Garden Clothing - review

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The most important garden clothes are without a doubt gloves and footwear. Hats are also an important gardening accessory to protect from the sun and the rain.

Gardening Gloves

The goal with gardening gloves is that they protect your hands without compromising dexterity or sense of touch too heavily. Gardening gloves should be tough, durable and supple. The appropriate balance between protection and flexibilty will depend somewhat on the task in hand. A serious gardener would do well to have more than one pair for different occasions.

Leather gloves are good for digging but are not very thornproof, unless they are lined, or supple. Leather gloves made from cowhide or pigskin are the toughest. Rubber gloves are the best choice if you are dealing with a lot of thorny plants and are also very practical in muddy conditions. Cloth gloves afford less protection but are very light and flexible and are a good choice for medium to light weeding.

Gardening Footwear

The right choice of gardening footwear will depend on the climate you live in, the tasks of the day and your gardening habits. If you are doing a lot of digging, you would do well to select footwear with reinforced soles to protect your feet from bruising. If you are doing a lot of cutting, it is worth considering steel toecaps, to be on the safe side.

Garden clogs are very convenient if you take your shoes on and off frequently - both closed and open-backed designs are available.

If working with bare soil, it is best if the footwear rises above foot level:

• ankle boots (available with velcro fittings and cloth uppers)
• wellington boots give the best protection against mud and water and if not worn with thick socks allow ventillation to the feet

Garden footware should have shaped insoles. They spread the gardener's weight over a larger area and reduce fatigue. The tread on plastic soles is effective on soil but rubber soles are preferable because of their better grip on grip on paving and other hard surfaces.