Safeguard Your Hands with the Best Gardening Gloves

Our recommendation for the best gardening gloves is the Exemplary Gardens Leather Gardening Gloves. However, this set of gloves is just one of many that you can don on your hands before you dig into your garden. We’ve listed a few other gloves here, and we’ll give you a few tips as to why getting a good pair of gloves is essential to your gardening experience.

Our Picks for the 4 Best Gardening Gloves

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​gardening gloves and bacteria

If you’re a novice gardener, or if you aren’t too involved with growing an abundance of plants or crops, you may think that you can slide by without having to worry about picking up a pair of gloves. Yet it doesn’t matter how active you are. If you’re growing even a miniscule amount of vegetation, gloves should be part of your repertoire.

The obvious benefit that may spring to mind when it comes to wearing gloves is that they keep you from getting scratched up. Yet while that is indeed an important component to slipping on a pair, the real reason why it’s key isn’t merely because it can leave a nasty mark on your hand.

Your garden is filled with bacteria. It’s said that a billion bacteria can live within the confines of single gram of soil. If you scratch up your hand and plunge it back into the dirt without a glove, you’re essentially inviting this bacteria to come and check out your fresh wound.

Putting gloves on will effectively eliminate the potential proliferation of bacteria. This in turn will help to stave off any associated infection that may develop as a result of the wound, which could cause significantly more problems than just a measly scratch.

quick video overview on the importance of gardening gloves

While the basic purpose of wearing gardening gloves is protection, it’s important to note precisely what kind of protection may be afforded to you by wearing them. This video provides a simple, basic overview of what a good set of gloves can do to keep your mitts safe.

https://youtu.be/kCoeW4nrB3A

other benefits of gardening gloves

Keeping your hands free from scratches and bacteria isn’t the only benefit derived from donning a good set of gloves. They also are important from keeping your hands clean and your fingernails healthy.

Specifically, gardening gloves can help prevent ground-in dirt, or dirt that gets ground into the skin after working hard in the garden. If you have long fingernails, a good set of gloves can also help protect them from breaking and chipping. If you buy waterproof gloves, you’ll also be able to keep your hands dry.

Also, keep in mind that thorns aren’t the only things that could get you. When you’re in your garden or flowerbed, you’re plunging your fingers into the home of numerous insects. These little critters can and will respond to the intrusion by biting you – something you won’t ever feel if you’re wearing gloves.

what to look for when buying gardening gloves

No set of gloves are alike, even though they all strive to provide you with the same protective measures. As such, there are a pretty large proliferation of gardener gloves on the market, and the sheer amount could be a touch overwhelming. Fortunately, you can whittle things down a bit by keeping a few things in mind.

Ideally, you’ll want to consider gloves that are waterproof. There are going to be plenty of times where you’re going to be working with moist soil and water. Gloves that aren’t waterproof will make your hands heavier over time, not to mention that they’ll get your hands wet on the inside of the gloves, which could cause blistering.

Whether or not a glove is waterproof depends on the material it’s made from. For instance, cotton gloves, while inexpensive and readily available, will soak up water – not to mention that they won’t leave you much when it comes to protection. And while rubber gloves tend to keep out water well, they may make your hands a bit sweaty.

When you’re looking for a proper waterproof glove, make sure that they’re light in material. You’ll also want to ensure that the fabric still allows your hands to breathe effectively through the material, whatever that material may be.

Length of glove is also very important. Ideally, you’ll want to pick up gloves that extend past your wrist. Anything shorter than this may unwittingly invite dirt and soil to entering your gloves and setting into your fingertip area.

You can also look for gloves that offer elastic around the wrist to ensure no foreign object slips into the glove. If you’re going to be working with particularly thorny plants, such as roses, you may want to consider getting gloves that shroud your whole arms.

Finding gardening gloves with grips or pads on the fingers and palms is also an important thing to look for on your search. These elements are particularly important if you’re planning on working with gardening tools, as they will provide you with a better grip.

the importance of a good fit

Above all else, when you’re looking for a gardening glove, don’t stop until you find one that fits you. Even gloves that are slightly snug may promote the kind of friction that causes blisters, which is something you obviously want to avoid.

To see if the gloves will fit, your best bet is to put them on and make a fist. If they don’t feel too tight or too loose, you’re good to go. And if you have hands that are too small for adult gardening, you may want to look into children’s gardening gloves.

Our Recommendation: Exemplary Gardens Leather Gardening Gloves

Making sure you have a properly fitting glove will effectively eliminate a lot of the potential hazards your hands may encounter while gardening. The reason why we like the Exemplary Gardens Leather Gardening Gloves is because it does a good job of highlighting a gardening glove’s most important metrics.

Even if you don’t buy it, this glove can be used as a guide to help you hone in on the very elements that are key to a good gardening mitt. It’s tight around the wrist, waterproof, and t’s breathable to prevent hand sweatiness while keeping your hands comfortable.

And keeping comfortable is a metric that shouldn’t be overlooked as you go about tending to your garden. Remember, gardening is hard work, and it’s important that you make the experience as relaxed and enjoyable as possible. Having gardening gloves that promote comfy hands can go a long way into achieving this goal.

Of course, not getting scratched up by your plant or getting unwittingly bit by a disturbed bug are also pretty important reasons as to why you should buy a set of gardening gloves. You may not think of it as a bit deal, until you get a nasty scratch across the back of your hand. But why allow that incident to happen in the first place?

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