Do you or don't you??

Use gloves in the garden, that is. If yes, what type? Are you happy with them? What didn't work?

I have evolved on this one. For years I never used them. Wanted the feel and dexterity and found most 'garden gloves' I tried to be junk. Then after getting tired of dried dirt under my nails and a number of allergic reactions to something, I started using thick disposable Nitrile gloves - at least 5 mils. But they still kept ripping all the time and my hands would sweat so much. Finally I tried the Bionic gloves last year and have been pleasantly surprised. They lasted a whole year before the fingertips started ripping. I just ordered an improved one - Elite - that has tough reinforced fingertips. I'll let you know how I like them.

Your turn.

I don't wear gloves, I really don't get my hands dirty on a regular basis. Raking & neighbor control I wear them .

Don't get your hands dirty?!! And you call yourself a gardener??

Ha Ha! I pride myself on being able to transplant small shrubs without touching anything but the shovel.

You missed your calling - you should be in infectious diseases.

I am infectious I've been told. I get dirty now and then - mainly to bug my neighbor who has a fear of worms.

I use mud gloves or similar. They gave me more dexterity and don't get saturated so easily. L'm real good at taking my gloves off for some reason and forgetting to put them back on. While this leaves me with filthy hands, it does prolong the life of the gloves.

I am a dirty girl, no gloves unless working in the rosa rugosa or poison ivy. I have tried, but I like feeling the plants. Patti

That's what I like about the Bionic ones though - you do maintain the feel and dexterity.

I wear gloves when I have to rake, dig something really tough or cleaning up roses ... well, in general I don't wear them... so right now I have basically no nails... they are cut as short as possible so no dirt will not get under...

I have some leather ones that makes my hands orange after wearing them for 1/2 hr! great to carry heavy stuff!
I have purple nitrile gloves ... and I like them I can wash them and get my hands wet and that doesn't bother me...
I have tough green ones to rake...

but I don't wear gloves when I am potting any plant... I like touching dirt!!!!

I have all the good intensions of wearing gloves, but like Dave I take them out and forget to put it back.... but the worse is when I forget WHERE I left them!!!!

Victor, I will try some. So I hear from Pirl that you also have a great hat. Love to see a picture of you in it. I saw Jack's. Oh, my. Patti

Don't have it. Trying to find a Dwarf clothier.

This might work. Isn't the Internet grand. Patti

http://www.kidsbooksandpuppets.com/elopehats/elopemardigraskinghats9930.html

I do and I don't!! Depends on the job. For rough work that I could get blisters or other some other injury, I use them. I use gardening gloves that I get from Lowes and I don't know what they are made of - fairly heavy ones. Usually my hands and fingernails look horrible cause they are so dirty, but a good scrubbing with a brush (ouch!) helps and washing dishes - should give it try guys, washing dishes that is!! LOL I also have leather gloves for handling stones and lumber - orders from my doctor after he removed a splinter that went straight down into a finger from a board I was picking up. (I thought I had pulled it out but, it broke off below the skin level) Don't care about getting dirty at all!!!!! Eleanor

This message was edited Jul 9, 2007 12:34 PM

Absolutely NO gloves....EVER. Although I owe 10 pairs I refuse to wear them as they get in the way. Makes my fingers feel 10 times bigger and I NEED to feel the dirt in my hands. Not only do I not wear gloves but 9 times out of 10 I am out there barefoot also unless I am using a spade to dig something up then I put my sandals on just until I'm done *lol*. The dirtier I get the more accomplished I feel :) Usually takes 2-3 showers before I get ALL of it off but then I'm out there doing it all over again :) I LOVE being dirty *lol*

Kim

My wife always tells me that I have one of the most refined sense of smell she has ever known. I can smell rain miles away. I can tell you when someone on the street has cut their grass. Thus said I don't wear gloves because I love sense of feeling the soils and plants along with the smell of the earth. I really love good rich soil after it has been watered. It is such a rich smell.
So, no gloves, dirty fingers and a nose full of nature.
Chuck

I try to always wear gloves. I remind myself that there are little snakes in the yard that I wouldn't want to disturb with my bare hands. I get whatever is cheap at Big Lots. I even have gloves for hanging out the laundry on the clothesline when the weather is really cold.

I don't wear gloves, but Anna does. She swears by Mid-West gloves. I like to feel the soil and she doesn't like dirt under her nails, as it doesn't look great when shaking hands with office people. Me? I stay home. Who sees me?

Our dental hygienist gave me a big box of the gloves she uses, last November, and they're great but I used them more in winter than any other time. I have long nails and dip my hands in pure bleach every night before showering.

