Team Gloves or Team Bare Hands?

Going up and down the gardening isles of local stores and browsing through catalogs, there seems to be no end of merchandise for gardeners to wear. From head to foot, there is a tool or article of clothing for every occasion. The question is: do we use them?

This week's "Which Team" explores gloves. When you're facing some heavy duty work or you have a big patch that needs weeding, do you reach for your gloves, or do you just dive straight in, giving no thought to hand protection?

Trish said:For every day gardening chores, no gloves for me! General weeding, planting, propagating, harvesting, pruning all are done bare handed. In fact, I would go so far as to say that gloves hamper my job if I try to wear them. I need to feel the dirt, touch the delicate leaves and stems, and observe through touch the living things in my care. I feel clumsy and awkward in gloves. The downside, of course, is that my hands are never model-smooth and perfectly manicured, but that's a con that I can live with.

That said, when the hard work chores come due, I usually start off the job grabbing the shovel, rake, or hoe and diving right in. Ten or so minutes later, a blister starts forming, so I run to rummage around until I find my gloves.

There you go- I bat for both teams. Every day chores are Team No Gloves, while the heavy jobs demand Team Glove.

Dave said:Well, it depends on what I'm doing. If I'm doing something that will callous my hands, then I'll wear my snazzy leather gloves. That means weilding a chainsaw, axe, hatchet, machete (most of the time), hoeing, heavy shoveling, using tools that require brute force.

Now, just like Trish, if I'm planting plants, taking cuttings, sowing seeds, and just generally playing in the garden then I will prefer to not wear gloves.

For working on the tractor, I like to wear gloves so I don't get grease all over my hands.

I never really thought about it before but, after all that, I will have to say that I am a member of Team Gloves!

It's your turn: which team do you bat for? Team Gloves, or Team Barehands?