For gardeners, it's a matter of style, fit, and function by Shila Patel Bare hands in warm, moist soil may be one of gardening's primal pleasures, but the result is often scraped, chapped, and blistered skin. The more you garden, the more you need gloves. And by making various tasks even slightly easier or more comfortable, you'll be able to spend more time gardening.
Gloves are a perennially undervalued gardening tool.
Even if you think of gloves as an optional luxury for everyday tasks, consider using specialized ones for chores such as heavy weeding, pruning roses and brambles, trimming hedges, or operating power equipment. After scouring home stores and gardening shops and catalogs, we've collected some representative types. Examples of each of these seven types are described below, along with a few kinds whose main reasons for being are that they simply look and feel great. The type of gloves you buy depends on how you garden. Some gloves, such as those made of pigskin, are perfectly suitable for most gardening tasks, but even durable leather gloves are inadequate when you work with water or chemicals.