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Clean hands in the garden

18 comments


Do you love gardening? But get in to a bother when you come in and need clean hands instantly. Do you use heavy gardening gloves but after a while find the fingers filling up with loose soil that gets encrusted under your nails? If you’re like me you also don’t like ordinary washing up gloves because you can’t feel the plants like you want to.

Time was, when my hands remained stained by mother earth for weeks on end despite my best efforts to clean them. Particularly my nails, which had a heavy black line beneath them that lasted for months and never really disappeared until the Christmas holidays or a foreign holiday meant they were not in the garden for a week or more!

If any of this sounds like you, read on.

I use surgical gloves. Not because I have any desire to do work in medicine but because I’ve found them to be really practical in the garden. . . . As you do!!

Surgical gloves fit like a second skin. As they must. Surgical gloves come in boxes of 200 or more. So you don’t need to worry about how many you use! Some days I will tear off half a dozen or more. Surgical gloves are actually warmer than not having any gloves at all. And surprisingly so! Surgical gloves can be worn inside your heavy duty gloves or gauntlets when you’re pruning your roses.

But as you arrive at your back door in a hurry to answer the phone or the call of nature, surgical gloves can be ripped off quickly so you don’t smear the garden on everything you touch – which then needs cleaning afterwards. And a new pair can be put on when you resume your gardening.

Yet another practical gardening tip from Muddywellies at Winsford Walled Garden. Open daily from April 04.

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Comments

 

Good idea :o)
Can the surgical gloves be recycled after use ?

14 Feb, 2009

 

I use my hands as nature intended with no gloves. Iv'e had Tetanus injections to prevent infections . Also I have to be careful about using gardening or surgical gloves as they can irritate my skin having suffered badly from Eczma when I was young.

14 Feb, 2009

 

I use surgical gloves as well I also wear them under my normal gloves as they help to keep the heat in on cold days,Grenvilla is correct in what he said they do irrate eczma But you can but latex free ones As I use those at work

14 Feb, 2009

 

What a great idea.

14 Feb, 2009

 

Good idea! And for sensitive folks available latex free as Donnah says and also Talc free for allergies!
Although keeping warm is not usually my problem, my hands sweat too much if I wear them for long!

14 Feb, 2009

 

I am much less hygenic in this matter. I rarely wear gloves but when I have to leave the garden I wash my hands in the rain butt whilst passing and dry them off on a dirty old towel kept for the purpose. I can then answere the telephone or wash them properly in the kitchen if it is lunchtime (then only because my wife insists!)

14 Feb, 2009

 

i dont use goves either. unless theres stingys involved.

but i do keep a clean pair by the back door and put them on when i have to change the washing.

14 Feb, 2009

 

I use a hand barrier that I use for mechanics. Its water based and just washes everything off with water and soap. I also put a bar of soap in a mesh bag made from the mesh bag that onions come in. I tie it in a knot at the top and thread a piece of string through then hang it off the outside garden tap. The soap is always there when and where I need it and the mesh of the bag also helps scrub off any ingrained dirt.

15 Feb, 2009

 

i like your soap plan Gilli.

15 Feb, 2009

 

Great tip for keeping nails clean as long as your nails have some length to them...scrape your nails down a bar of soap, thus filling them up with soap.....works for me...but I shall try the gloves especially as several local cats are using the garden as a toilet!!!!

15 Feb, 2009

 

I'm going to surmise her that those of us who do wear gloves have "gotten" something in the past from the soil. ??
I got it working in a florist caring for tropical plants.
The doctor called it "a creeping eruption" caused by a parasite in the soil and gave me an oral drug to take and that made me soooo sick!
I'd rather wear gloves that go through that again, and like Grenville says I keep my Tetanus up to date!
Gloves just seem a good option for me!

15 Feb, 2009

 

Gilli: May I take the opportunity to thank you so much for your tip on using barrier cream under my plastic gloves, a couple of months ago. It's fantastic! I always end up getting soil down even the tightest fitting gloves but my nails and cuticles are perfectly clean now I use barrier cream :-)

15 Feb, 2009

 

Glad to hear it Dawnsaunt. I'm glad it worked for you. :o)

17 Feb, 2009

 

Hi Gilli, it is BRILLIANT! Thanks again. In fact, my nails have never been so good ,I think the barrier cream may be nourishing them too, lol

17 Feb, 2009

 

Apologies for taking so long to responding.......
But I think it worthwhile adding that the gloves I use are latex-free, non-allergenic, powder-free and ambidextrous. They are not strictly surgical gloves since they are non-sterile, but they are very similar.

27 Feb, 2009

 

I use surgical gloves and love it!!

27 Feb, 2009

 

I used to work in social care and used to wearing them and feel very protected against yukkies.

27 Feb, 2009

 

i hate gloves like you but using cement ive got no choice realy.

6 May, 2009

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