Gardening Gloves

[webmaster]

Ok, so Scott just contributed a new article about Gardening Gloves over in the main section of the Helpful Gardener site.

I was wondering, how many of you actually wear gardening gloves? From what Scott tells me, gloves aren't everyone's thing.

Do you wear gardening gloves?

If so why?
If not, why not?

[opabinia51]

Well, I don't use "Gardening Gloves" per se. I use "work gloves" because in the gardening stores around here the "Gardening Gloves" tend to be rather feminine and I also find them to tight and not to mention restricting.

But yes, I try to wear gloves (when I remember to bring them) because they keep my hands warm in the fall and winter and they also keep my hands that much cleaner. Also, I have blackberries that grow at one end of my vegetable garden and well, it's that much less painful (and damaging) to remove them (or rather, keep them at bay) with a pair of heavy duty work gloves.

And regarless of what I am doing in the garden, my hands don't get all chewed up (Opa looks at his hands.... ) more chewed up.

Wow, looking at my hands leads me to believe that I will never be a hand model. Maybe for a before and after commercial for some sort of hand cream. (I'd be the before guy) Then maybe they would have Jason Alexander's (the guy who played George on Seinfeld) hands for the after shots.

[grandpasrose]

Cute Opa!

Personally, I don't wear gardening gloves. I get gardening gloves given to me by everyone every Christmas, and I have a whole stack of them in my garden shed of all different kinds and types, but they never get used.
I have tried, but they just don't let me feel the soil and the plants the way I like to. I want to be able to get the full effect of getting down in there and feeling it all.
I also find them awkward to weed or do any kind of finer work with because I can't feel as much.
Sound pretty touchy feely, don't I?
I guess that's just one of the many things that gardening fulfills for me.
Val

[dyvonnetxgal]

I do wear gardening gloves, but I wonder why I do sometimes. Majority of the time I am covered in soil and my hands end up cleaner than I actually do..... I don't wear them whenever I am just checking the moisture of my plants. They do help out a lot since I do have 3 little ones that beckon my attention to no avail every time I do get started on a project. So I slide them off run and wash up and tend to them. I have 2 pair ones for wet gardening and then some average gloves. Well, this is the thing majority of the time I use the wet gloves. By the time I am finished planting or composting I have the hose in my hand and I think.....hmmmm I should have worn the other gloves first then these.....OH, WELL. The wet ones are more comfortable. I hope everyone had a beautiful Thanksgiving.


Dyvonne

[opabinia51]

Yes, Happy Thanksgiving to anyone and everyone from the United States. (In Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving in October.)

[The Helpful Gardener]

Not much of a glove person myself, but some of those new ones in the article would not sit on shelves at my place. Opa, I hear you on the girlie glove thing; check out the Bionic gloves. And Dyvonne, check out the Foxgloves, I think I found the one you need for composting, watering and everything else AND they're stylish...

Turkey Day was a lovely day with family and friends; hope yours was too.

HG

[dyvonnetxgal]

Okay, will do HG.....actually I have the bionic gloves on my wish list for Xmas this year and just sent the wish list to my husbands email.......I hope he gets the hint. I will look into the other gloves you mentioned especially if they are as versatile as you mentioned.

[grandpasrose]

Dyvonne, I have a pair of Foxgloves in the pile that everyone keeps giving me as gifts (she's a gardener so she must need these!), and even though in a previous post I said I don't wear gloves, I did try them, and they are a nice glove. They are very comfortable, and do truly keep your hands dry, clean, everything - except let you touch the dirt, which is why they went back in the pile!
Val

[The Helpful Gardener]

Glad to hear it. I did a fair amount of on-line research, but I spend a lot more time in garden centers than most people so I looked for the ones I always see selling and Foxgloves led the charge...

Scott

[wingdesigner]

Well, like some of you, if I'm in thorny/prickly areas, yes, goatskin gloves, preferably with gauntlets, are used. (the farther up the arm the gauntlets go, the better--like a cuff, only bigger). Trouble is, sometimes stuff gets down in the gauntlets, so ya still gotta clean them out. But it's better than scratched up skin. Also if soil is cold or damp, some of those "mud gloves" w/neoprene fingers are nice. But if I'm doing something really delicate, alas, nothing works like bare fingers. Tried a couple layers of surgical gloves, all they did was make my hands sweat and get icky. Couldn't feel what I was doing. OK, that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it... Happy Gardening!

Wingdesigner

[Briarwoods]

I buy them and then never wear them. Nothing works better then bare hands in the dirt.

[opabinia51]

I'm with you on that but, my hands are so scarred and chewed up from years of not using them that I try to wear them as often as possible. Though, I usually end up taking at least one off while working in the garden. Especially when planting.

Of course, then I have to dig around in the garden and find my discarded glove when I need both of them again. Oh well.

[Grey]

I have a pair I wear at work - and not at home. The stuff at work isn't always completely composted, so better safe than sorry.
My hands are usually horribly scarred up - cuts from rose thorns, stained green from tendng tomatoes, and the right forefinger is usually hard and pitted from yanking weeds for hours on end.


