Is it good to garden without gloves?
While it's typically recommended to wear gloves when gardening, many gardeners forgo the gloves and get their hands into the dirt.
The downsides of gardening without gloves:
Thorns, splinters, bacteria, fungi, bug bites, dirty fingernails... you name it.
The upsides of gardening without gloves:
There's nothing like the grip and accuracy of your fingers to pluck a bindweed from the ground! Other perks of not wearing gloves – the feel of the soil in your hands, the ability to pickup tiny seed and place it into the soil... freedom. Plus, it seems half the time our gloves get holes and/or dirt inside them so the whole point is mute.
Can you touch soil with bare hands?
Of course you can. People have been doing this since the beginning of time. But, if you have cuts or open wounds, then bacteria, fungi, and other creatures and contaminates could enter so it's wise to wear gloves when handling soil to protect from infection. Gloves keep your hands protected and keep you from getting scratched, stabbed or cut by things in the garden!
Do you need gloves for weeding?
Gloves are very helpful when weeding, especially when working with prickly weeds and woody weeds. When weeding around squash plants, gloves are very helpful to protect your arms and hands from their prickly spines on their stems. We also like to wear rose gloves with the long sleeves for pruning plants, shrubs and trees, and to harvest zucchini in the garden – all to protect from scratches and skin irritation.
Are gardening gloves necessary?
Happy growing!
