Gardening gloves are an essential part of my backyard maintenance kit — I never do anything in the garden without wearing a pair of gloves, after all, I don't fancy spending the next hour scrubbing dirt out that's embedded under my nails. They also help protect your hands from thorns and wood splinters, and help avoid sore hands from blisters when using garden tools like shears.
I have my go-to pair for my modern garden, but recently I spotted a slightly strange looking pair of "clawed" gardening gloves on my TikTok feed that, once I came to understand what they were for, I actually think are genius. Plus, the pair I ordered cost less than $8 from Amazon.
When my Amazon order arrived, my partner was a little nonplussed about them — what are they? And why do they look like that? However, once he'd given them a go, he was convinced too.
Why are these gardening gloves trending?
While they might be slightly unusual looking, these gardening gloves, which you can find on Amazon, are proving popular online. Each finger has a pointed plastic "claw" on it, which lends itself to helping with certain gardening tasks without having to rely on extra tools.
They're great for digging holes for new plants, as well as weeding, and all other things you'd used standard gardening gloves for, like mulching and fertilizer, repotting plants and more. They're useful in that they help you action a greater number of garden tasks, without having to rely on tools like a hand rake or trowel.
I've liked them best so far for surface weeding in my small backyard, but they work particular well for container gardening where the earth in my raised beds is softer and less compacted than the ground beds. After all, these gloves do have them limits.
@gardeningwithpeace ♬ original sound - Peace Hakuna
Are there any drawbacks?
Of course, I wouldn't throw out your garden tools just yet. As I mentioned, these gloves aren't so effective on hard ground, or earth that's dense with stones or rocks. The tips are plastic, so while they're an improvement on just using your fingertips in shape alone, they're not tough enough necessarily to break up more hardy, woody plants and thick roots.
And though you may feel like a superhero wearing them, they still rely on the strength of your hands, where using tools you have certain laws of physics on your side that can help you better dig, dislodge and pull out — depending on the gardening task at hand.
These gloves are a good addition to a robust garden tool kit, like this one from Amazon, but probably aren't enough to satisfy all of your gardening needs.
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