Garden Gloves
Having run a nursery almost barehanded for twenty-something years, one becomes a bit cavalier about one’s hands. They’re always scratched, rough and weather-bitten. Heck the darn things spend half their time in the wet ground and the other half trying to dry out and warm up.
The last few years I ran the nursery, (and getting a little older to boot) I discovered I could go to my local workwear store and purchase rubber garden gloves with foam lining. These were waterproof and warm. It kind of seems obvious in retrospect that I should have been using these for winter work for a long time but sometimes ideas are a little slow to percolate….
Cool doesn't cut it
My leather gloves were always getting wet and then drying out stiff as a board and while they were “cool” looking, they weren’t always practical for spring nursery work as once they were wet, they were no use at all to keep my hands warm. So, the foam-lined rubber gloves were perfect.
I did try the easily-available cloth gloves and quickly eliminated them because they got wet very easily, were uncomfortable and didn’t protect my hands from sharp objects all that well. I also wore them out very quickly and was always having to buy another pair (the pad on the thumb was always wearing through).
But now, I don’t work in the rain and snow. Hey, I retired from the nursery business to write about gardening and I do try to keep the computer keyboard out of the freezing rain. I need a different set of garden gloves.
Time for pampering
I want gloves that pamper my hands. I earn my living with these hands on a keyboard and I want them protected.
I want gloves that support my aging fingers and joints (so OK, I’m not as young or stupid as I once was and I want a little comfort) and I want them warm and not board stiff when they dry out from working in damp soil.
I really don’t care how “cool” they look as I’m not on display in my own garden (good thing too – my old jeans would never pass a code of conduct).
Need to be tough
I want them tough enough so plastic edges on flats don’t cut them and the odd glass shard doesn’t get through them to cut my hands.
There are several kinds of gloves that fit these characteristics – often you can find them at local garden centres (never at mass merchants) and on the Net.
So, look for garden gloves that pamper your hands and fingers, that dry out relatively easily without cracking and turning into hardened steel and are built with material that will last almost forever because you don’t want to wear them out in a single season.
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