George's gardening hat came from the Shiloh Nurseries booth at the Mid-Atlantic Garden Show, but it's made by Dorfman Pacific Headwear of Stockton, Calif.

It's the same with garden hats. When I was younger, I couldn't have cared less about the sunburn that brightened my skin wherever my skimpy clothes didn't cover.

Simply sign up to the Life & Arts myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox. In her mission to persuade Victorian ladies that gardening was respectable, one of the obstacles that ...