Gardening Glove #1

“April showers bring May flowers”, the past April at Ontario Canada, we had more than enough rain, hopefully, this going brings us a blooming and colorful May, and it comes to the gardening season, can not be a better time to talk about the gardening glove.

I don’t know what you think, but I feel gardening is fun, looking at the seeds you planted spout and grow up and tall, then to see their flower or harvest their fruit… I really enjoy the process. But, gardening is not an easy job, it can get your hand dirty, furthermore blisters. A proper pair of gloves is going make your gardening experience much more enjoyable. And of course, it is not going to be one pair only, I am going to introduce you the right choice of glove when doing different gardening job.

1. Lawn maintenance

Lawn maintenance happens each spring, we need to trim edges, mow, rake off the dead grass, aerate, spread grass seeds and fertilizer, and watering. Think about the above jobs all of them require a tool; trimmer, maover can be powered ones, but raking is the hardest part must be done manually. You better to have a proper pair of glove for it. None of above jobs going have contact with water or oil but require a firm grip. I recommend a coated glove with sandy latex coating for below reasons:

1. Considering the weather, once it gets to the time to maintain the lawn it always not cold, and when you are working with tools you hand can get warm, a breathable latex coated glove is perfect for the job. Even thought the coating side of the glove is not breathable, the uncoated back side can cool you hands down very well.

2. Talking about grip. No doubt latex coated glove can provide the best grip in dry and slightly wet condition; I used to believe crinkle finished latex coating provide the best coating, but a few days ago I tried a sandy finished latex coated glove it blew my mind. “Sandy” finish looks like a memory foam type of surface, it has many tiny little holes on it that make the coating soft and super grippy. This type of coating evidently enlarges the contact surface between glove and tool, and I assume each little close cell holes work like a sucker on a flat surface, that is why it is so grippy. Also, sandy finish coating works just fine if there is little water on the tool you are trying to hold. Water can get into the little holes (not get through, won’t wet your hand), unlike the flat coating that water just became lubrication.

3. Durability standpoint, latex coating normally doesn’t get the best abrasion test result in a lab. But, for household works it is more than enough. A pair of sandy finished latex coated glove can last for a season for sure if just use with tools or power tools. If you want to carry things around, it may not be a good option.

It really took me some time to finish this post, nearly a week. I will try to do the next one quicker.

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