The next piece of kit that I in fact don’t leave the back door without is my gardening gloves. Even if it is for a quick walk  around the gardens during my lunch break, in my world of an ADHD brain, you never know where the day is going to take you. So, in preparation for any event, whether it is picking a few weeds on my travels or wrestling a goat out of a fence, the garden gloves always seem to find a use.

There are so many gardening gloves on the market, and I don’t think there is one best pair out there so instead of recommending a particular style to purchase, I am going to tell you about my experience with different types and what my personal opinion would be.

I think the most common one I have seen on the market is a soft nylon glove dipped in rubber which pr

ovides the fabric a certain level of waterproof and durability. These are what I call a workman’s glove, purely for the fact there was always a pair or ten floating around Dad’s van for as long as I can remember.

Now, the ones in Dad’s van were often orange or green and very chunky with stiff flexibility. For builders, I understand that this design is very useful in terms of grip and durability, but when it comes to gardening, I just think they are a bit too clunky.

However, there is a variety of workman’s gloves that I do like, and they are a softer design that often come in a wider range of size gradings and have a lot more flexibility to them. You can even get thermal variations from some brands which I really love when it comes to the winter months and living with arthritis.

Wow, I really was blessed with every genetic fault, wasn’t I?!?!

This style of glove also offers a seamless design which I like as I don’t like the friction of thick seems to agitate my already clammy hands in summer, so that’s another gold star for me on this design.

The one place workman’s gloves lose me is when it comes to washing. Now maybe I am unaware of some particular washing method I should have been using to avoid destroying these gloves but as soon as I put them through the wash they lose their integrity and either end up misshapen from melted rubber in parts or the rubber begins to crack during the drying process meaning they are no longer waterproof.

Actually, a lesson I learned the hard way with these gloves is NEVER leave them to dry on a radiator… unless you want a decal of a melted handprint that is. I frequently leave my gloves to dry off on the top of the radiator, but with the rubber design, you may find yourself in a sticky position as you try to peel a melted glove from between the radiator grill in your home.

In general, though, workman’s gloves are usually a cost-effective and comfortable garden gloves. And if you are similar to me in losing things, cost-effectiveness is always for the win.

Another style of gardening glove I frequently see is a fully stitched glove with little rubber dots that are usually in a decorative fabric. This is a style that has been gifted to me quite a lot in the past and I completely understand why. They come in beautiful patterns, often elaborately packaged and displayed as a gift solution to in-store shoppers. I have probably gifted these once or twice to others myself even.

But let me tell you these gloves are the bane of my existence.

The internal seams irritate the skin between my fingers, the grip dots on the fabric remind me of toddlers' socks, and the fabric is essentially a sponge soaking all the moisture from the soil. Then it comes to washing, and we already know I hate laundry, but these guys make the laundry experience even worse as they shrink or misshape, the little grippy dots fall off and most of the time they remain stained from the garden use.

In my opinion, these gloves are aesthetically beautiful, but in practice, they act like a thorn magnet as they offer no protection with their soft fabric design.

Speaking of thorns, that brings me to leather or PU leather garden gloves. This is what I am using at the minute, and I am loving them. As mum purchased a lovely set of Briers gardening gloves back before Christmas, it wasn’t long until they found their way into my gardening cubby. One day I was admiring them on her hands and the next I was showcasing them back to her as I weeded the rose garden. From there on I have considered them my own.

These gloves are a thin leather outer fabric with a cotton lining which makes them warm but breathable and also… you guessed… thorn resistant!

I have been using these gloves since winter and they are cosy, comfy, and easily washed. However, as the weather heats up I do find them to be a bit too warm some days and that’s when I end up going nude-handed and ruining my nails as I scratch through soil like some sort of feral rabbit.

So if you do have a variety of thorned plants within your garden, the leather gloves are in my opinion the best solution to reduce getting pricked. They do tend to be a bit more expensive considering the materials used to make them but in my opinion, it is worth the investment rather than repeatedly having to purchase a box of plasters in the weekly shopping as your hands become shredded from thorns. If thorns are a non-issue within your planting scheme, perhaps another design is the option for you. It is all down to personal tastes and what feels best for you to work with. Maybe you are new to gardening and just looking for the basics or perhaps you have been in this game a while and looking to make an investment into your tool kit. We are all on different paths and in need of different features so choose what feels right for you.

I am interested to know what your favourite garden gloves are. Maybe there are styles out there I don’t even know about yet. So let me know in the comments below and stay tuned for more gardening toolkit advice.