There are those gardeners who like to commune barehanded with the soil and those who prefer to cover their hands when scrabbling in the earth. The later buy gloves and the former buy hand cream or maybe just a stiff scrubbing brush.
I like to wear gloves for many gardening activities and also if I have to pick up something nasty like a slug. I have a preferred brand of gloves that I have found suit me. They are made from a soft leather that is supposed to be machine washable - not that there is any way that I would put mud caked gloves into my washing machine. They can however, be rinsed and don't dry into a stiff unyielding claw.
There has been a problem though in that the garden centres only seemed to stock them in colours described as olive or grey, in effect this translates as colours designed to camouflage well when placed on soil.
Maybe the buyers feel that we gardeners would prefer these earthy colours which in other circumstances maybe I would.
Although I do like to wear gloves for many gardening tasks there are times when I need to work barehanded on fiddly jobs that need a more delicate touch. This means that when I am working gloves are regularly being taken off and placed (OK maybe thrown) on the ground. I then wander off and forget where I have left them causing me later to have to wander around retracing my steps in an attempt to locate the missing glove (it's often just one). Sometimes I accidentally bury a glove and don't find it again until it is dug back up.
Now I know that I could buy girlie gloves in fluorescent colours maybe even decorated with daisies but these either don't offer sufficient protection against the more vicious plants or they quickly become wet and soggy or they are rubbery and make for sweaty hands.
Recently when searching for replacements to my present gloves, (being buried didn't do one of the pair any favours), I spotted my favourite gloves in bright pink. Now isn't this easier to spot that the one above.
The only problem was that the pink gloves were not available in my size - small - so I ended up with a pair of medium ones which I will be able to manage with for most plot jobs.
Later I browsed the Internet to see whether there were any small size pink gloves online and I found that they also came in what was described as lavender.
Eventually after the carrier had lost one pair, a pair of small, what I would describe as blue, gloves were added to my gardening wardrobe for use in the garden. I'm hoping that my latest purchases don't fade to earth coloured after regular use.
It's not just gloves that I have problems with. There are other items that regularly play hide and seek with me when gardening. I'm always putting scissors down and recently hit on an idea to help locate them - red ribbon tied to one handle.
Now I wonder would reading glasses look really ridiculous if I tied a piece of red ribbon to them?
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Gloves v no gloves ! I am a bit of a wuss and always wear them, and have tried many different sorts, but not your washable leather ones yet! I have tried those blue/ lilac ones in your photo but don't find them flexible enough, so I wear ... rubber gloves ! Yes, Marigolds ! When it is cold I wear them over a pair of woollen gloves. Looks crazy but it works for me !
ReplyDeleteI'm a wuss too Jane, the blue gloves aren't stuff at all and soften up with use. Those and the pink ones are washable leather as are the old earthy ones. I have been known to use the surgical type rubber gloves but they are useless with blackberries. I do use marigolds for picking up rotten plums!
DeleteThe scissors I use in the garden are bright orange and I still lose them. And my trowels have bright orange handles. Again I lose them and can't find them for weeks before they turn up again. I've never buried one in the garden though I have lost a pair of scissors in the compost pile though. I found it the next year when sifting it to put on the beds.
ReplyDeleteWe have found scissors that have been out for months and still cut, Daphne. Again sometimes dug up.
DeleteI have never work with the gloves on my hands. I always feel free to touch all part of my garden, barehanded. I have so many garden tools that the handles are mostly on earthy color. I often forget put them, so... that's so annoying.
ReplyDeleteI've picked up too many nasty things to go gloveless Endah and on the plot there is the potential to stumble on broken glass,
DeleteThis post had me giggling all the way through. I swear, I spend most of my time gardening looking for stuff I laid down such as gloves, scissors, tools, and baskets partially filled that I wandered off from. "Oh a pepper!" I don't dare purchase expensive gloves because I am always losing them. If I leave gloves somewhere outside the fence of the garden, the dog takes off with them. At least that is what I tell myself when I can't find them.
ReplyDeleteI think I may have hit on a nerve with lots of people, Rachel. I'm good at losing other things too, Martyn often has to ring my mobile phone so I can locate my handbag in the house.
DeleteI wear gloves. Although I love the feel of earth running through my hands, I don't like the little presents left in my soil by the many neighbourhood cats, dogs, and foxes. My new favourite gloves are the Sophie Conran for Burgon and Ball that I can buy at my local National Trust shop. They are not for anything other than small hands though, but the neoprene palms and fingers with a soft cotton back make them the best I have ever used; they are flexible, comfortable, slim enough to allow almost all but the most delicate jobs, and washable! I've stocked up in the current sale!
ReplyDeleteOf course, we might all have to resort to strings around the neck, as we did as children with our winter mittens, to keep ourselves from losing them!
I've hand the nmasty experience of picking up something that I think is a lump of earth and trying to crumble it only to find out it isn;t, Deborah. The trouble is I tend to get fabric gloves wet and soggy.
DeleteI always wear gloves when I'm gardening, I can't stand the thought that I might touch a creepy crawly without them on. I've lost my beloved pair of Felco Secateurs and they've got a bright red handle, I've no idea where they are. They've been gone a while so I'm just hoping that they weren't lost on the old plot and that they'll turn up somewhere in the garden or shed.
