Can any lady gardner out there advise me on where I can buy small but heavy duty gardening gloves? All the ones I find to fit are all 'lightweight' (suggesting that we frail dainty ladylike ladies don't do any 'real' gardening? ::))
Conversely, and infuriatingly, there are lots and lots of heavy duty gardening gloves for men that won't, of course, fit me!
Plottie :)
Plottie, like you I have dainty little paws ;D but needed heavy duty gloves in order to tackle the blackberries. I went to Wyevales and found a pair of leather gloves, sized for ladies - S,M or L. The small fit me perfectly and would say that at £9.99 they were one of my best lottie buys so far. I'm fairly sure the range is Town & Country.
The Showa range are good - a company selling gloves to the general public with a good track record in industrial handwear ;)
http://www.edirectory.co.uk/pf/pages/moreinfoa.asp?recordid=3709133&cid=880&afid=88888
or Yeoman brand, which I found in my local garden centre - simple, cheap and good
or Gold Leaf - nice, but expensive, at Harrod Horticultural (who also sell Showa gloves)
http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/HarrodSite/category/Footwear%20and%20Clothing_Gold%20Leaf%20Gloves/
if you can go for leather as they seem to be better wearing than cotton.
Didn't think about a website link - mostly because I didn't realise they had one ??? doh.
Try this - http://www.townandco.com/Product_page.asp?TheType=PREMIUMGLOVES&GLOVES=Y
This is useful for me too, as I am in exactly the same position as you Plottie. I have very small hands and a lot of shops just stock medium size which is far too big for me. Also I have a nasty habit of losing my gloves - I take them off to do some delicate work and forget where I have left them. Yesterday OH found one of my gloves when he was digging the new compost out. :) busy_lizzie
I've got to join in - another small paw here! I've only once ever found an adult with shorter fingers than me - and she was a foot shorter in height...
I am hooked on Briers' lined hide leather gloves. They are lined, lovely and soft, put up with me shovelling flints, can cope with my vicious brute of a bramble and yet are flexible enough to be able to weed with the fingertips... and the small is small enough!
Hard to find though - I buy a couple of pairs at a time online to save on postage. I get through roughly a pair a year thanks mostly to the stones on the lotties... some are like razors.
http://www.gardening-emporium.co.uk/details.php?pID=37&cID=
moonbells
I have always had the Town and Country Leather Gloves from Wyvale and have always been impressed but bought a pair of the Briers Hide ones yesterday, they feel so soft and comfortable. Just need the rain to stop now.....
I think the washable leather ones I was given for a present last year were Town and Country. Good fit, comfortable.....but washable, as per the label, they weren't. Or rather, they survived the washing, but hard as anything afterwards. And still dirty. And stiff.
Shame :(
Now at the bottom of the pile - useful for when I counter-attack the hawthorn hedge, tho. Wouldn't buy them myself.
Quote from: Alishka_Maxwell on May 22, 2006, 08:28:25
they survived the washing, but hard as anything afterwards. And still dirty. And stiff.
That's one of the key things for me lish, I ruined a lovely pair of leather gloves by washing them in the machine. Hand wash? No thanks. I go for machine washables ONLY now.
but I hand-washed these :'(
I just use thick rubber gloves for gardening, and the thin yellow ones for beekeeping. They don't fit but so what.
I saw heavy duty Ladies (and Gents) Gloves in Woolies yesterday for about £2.99 (I think!)
I think the ladies are sky blue in colour. I have a pair of the Gents gloves and successfully pull brambles and nettles without pain.
GF.
some recommendations on this thread, and links...
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,28/topic,19344.20
I like Briers hide gloves too, but always get the same problem - the fingertips on one hand tend to wear out more quickly that the other (left in my case although I'm right handed) and I am reluctant to chuck out the good right handed ones, so end up with lots of right handed gloves. I tried turning them inside out to wear on my left hand, but it doesn't really feel the same!
Meant to add too, that if I wash gloves, I do it in a bowl of soapy water, whilst wearing them, then leave them to dry in the wind. After, I put them back on and rub dubbin into them, as if applying hand cream- it softens them up ok. I rub dubbin into new ones too, helps to waterproof them a bit.
Quote from: jennym on May 22, 2006, 11:13:02
I like Briers hide gloves too, but always get the same problem - the fingertips on one hand tend to wear out more quickly that the other (left in my case although I'm right handed) and I am reluctant to chuck out the good right handed ones, so end up with lots of right handed gloves. I tried turning them inside out to wear on my left hand, but it doesn't really feel the same!
Perhaps we should trade - I wear out the right ones but can't throw them out! ;D ;D
moonbells
Lots of useful suggestions so many thanks to one and all. Woolies will be my first stop to see if GF's recommendation are the bargain they sound, but you've given me lots of alternatives to fall back on
You're a lovely bunch !!
Plottie :-*
I saw some gardening gloves - leather with full gauntlets in a pretty fabric in a shabby chic type shop - price was £28 but i forgot the name as i wanted to hunt round on the internet and see if i cuold find a bargain somewhere.... any one know what i m talking about?
Quote from: OliveOil on May 23, 2006, 10:49:10
I saw some gardening gloves - leather with full gauntlets in a pretty fabric in a shabby chic type shop - price was £28 but i forgot the name as i wanted to hunt round on the internet and see if i cuold find a bargain somewhere.... any one know what i m talking about?
http://www.crocus.co.uk/?ContentType=Product_Card&ClassID=2000005483&affiliate=shopzilla&rw.cm=shopzilla&rw.ct=Affiliate
yep those are the ones!!! thankyou
snappish jen, I was surfing crocus last night and erm, invested in their bulb planter wiv the ash handle :)
Don't like gloves generally but I sometimes use these for digging
(http://www.fine-tools.co.uk/fine-tools-images/pp-gl03.jpg)