Wanna spot a serious gardener? Look at his/her hands.

[Marge]

I sometimes wear gloves when gardening, it depends what I'm doing - and if thorns are involved! (When it comes to removing slugs I have to use a spade )

I do have a tip for those of you who like to garden bare handed; after gardening make sure you wash your hands well and use a genuine bristle nail brush, and then put on plenty of L'Occitane shea butter handcream (no, it is not a girly thing to do, so you blokey types can't get out of it).

Also before gardening in order to stop dirt and mud etc getting under your nails scoop up some ordinary soap. This will also help when it comes to cleaning your hands afterwards.

[opabinia51]

Thanks Marge! That's great. Don't worry about the cultural association with feminality and scented soaps. I'm all for that kind of stuff.

[my_secret_garden]

I use my gardening gloves to do things like dig in the dirt, mess around with the grass, and plant things but I use work gloves with traction on them for doing yard work and pretty much everything else. Rubber dishwashing gloves for working in the Pond!

[opabinia51]

We used to try using rubber gloves when working in the pond at a former place of employment of mine but, the water was so deep that the gloves will fill up with water so, I discarded the gloves and just used my hands.

.... Probably one of the reasons why my hands are so well worn these days.

[my_secret_garden]

Cute Opa!

Personally, I don't wear gardening gloves. I get gardening gloves given to me by everyone every Christmas, and I have a whole stack of them in my garden shed of all different kinds and types, but they never get used.
I have tried, but they just don't let me feel the soil and the plants the way I like to. I want to be able to get the full effect of getting down in there and feeling it all.
I also find them awkward to weed or do any kind of finer work with because I can't feel as much.
Sound pretty touchy feely, don't I?
I guess that's just one of the many things that gardening fulfills for me.
Val

Send some of those glove stacks to me! I wear them all the time and have a lot of dirty pairs. I can't bring myself to dig in the dirt much with my bare hands because I have kind of a phobia of touching bugs with my bare hands. Blech. If I was digging around in the dirt and touched a worm, I would probably scream and cry. With gloves on, not nearly as bothersome. I am kind of a weinie.

[my_secret_garden]

We used to try using rubber gloves when working in the pond at a former place of employment of mine but, the water was so deep that the gloves will fill up with water so, I discarded the gloves and just used my hands.

.... Probably one of the reasons why my hands are so well worn these days.

Yep, I can only reach so far into the murky depths with the rubber gloves but I am in the process of cleaning my pond out so I can't bear the thought of digging around in that nasty water with my bare hands.

[Grey]

I FINALLY found a pair of gloves that let me feel what I am doing. I've used them for 2 months, pretty hard, and they're still fine. They are pretty thin, with a rubber layer on the palm part and just a stretchy ACE-bandage like fabric on the back. They are made by Atlas.

[opabinia51]

Hi Secret,

Yes, I'm pretty unsqueemish. Luckily I never came across a snake but, al the cool water insects and frogs that we used to come across were pretty cool.

Though this one species had a painful bite. I didn't like that very much. But, they weren't venomous just biters.

[my_secret_garden]

Omg. My pong might be the one thing you would be squeemish of. It was unattended last year (was my husband's job to keep it clean...) and it was disgusting and full of decomposing leaves, stray trash, twigs, muck, sludge, some kind of nasty green substance that could be algea, and some dead snakes. Mmm. Couldn't pay me enough to put my bare hands in there!

[junkhead]

No gloves for me. I love the feel of stems, leaves, pedals, weeds, all of it. I feel much closer to nature that way.

[opabinia51]

I've found that only the thick leather gloves help but, I really like to wear gloves when pulling thistles, you can reach down to the roots but, I still often get stuck and it really hurts. So, I like to wear some sort of protection when pulling those guys. A shovel also works well.

[Marge]

I used to hate wearing gloves when gardening as I liked the feel of the soil etc, but as I became more bothered about my manicure (!) I took the plunge and now use simple, thin cotton gardening gloves.

Mind you for some jobs I just have to go glove free, especially making seed trays. It just isn't the same with gloves, even delicate ones.

[opabinia51]

I often misplace my Right gardening glove when I start planting seeds in my garden. Finding it again is always fun

[CatGiorgia]

If I don't wear gloves while doing housework or gardening, my hands tend to get painfully dry. So, I have multiple pairs of gloves for the garden: soft, cotton for protecting against caluses when raking, mowing, or hoeing; thicker gloves with rubber nubbies on the palm for regular weeding; water-proof gloves for planting; and thick leather gloves for working with nettles or roses.

My big problem is that the finger-tips of the right gloves all wear out four times faster than those on my left gloves. I think that work- and garden-glove manufacturers should sell gloves "in bulk" -- so people could replace the worn, "dominant"-hand gloves, instead of replacing whole pairs and having to throw out so many still-good singletons.

(Or, maybe we could start an exchange?)