater Cincinnati.

Bare Roots Gardening, the center's first venture into public nudity, goes on sale Monday ($14.95) as a 2003 calendar with black-and-white pictures by Over-the-Rhine photographer Tony Walsh.

"We had a lot of fun with it," says Ms. Mitchell, president of the board of directors at the center, "after we got over the initial embarrassment."

On a streak

It was "absolutely a first," for her, and, apparently, for most of the other volunteers, board members and staffers who participated, she said.

Dulany Anning with well-placed pansies.

Robin Wood, florist, announcer and former local radio disc jockey and television personality, is among the calendar's models. Ms. Wood is a member of the center's board.

In the 8 1/2-by-8 1/2-inch calendar, Ms. Mitchell is pictured aboard her tractor. Chuck Schramm, a retired park operations director, is shown standing in boots and socks (only), planting a tree. Board member Dulany Anning is surrounded by pansies that work as a tasteful low-cut gown.

"Everybody was professional about it," said Mr. Walsh, who regularly shoots photography for Midwest Living and Men's Fitness magazines and for local museums. "They were surprisingly comfortable."

The challenge? "Dodging cold weather" in November.

Joeliene Magoto, executive director of the garden center, said the calendar was a rush project that didn't get started until late October.

WHERE TO BUY

Calendars will be available at A.J. Rahn Greenhouses, Delhi Flower and Garden Centers (Kenwood Towne Centre and Tri-County), Funke's, H.J. Benken, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, M Hopple, (Kenwood and downtown), Madison's at Findlay Market, Mountain Laurel Nursery, Natorp Garden Stores (Mason and Florence), Sharon Nursery and the garden center store in Avondale. Proceeds will support community garden programs and youth education.

"I expect it will be received well because it is tasteful and because it is well-designed," she said.

Mr. Walsh, who has served as a garden center board member for three years, worked for free. Doug Best, with Whizbang, downtown, contributed as designer.

The concept is not new. A group of women from Rylstone, England, produced a 2000 calendar of discreet nude photographs of themselves in housewife activities. They sold nearly 100,000 calendars and raised more than $750,000 for leukemia research.

In Vermont, the 2002 Men of Maple Corner calendar, featuring men 60 to 78 in stages of undress, raised more than $500,000, for improvements to the community center in Calais.

In New Hampshire, women from the town of Tamworth raised more than $75,000 for 25 local organizations with their 2002 Women of Tamworth calendar.

In Vail, Colo., firefighters, chefs, extreme skiers and others teamed up to produce the Vail Undressed calendar and netted more than $30,000 to aid people in a financial crunch because of a medical crisis.

In Aiken, S.C., the Still Magnolias calendar raised nearly $180,000 for the Aiken Area Council on Aging. The calendar features photos of women 60 to 84 golfing, knitting, playing the piano.

Ms. Mitchell said she liked the idea of a nude calendar to counter the center's image, "Steeped in history, associated with prominent Cincinnatians."

Her own attitudes had to change too, she said.

"This is a woman who went to a private girls school ... who wouldn't change in the locker room."

E-mail mpulfer@enquirer.com