Countryside: Wellingtons and gardening shoes

[acatcalledjohn]

We are moving to the countryside and as such the topic of appropriate footwear has cropped up, in particular for gardening. Looking for wellies and more summery slip on easy clean keep by the door type shoes/mules. Whilst I can find articles online rating brands, I thought it better to ask the MN Style & Beauty hive mind for first hand experiences and what I should look for in a welly.

Having looked already I'm liking Muck Boot and Le Chameau. I understand Hunter is more of a fashion brand now rather than an actual practical welly in terms of quality?

Size 8 (and DP size 11)
Normal calf/foot widths
Budget around £100 (I typically buy in a sale)
Gardening/mucking out chickens

As others have said, go to local farm shop/talk to local farmers and find out what works best for them. Beware, though, that even posh wellies can be very slppery in the wet/on ice. I once had a bad fall crossing a stream with a rough/pebbly base in wellingtons.And on ice, I'd be looking for proper boots, with the best non-slip sole you can find.

Agree that Hunters/Argyle - used to be so good - are now fashion items rather than useful for hard wear.

The best pair of wellies I ever had were Aigle. Bough in a sale, relatively cheap, lasted well and were good/comfy for years. If you can ever get them at some sort of discount, then would strongly recommend.

I live in a remote area. My neighbour, who has horses, wears Muck boots, if that's any help at all.

another vote for le chameau here. I picked mine up in a 40% off sale about ten years ago and I’ve worn them every muddy day since walking two big mutts.

I got Muckboots for Christmas for use in the garden, previously wore Hunter wellies - useless, and then any old cheapo wellies.

My feet are so much happier and very much warmer.

Neighbour is horsey and wears DuBarry.

Crocs hospo clogs (no holes) for bins and fine weather gardening.

I do all my local walking in Salomon hiking boots, I hate walking in wellies because I don’t like to slip.

For gardening these are great.
https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/warm-tall-wellies-brown//R-p-135928?mc=8395627

We live at the bottom of a valley so there’s ground water 5 months of the year.

I have a variety of boots depending on the circumstances (fleece lined crocs live at the door to pop out to shut the chickens in etc). Muck boots are my slip on/off boots to trundle round the field. Meindl walking boots for a long walk, esp in the woods which are less likely to result in comedy falls on the liquid mud slopes. Ariat waterproof fleece lined boots if I'm going to walk the dogs and go somewhere, or for events on fields.

Rockfish wellies are good like hunters used to be.

@northwestgirl anything with a proper sole would be fine. Whatever it is that Crocs are made of, not so much! Depending on the season, I have a (very old) pair of Birkies, muck boots or anything with a Vibram sole. Another thing about Crocs, hens will peck your feet through the holes!! Mind you, the pigs liked ripping the velcro on muck boots, so at least my footwear entertained the animals. 😁

Yup, can't recommend getting one of those in the sole your foot. 😬 I can recommend a hedge of natives though, a good mix really brings in the wildlife.

I have Grubs Fenline boots for mucking out dairy farms. I’m not a dairy farmer. They are WONDERFUL, and I walk for miles in them in winter when it is too boggy in Yorkshire for walking boots. Much cheaper than Hunters too and sturdier—I’ve had mine since 2020.

Another vote for Dunlops! I have the winter lined ones and they're the best wellies I've had 😁