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Barbie's garden Gardening Home page features Miscellaneous

Garden glove audition

Garden glovesI enjoyed your amusing garden glove post you did yesterday so much that I wanted to follow it up with my garden glove trial. I have a rugged garden to contend with and a simple pair of gloves will not be enough. I have, most of my adult life, taken great care of my hands because the profession we were in (remember!) when in our 20s and 30s required good grooming. I don’t think I ever put my hands in dirt except for the odd indoor pot plant I had. Always wore gloves when washing up and pretty much for all washing jobs. So this wonderful gardening hobby has been a real awakening  for me. Just getting on my hands and knees and getting close the the plants is a real pleasure for me, but the dirty nails at the end of the day is a tough one to live with. I still like clean, well-manicured hands. So, my arsenal of garden gloves have been a great help. Now comes the all round comfort, easy-to-handle-plants-delicately and grip-a-spade garden glove trial. Just like you, Chris, I have all those criteria to fill when looking for a great pair of gloves.

As you can see by my pile, I used cheap 100% cotton gloves most of my gardening life because my hands never became sweaty and the breathe-ability was great. These were really cheap at R2 or R3 a pair at an industrial protective clothing factory – so these are not easy to come by. I could also wash my hands and give my nails a bit of a scrub and all was clean – no mess, no fuss! But they were destroyed after only lasting two sessions in the garden! So, those just piled up!! Maybe they can go into the compost heap!

So next pair – I also found groovy gloves (very similar to yours in bright colours) and cost me R59.00 or there about. The lummy green ones on the left you will see that the left-hand glove’s index finger and thumb have holes in them. They lasted 1 month exactly! But you have to realise my heavy-duty gardening included rocks and digging and mud and big projects, so perhaps this was a real Top Gear type of test drive. I really loved the lightness and the breathe-ability. The rubber coating was perfect (not too thick or too thin) and I really could go on all day (which I did some days!) and never felt uncomfortable!! Besides the price, they get a big thumbs up from me! I’m still using them because they are so comfortable! They are called Pnui but I have googled this and … nothing!

I have a new pair (the ones in the foreground) but these feel like knock-offs and were cheaper at R35.00. They feel heavier and thicker and the wrist elastic is tight (and I have small wrists … hmmmm!) and after an hour I want to full them off – my hands get very stuffy!! But let me give them a full test before I give my final thumbs up or down!

Happy gardening xxxxx

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Christine's garden Gardening Home page features Products Reviews

Groovey gardening gloves

I like nicely manicured hands, who doesn’t? As a kid, I can remember getting into trouble for a lot of things relating to “hand grooming or un-grooming” practices. As a tot the incessant thumb-sucking drove my parents nuts, later on biting my nails caused plenty of reprimands and finally in my teens, unkempt hands would cause my Dad to raise his eyebrows in a way that I knew it would be much better to keep my hands hidden behind my back! You would think that at my current age I would no longer worry about parental approval, but for some reason I still do (those raised eyebrows … hoo boy!).

I’ve tried all sorts of gloves for gardening over the last few months. Ordinary rubber gloves were probably the most useless so I started buying so-called “gardening gloves”. I’d start the gardening day most enthusiastically with hands neatly covered in a new pair, only to throw them off 5 minutes later because they are just simply not comfortable or do not allow for normal hand operation in the garden. The result has been some seriously ungroomed, unkempt hands after months of “bare-hand” gardening. Seriously, its not been pretty!With a visit from my Dad coming up soon (he lives in the USA and will be visiting us in August), I’ve been having visions of having to keep my dirty fingernails hidden for two weeks in woollen gloves, pretending some sort of affliction that requires full hand bandages or standing like a child with hands hidden behind my back for the duration of his visit. Or, the alternative – dealing with those “raised eyebrows”!

In a last ditch effort to find a solution I spent about an hour perusing all the options at the local nursery. All sorts of gloves available … some I’ve tried before, others felt cumbersome and one last type I had not tried. Enter my “groovey gardening gloves”.

[one_half]Groovey gardening gloves!Groovey gardening gloves[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Still perfect after washingGroovey gardening gloves a few times[/one_half_last]

Yay! They are super comfortable! Double Yay! They let my hands breathe! Triple Yay! I can potter around in the garden for hours wearing these beauties WITHOUT wanting to rip them off my hands in disgust. And when I remove them? Clean Hands! I’ve been using them for three weeks now and no holes or breaks in them … meaning they might last long enough to warrant the expense of R62.95 per pair. Its looking positive and I will be able to show Dad my lovely garden without hiding my hands behind my back or having to deal with eyebrows that get raised.

These gloves are by With Garden™. The blurb on the pack says “Advanced Technology with Grip Excellence – Ultimate technology promises unparalleled grip performance”. They are machine washable, have a breathable back area, waterproof palm area, offer UV protection and the rubbery front part offers a great grip on whatever you are working with. They fit perfectly so they are very easy to work with.

What gardening gloves do you use? Would love to hear!