"Gardening Gloves - Why Bother?"

Gardening gloves were probably the original hand protection accessory! Gloves have been worn by man and woman since stone age times. They were primitive but practical in those times and protected the hands from stings and bites.

Over the centuries gloves have gone through many transformations. Through the middle ages, only royalty and aristocrats wore gloves and many were made of linen, silk and lace. The gloves were not practical made a statement as to who the wearer was and more to the point, where they came from.

Unmarried women were not permitted to show their hands at one time and it was always considered good manners for women to wear delicate white gloves to announce their good breeding and purity to the rest of the world.

In poorer and working class society, men and women would knit gloves to protect against the cold, and these types og gloves are available for sale on the high street today, although they are more likely to be factory produced and relatively cheap to buy.

Gardening gloves have undergone many transformations and with 'bionic' gloves on the market these days, there is no excuse for the woman of the house to be unable to practise her embroidery because of cuts obtained in the garden! :-)

Too many times I've regretted not organizing a pair of gardening gloves! Even if you wear old kitchen rubber gloves or at a minimum, plastic disposable gloves, it's better than nothing.

Read on to find out why!

*Gloves will protect your skin from staining - even if you're just pottering about in the garden, pulling a few weeds here and there, your skin can absorb colour from the plants.

The worst are tomato plants. Picking out the extra shoots from the tomato plant without gloves is a nightmare. Expect to spend at least fifteen minutes scrubbing your hands afterwards - if you forget your gardening gloves!

*Gardening gloves will also protect you from stings - the plant variety such as nettles, and wasps and other stinging insects.

To protect against thorns, wear a solid pair of gloves, but never trust them 100%. Nature's thorns are mean machines!

*Rubber gloves or disposable gloves will not 'cushion' your hands, and if you are intending to use hand tools for any length of time in the garden, it's in your interests to protect your hands from blisters.

I learned my lesson the hard way. Trying to type with blistered hands is NO fun at all.

Gardens Alive ( US ) have produced a great design in garden gloves - Bionic no less!

Bionic Gardening Gloves! Type 'gardening gloves' in the search box on their homepage.

In the UK, Crocus have a range of his 'n hers garden gloves and gauntlets.

Crocus.co.uk Choose 'tools and equipment' from their homepage, then choose 'clothing', then 'gloves'.

However, as I mentioned above, if you are simply weeding a little, or re-planting a few plants, an old pair of rubber gloves works perfectly!

Keep your gloves in a particular place. NOT necessarily in the garden shed. I tend to wander out to the garden from the kitchen, and, leaving my gloves in view as I leave the house ensures I put them on...:-)

Happy Gardening!

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