ReplyDeleteI hope the secateurs come home safely, Jo. I hate it when a slug sticks to my finger and frantically shake my hand trying to dislodge it. When I was teaching, a boy in my class came in from the playground with a tiny slug dangling from his ear, He thought that I was just winding him up when I told him but when he went to look in the mirror I heard a loud scream. He thought of himself as a toughie too.
DeleteOh, this did make me laugh. I'm just the same. I wonder how many minutes a week I spend looking for things.. mostly I wear just one glove, the right as I am right handed. This leaves the fingers of my left hand free to pick up tiny little weeds.
ReplyDeleteI often tend to have just one glove on too, Jessica but you can guarantee if I can only find one glove it is the wrong one! I then try wearing it back to front but then my hand won't bend!
DeleteI have exactly the same marking on my gardening scissors, it's very useful!
ReplyDeleteIt works for us, Dewberry. We used to use the same method to make our suitcases stand out on carousels.
DeleteI am not good in working with gloves, of course I have them but mostly use only one, or goes on bare handed after some time and then I cannot find them anymore, like my secateurs. I am spending a lot of time looking around for all my things. Sometimes I find them back at the compost heap.
ReplyDeleteSounds exactly like me, Janneke
DeleteI can't for the life of me wear gloves in the garden. Even carrying out the dirtiest of jobs I prefer my hands free. I do spend rather a lot on hand cream however.
ReplyDeleteAs for tools, I'm right with you Sue. I often look foward to autumn/winter when I know I'll find them all again. Nice gloves, I hope they do a job for you Sue.
Apologies if you get this more than once, I'm having trouble staying signed into google.
I must admit my hands and nails still get filthy , Angie as I keep taking my gloves off which is why I lose them.
DeleteI only wear gloves for the really rough jobs, like pruning Raspberries. Wearing gloves makes me feel clumsy.
ReplyDeleteOften it's a case of one hand gloved and the other not Mark.
DeleteI always like to wear gloves, and when it's wet I put an old pair of Marigolds underneath. And I'm ALWAYS losing small tools round the plot, it drives me nuts. I shall find some red ribbon without further delay. I love the lavender gloves.
ReplyDeleteI guess red would be useless for people who are colour blind, CJ so other bright colours would do - I just happened to have some red parcel ribbon hanging around.
DeleteYou sure struck a chord here with me! I lose gloves endlessly too and just like yours they pop up everywhere, even in the compost bins....I was laughing away at the fact you actually buried one AND dug it up again! Priceless that! Love the red tape around the scissors....now why haven't I thought of that!!! I always end up gardening glove free only because all my gloves are lost or ruined....you should see the state of my hands....xxx
ReplyDeleteI end up with holes in the end of the right index finger, Snowbird so end up with a dirty fingers end. I can often be seen searching the compost bin!
DeleteThose gloves look pretty good - nice and soft. Funnily enough I never lose gloves but secateurs and trowels are my worst for losing - my favourite type of glove are waterproof ones easy to work in but like you I always keep taking them off to do fiddley stuff
ReplyDeleteI;m skilled in the art of losing secateurs too, Elaine.
DeleteHa ha, yes definitely resounds with most growers I should think. Glove-wise I've found some fairtraded rubber one that are a reasonable thickness but can't get them in small (which I need) so usually settle for medium. They're a bit loose but not too bad. No good for fiddly stuff though, need to keep trying to find the small. In the summer I don't wear gloves v often so in the winter I can just fit a pair of thin wooly gloves under the rubber ones. Also end up with the finger tips wearing out!
ReplyDeleteI'm always losing my little red handled fork on the plot but it turns up eventually.
Maybe you need fluorescent pink ribbon. Lou :)
DeleteFunnily enough I'd been thinking of tying pink ribbon round some oak and hawthorn seedlings growing on the plot as I want to make sure they're not accidentally weeded over winter when their leaves have fallen off! :)
DeleteI once tied coloured string to stems of cosmos that I wanted to collect seed from, Lou. When we weny om holiday a kind plot neighbour dead headed then complete with strings
DeleteOh dear! Hee hee. And they were just trying to be helpful (I was mainly thinking Jan might accidentally weed them out when she gets chance to come down, rather than me!)
DeleteI started not being able to wear gloves and now, in the main, wear them all the time. There's a huge bucket of them in the green house all shades, all varieties to suit the prevailing weather. A small but necessary treat.
ReplyDeleteAnd I thought I was extravagant buying two paoir, Victoria - do you peg the two in a pair together?
DeleteI scrunch them up in a ball Sue.
DeleteI've worn gloves more as I've got older and hopefully more sensible but still prefer to do some jobs without them eg pricking out. Mine are green which leads to problems. I like the pink and lavender shades Sue which must be so much easier for the eye to focus in on. At home I'm forever loosing my two pairs of glasses and as for my keys ......
ReplyDeleteI wear gloves more on ye plot than in the garden, Anna and I couldn't prick out wearing them eithet.
DeleteI wear the Pound Shop gloves which are protection from thorns and nettles although they have to be removed for delicate jobs. Garden tools play hide and seek with you. I can look at the same spots three times before the reappear! I was bought a gardening belt to carry small tools but it's not too comfortable if you have to bend down.
ReplyDeleteIt is strange how things turn up where you have looked, L - pity that socks don't
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