Garden Gloves - Which Gardening Glove Is Best For Me?

All the gloves, clothing, and safety items sold on this site are used in manufacturing plants to protect the employees and keep the employers in compliance with the current safely laws. These products have been tested and perfected in the industrial world under strenuous conditions. They hold up under those conditions - and they will hold up in your garden.

Also see: Getting a proper fitting glove.

Rose and Thorn Gloves

These part goat skin gloves are ideal for working with thorny plants. Comfort and suppleness of leather hands, coupled with the excellent fit, allows you to cut roses, pick berries or do other chores with ease. The sleeves are made to withstand punctures. Berry pickers and rose gardeners love these. I was glad to find these - rose and thorn gloves. They are a perfect solution to those cuts and scratches on you forearms.

Nitrile Gloves

The coating on the gray and green gloves is nitrile, a man-made, rubber-type compound that is a lot better in its ability to resist punctures and abrasions. Nitrile is a stronger material than rubber and you need less nitrile to give you the same protection as rubber. What I am saying is that you get more protection in a thinner material. You suffer less hand fatigue at the end of the day because you are wearing a thinner and lighter glove. Nitrile gloves offer more resistance to thorns, sharp rocks and stones -- longer life for the user. They are machine washable but must be line dried. I have nursery and landscape employees that get more use and longer life out of these gloves than leather ones.

Green Nitrile gardening gloves are best used for:

  • heavy garden and landscape work
  • moving rocks, trees and limbs
  • handling plants with small stickers on them
  • heavy digging
  • removing roots or grubbing out a flower bed

The gray nitrile gloves are similar to the green nitrile gloves except that they are a lighter material. Those that use them praise their feel. It is if no gloves are on their hands. They like the dexterity - the ability to grasp small items. And, in the hot weather, the nylon shell allows for the hand to breathe and keep cool.

Gray Nitrile gardening gloves:

  • are used when doing similar work as the green nitrile gloves are used for, but they are a bit lighter
  • have a thinner coating of nitrile than the green gloves - allowing for more flexibility and control, but a little less protection
  • are very comfortable in warmer weather

Ultra Lite Garden Gloves

The last of the synthetic gloves is the polyurethane on a nylon shell, it weighs less than one ounce per pair. It may not offer the life of the nitrile palm-coated glove, but oh, the comfort of it and the absolute dexterity! It is the one glove that feels like it isn't there!

Ultra Lite gardening gloves:

  • are used in the summer months of gardening
  • should be used whenever detailed work is necessary
  • provide the maximum dexterity if you are doing propagation
  • are so light that they give the best feel of any of the synthetic gloves and are the best for hot weather use
  • are an excellent choice for removing dead blossoms, thinning plants, replanting, removing weeds, and any time you wish to protect your hands working in the garden

Leather Garden Gloves

I only sell two leather gloves - neither is cow hide - for very good reasons. With cow hide you get less life and experience problems when you get this leather wet. It will dry brittle, or cracked, or stiff as a board and therefore is not a recommended item for gardeners. I sell leather gloves made from pig skin and goat skin only.

Pig Skin Gloves

Pig skin leather is one of the two leathers that, when it gets wet, will dry as soft as when you first put it on. This is a great advantage for gardeners, especially in the spring and fall on those cool/cold wet mornings while working in the garden. Get the gloves wet, take them off, let dry then use again. My daughter uses these gloves when she is cutting and removing blackberry vines. These vines are covered with thorns that will scratch and puncture bare skin. Pig skin gloves are comfortable to wear and they last.

Goat Skin Gloves

The goat skin gloves have always been used for work around rose bushes. When I was in California selling safety products and gloves, the professional gardeners would buy goat skin gloves for trimming rose bushes. I have a landscape and retail nursery company in Atlanta that found out through trial that goat skin would outlast cowhide gloves five to one. The owner tried the gloves himself, using them to move boulders and install rough timber for walls and walkways; he sold himself on these gloves.

Thermostat Gloves

One of my retail nurseries in Atlanta asked if I could find a way to help people with arthritis that liked to garden. It seems that cold hands aggravate arthritis. After doing some searching I found a glove that would solve the problem - thermostat gloves. It is made out of polypropylene, the same material that thermal underwear is made from. In cold weather it keeps the hands warm and it hot weather it wicks the moisture away from the hands to keep them cool.

I am always open to new ideas and products that will help gardeners enjoy their work or hobby.