The Right Gloves

Gloves to suit most jobs in the garden

There are work gloves to suit most manual situations. It took me a long time to realise this and for years I tried to work with potting compost using porous orange builders’ gloves. The result was always a total waterlogging of the fabric backing and the lime in the bag eating the skin away on my hands.  I would actually have been better off not wearing any gloves at all.

Rubber work gloves like the red cotton lined pvc ones weren’t much better either, especially when using a hose pipe as they would fill up with water and my hands would slosh around like feet in oversized wellingtons.  I have tried the leather and suede rigger gloves, pvc dotted gloves, fabric types and sometimes even resorted to ski gloves. One time I even used a pair of glow in the dark ones . I’m not sure why but I’m guessing I was doing something at night.

The Right Gloves

Now my favourite glove of choice is a heavy duty rubber pair. They don’t give the same level of protection as the leather type but they are perfect for washing the roots of my chamomile prior to selling and most other weeding jobs. I do tend to leave the bright yellow gloves on a bit too often but as yet I haven’t been to the local shop in them. I did go out in my “washing up pinny” once to the shop so I can’t rule it out altogether.

Regardless of which type of glove I am wearing I have also got into the habit of wearing a pair of nitrile powder free disposable gloves underneath. I’m sure they were around in the years when I was using the lime based potting compost and if I knew of their existence would have saved me years of uncomfortable cracks in my skin.  I do meet people who would never wear work gloves in any situation as they take away the tactile connection to what you are doing but I like clean finger nails so have an array of gloves at my disposal.  

I was going to do a review on the best gloves on the market but as I mentioned, it all depends on what you are doing and how much you are willing to spend.  So I’ll narrow it down to this if you are looking to wear a bit of hand protection. If you are doing things that get your hands wet, use waterproof types, heavy dry work, use thick types and the nitrile disposable gloves come in packs of 100 which last for ages.

New Mower

I’ve bought a new lawnmower. I just couldn’t face the disruption of the strimmer so got online to read some reviews of the lower priced electric type which suit my small patch of lawn. I settled for a small rotary type with a metal blade and I must say I am impressed with the cutting power helped on by a 1200 watt motor. It cut through the foot long grass with no bother.  It’s far better than the Flymo and the only negative comments on the reviews were about the grass storage not being large enough and having to take too many trips to the compost bin. As I am never more than 10 paces from one of my bins I didn’t think that was too much of an issue and most of the time I wouldn’t even bother with the grass collector as I like to keep the cuttings on the lawn for a mulch. 

Bargains.

When I was down at the DIY shop buying the mower I noticed they had loads of bedding plants for sale at reduced prices. Some of the trays were beyond reviving but a lot of plants were still in great condition. I got a car full of petunias, geraniums, begonias, marigolds and daisies for under twenty euro. I must confess that I am a bit naughty when it comes to picking the trays; I will take a few of the good plants from one tray and swap them for the dead ones in another. I justify this by thinking that none of them would sell if it wasn’t for me taking the initiative to make one good (ish) tray out of two. I would have done that myself when I was selling plants. I’m not really sure if it’s illegal but I do feel like I am doing something positive so I am sure I could talk the sales staff around if they catch me in the act.