Volunteer staff at Hulme Community Garden Centre near Manchester have been getting their kit off this week to publicise their centre ahead of World Naked Gardening Day today (2 May).

Centre manager Rachel Summerscales said the team was inspired to try naked gardening during a quiet moment at the centre, according to a report on the Manchester Evening News website.

But she has assured people that their clothes will go back on during the bank holiday weekend.

She said: “We decided to get into the spirit of naked gardening to let people know that the centre is here. We’ve already had 10,000 views of Dave’s bottom on Facebook. There have even been calls for us to do a calendar.

“It’s a global day that has been going for a few years. It’s all about feeling free in your garden and we thought it would be a funny thing to get involved in.

“It can be slightly hazardous when secateurs are involved and the extremes of temperature this week haven’t helped. We didn’t appreciate the hailstones on Tuesday! But we’ve really enjoyed doing the pictures.

“We want people to know that the centre is a great place to garden with or without your clothes on. But don’t be alarmed, everybody will be clothed this weekend.”