PLANT ADDICTS CHAT #5

I've heard good reports about Bag Balm over the years but never encountered it. Not sure where to purchase it but will try Southern States since it was originally sold for use on cow's udders.

GT, you are a wealth of information. Hmmm, if it works for cow udders... LOL

I've gotten Bag Balm at Southern States. Currently we have a tub of Eucerin something from the grocery, very thick, you have to warm it in your hands to even get it spreadable. My problem is finding gloves with long thin fingers, so I avoid "paddle hand"..the thin latex gloves, when I DO remember, are nice for potting.

SSG Actea 'Black Negligee" available here locally 2qt $9.99

Speedie, always good to hear from you!!!

lol, maybee the hand thing is why we do so much more hugging at swaps than shaking hands!
I suppose that one day soon we will be able to insert our hands into a 3D printer and have a custome pair of gloves quicker than one can find the one's used last week! I think playing in the dirt with all those soil microbes keeps us healthy!

I TOTALLY believe this
http://discovermagazine.com/2007/jul/raw-data-is-dirt-the-new-prozac

Saw two new to me plants yesterday while I was out and about. Scarfed up one and amm intrigued by the other as I learn more about it

Geranium oxo 'Miss Heidi'...

Linwood Evergreen Azalea 'Hardy Gardenia' Looks so much like a gardenia and not an azalea! Low dense very dark green leaves. Slow grower. Would make an interesting hedge or foundation plant for shady front of my house withou blocking the basement windows in a couple of years...Says it will rebloom in Fall....

couple of winners there!
wow it is so warm already!

Bag balm can be bought in most drug stores. It comes in a square, green tin
in a couple of sizes. The small one is not worth bothering with. And--it costs
almost the same as the 10oz one--a more practical size.
If you do not see it in the lotions area, ask the pharmacist to get it in.
It will cost under $10. Maybe just $8. Yes! You may also find it in feed stores.

It is quite greasy (like Vaseline) and is best applied and rubbed in when you go to bed.
Just pull some cotton gloves or a pair of old socks over your hands.
It will "do its thing"overnight.

Here is what it looks like. Also--"True Grit" is the best dirty hands scrubber.
It has pumice in it.

There is another, similar cream called Udder Cream. Bag balm is better.

I love the True Grit hand cleaner, a tin of it was in the bag I picked from the gift table. Really good stuff.

Ooh! Coleup, let me know if you're able to pick up that Actaea 'Black Negligee' for me!

Robin--That is where I got mine as well. G.

Sally, I had been meaning to post this link, thinking to myself that if this isn't validation of the benefits of our gardening "addiction", I don't know what is! http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/savoring-that-earthy-smell/2015/04/22/b42c096e-e1f3-11e4-81ea-0649268f729e_story.html

One of my daughters gave me O'Keeffe's Working Hands cream, which works well and isn't very greasy.

This message was edited May 5, 2015 5:44 PM

Thanks for sharing that, Muddy.

Palmflex is having a free shipping offer for their Atlas 370 gloves... not sure if it ends tonight or tomorrow. $43 or $44 per dozen (depending on whether you want a single color or assorted)... that's less than $4 per pair. If anybody wants to split some, I can always use pink or purple in size M (the other colors in the mixed pack are green and ruby red). :-)

Yipee! Thank you, coleup!

You're welcome, ecnalg!

critter, I would be interested if I knew how they fit me; e.g. whether the fingers were the right length. If no one wants to split them, check out Amazon... while I was looking for info on them, I saw that smaller quantities are available for the same price.

I've got a few spares yet, was just offering in case somebody wanted fewer than a doz. They are pretty stretchy... S still fits me albeit snugly, and L is just a bit too long in the fingers but still workable for me.

Gita, yes I agree, the larger tin of Bag Balm is definitely worth it. I got mine at a local family-owned drug store for just over $8. Not only does it keep my hands from getting alligator-like skin, I started using it on the psoriasis on my knees and it's about 90% cleared up now, in just over a week. I will never go without it again.

True Grit; where might I find that please? That's one thing I could really use. After my 5 hours in the dirt yesterday I had a heck of a time getting my fingers, mainly around the nail beds, clean, even with my scrub brush.

Keep a bar of bath soap slightly damp and dig your nails into it at the beginning of working in the dirt. It will prevent the dirt from packing in and the soap comes right out when using a brush and water afterward.

AHHH, David!!! Such a clever, smart solution.

My thumb and index fingers always look horrible after a day in he garden.
All that dirt packed under my almost non-existing fingernails.

Oh, well! need to go out and mow the lawn! Oh, joy!
G.

Thx fo rthe tip re bag balm helping w/ psoriasis... I'll let Mom know!

For anybody passing this way Sat... got an email from Dutch plant Farm... they're doing a M Day sale on ITOH peonies, $50. I haven't checked them out yet, but I will! More than I generally spend on a plant, for sure, but you generally don't see them for less than $100

I keep my nails short and then use the scruff on my head and my beard to get all the stuff out of my nails and off my hands in the shower. Works great! Don't be jealous now...

Hey, that's what I do, too!!! Copycat!

Jan, are you saying you scrub the dirt out of your nails on your beard?...LOL

hahaha

I'll try that, greenthumb.
Myy index fingers also look horrible after I garden. I usually wear gloves, but somehow I always find something I want to do when I'm walking around, like push soil back onto plants that squirrels dug up. I never want to go back and get gloves!

That is a really brilliant idea David, thank you. Now to go rescue that perfect-sized jar out of the trash can so I can store a slightly damp bar of soap in it. I'll also try scraping my nail beds (around the cuticle etc) around in the soap too, to try to keep the dirt out of my cuticles. Yeah, I should get manicures, or take better care of them, but there's just no time for that.

Seq, that's not a bad idea either...and, about that beard... well, all this Polish blood in me.. enough said. ;) It's true though, I find that no matter how much I scrub my hands, it always seems that my hands "magically" come much cleaner after I've washed my hair.

It always surprises me how I can thoroughly wash my hands after working in the dirt until my hands appear clean and the rinse water clear, then go online or engage in other "clean" activity and when I wash my hands again the rinse water looks brown. Never managed to figure how dirt embedded in the skin "works its way out" with time.

Probably the oils in your skin push it out GT.

LOL....Speedie

Hehehe,,, THAT's exactly what I was saying, seq!!!!

You're too much Jan!

Heehee!!!

No, really she means that she scrubs the dirt from her fingernails on her beard. =)
DH made a trip to the dump while I was working.. that wayward jar is gone. :( Have to dig through the pantry and figure out what I can eat a lot of so I can have another short squat jar. :)

The little addict is at it again. Got the "Poor You" grin and shake of the head from DH when I got home from work yesterday... with the bedraggled Alyssum tucked in the crook of my elbow. It seems too early in the season to have to start rescuing babies, but... if that's what I gotta do, then I'm just the "man" for the job. So to speak. :)

haha speedie!

Speedie, the plant rescuer!!!

I talked Gita out of the variegated bromeliad type thing; Holly, what is that?

Sally, you talked her *out* of it? Why? Was there something wrong with it? =/

Holly's plant is/was a variegated 'Queen's Tears' bromeliad.

cool! Nothing wrong with it, I just wanted it.
(bwa ha haaa)