Dwarf clothiers? What next?

I have a love-hate relationship with gloves. . . they are never strong enough, yet never thin enough.
Plus, you have to put them ON. And I'd just stepped outside for a MOMENT to get the morning paper sans gloves. . . two hours later, and many weeds, my hands need to go to the cleaners. . .
I have two pairs of Wells Lamont 100% cowhide gloves that are cheap and do keep my fingernails somewhat clean.
But nothing works like fingers.

That was always my complaint too. I needed the Goldilocks of gloves. Bionic comes close enough for me. (This is not a paid endorsement, though it must sound like it!)

Forcing ourselves to put the gloves on is half the battle.

I usually leave out one finger for the deer.

I became a glove convert last year. Never used any prior, but having to work with roses lately, it became a matter of self defense. I got tired of bleeding. So now I use mud gloves for general gardening. But I always make sure I shake them well before putting them on so no little brown spider is hiding in them. I would have to say that probably about 25% of the time I forget to put them on or I took them off for some reason and neglected to reglove. More blood.

So if Victor isn't getting paid he should be. Here is the site. I may at least try a pair on. But what would the ladies of nantucket who lunch have to say if they see me with clean nails?
Patti

http://www.bionicgloves.com/

I only wear gloves when weeding there's always those prickly ones I can only pull when wearing gloves. Other than that I love planting with my bare hands have to feel the soil.
I have a gardeners soap from 'crabtree and evelyn' I keep in the shed to wash off with, works great getting all the dirt off. then there's a hand lotion to soften them back up.

Yes, flowerjen, yes: Crabtree and Evelyn's hand lotion really is terrific. I've tried all kinds and that one is the best.

Venu - we bleed, too. Between the roses and the raspberry patch we always have cuts and keep the Peroxide and band-aids close to one of the kitchen sinks where we wash up when we come in ....... then for big time excitement we compare our "Wound du Jours" after dinner.

I use potato brushes to clean under my nails. Lee Valley sold ten for some real low price. They are great - nice and soft. We use them for the kids as well.

I have those too and love them. I thought they were touting them as surgeons brushes though.

Long ago I read an article by a professor who saw too many students biting their nails. He had them come up, one at a time, to look at their nails under a strong magnifying lens. Most stopped biting their nails. While I wouldn't recommend bleach for young kids I would do at least my own fingertips if I'll be touching food.

Hey - there is a positive side to biting nails - saves on manicure$!

Victor, which model do you prefer? (Now there's a straight line for you.) Googleing www.bionicgloves.com, I found four garden models, all seemingly priced alike.

I generally find that gloves don't work well for weeding or transplanting, but I use them for heavy work.

I actually carry heavy gloves, plastic bags and pruning shears in my trunk for "emergency" gardening. You never know when there is going to be a cedar log lying by the side of the road waiting to be added to a planter or - like this morning - when there is a chicory with ripe seeds waiting to be pulled up. When I rode the train - I carried shears and pruned a tree on the passanger exit ramp that was growing over it at exactly eye level. I like to think of it as "guerilla gardening".

(You are reaching for Jane Goodall jokes, aren't you Victor?)

Don - yes, that's a good lead-in! I should ask Blonde or Brunette? Seriously, I like the Elite and that's what I just bought. Haven't tried them yet but the reinforced fingertips are very useful. As I said, it was only the fingertips which failed on the regular (Classic) ones.

Cat, all Jane jokes are good! See Jane garden.

If only we could buy gloves with an extra glove for the hand we use the most.

I'd rather get gloves that have extra hands included. Maybe a model's hands?

Only a model gardener - one I respect and admire. Sissy models would be useless with plants, shrubs, feeding, weeding, etc.

i only used gloves for handling sharp things until, after our 3rd hose sprung a leak (from being dragged over the asphalt daily) and my DH bought me an industrial hose - black rubber and it smells like tires. unfortunately so do my hands after using it, so now i am in the ridiculous position of only wearing gloves when handling water, not dirt...

amy
*

So are the driving gloves?

I wear gloves all the time when I garden. And a hat and socks and long pants..... I have bugaphobia. Plus I don't know when I might encounter poison ivy. I've been using heavy-duty dish-washing gloves (since I always end up watering something). I just treated myself to 2 new pairs of gloves from Lee Valley--the French pigskin because they come in a pretty blue (!), and the Rose gloves because they have longer cuffs. I'm hoping that both will keep my hands dry.

Pirl, Lee Valley sells left or right gloves separately if you don't need both.