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Town & Country Jersey Extra Grip Gloves
by ryeb
I own a large number of gardening gloves because I tend to take them off and set them down somewhere where they remain hidden for a while. I track them down quickly on my allotment but the garden I work in is just under 14 acres which gives me more scope for my glove treasure hunt! As a result I always happily receive new pairs for ... Christmas and birthdays, which is how I came to try the Town & Country Jersey Extra Grip garden gloves. They are now my favourite pair as they are the most versatile of all I own.
Town & Country make a vast number of garden gloves for both men and women, and they seem to be widely stocked in garden centres. Apparently the Master Gardener glove is the best selling garden glove in the U.K. The Jersey Extra Grip pair that I own is model number TGL101, and is listed under the ladies range although similar gloves are available for men too. I have a medium size pair, thanks to my long fingers which often stop ladies gloves fitting that well for me. I sometimes opt for a small men's pair instead but then the palm area tends to be too big. The Town & Country gloves have an excellent fit though, which in turn means I am less likely to take them off in frustration and lose them. They have a certain amount of stretch which means they are easy to slip on and off while still fitting closely enough to allow me to really use my fingers naturally.
The "extra grip" refers to the fact the gloves have PVC "pimples" or dots across the palm and fore fingers. These are the sort of feature you don't appreciate much until you use gloves without them. They make simple things such as opening bottles of plant feed or turning on a tap much easier. Some gloves make tools with wooden handles in particular twist in your hand thanks to their smooth surface, but the pimples prevent that here. You can't feel the pimples on the interior of the glove as you wear them which adds to the comfort. The inner lining feels soft and is very pleasant when you have the gloves on for extended periods as I do. The cuff is also soft - it is thick and knitted and fits closely to the wrist. This is supposed to keep dirt out and it certainly does it's job. The only downside is the thickness of the cuff means that if you get it wet it takes a while to dry compared to the rest of the glove which is made from jersey cotton. I have other gloves to use so I can live with that.
These gloves are intended for "light work" about the garden and I think that is accurate. They are not thorn proof and if I am dealing with something really prickly I like to use gloves that come with gauntlets that also protect my lower arm. I wear them whilst handling compost, weeding [they do guard against nettle stings most of the time], and basic tasks like that. They allow for more natural movement than really thick gloves and I find them more comfortable in warm weather too, as my fingers don't get sweaty as they do when wearing leather based gloves. I prefer fabric gloves anyway, as I am a vegetarian. The other advantage of the jersey material is that it is possible to wash the gloves. There is no point of having a pair that you can't get dirty! They come up well in a hand wash and dry fast apart from the cuffs. I have just noticed from the label that you are supposed to re-shape them whist wet. I haven't ever remembered to do that and they are still fine!
All in all I would recommend these for a useful pair of everyday garden gloves. They are not the sort you would wear to attack a bramble patch or prune a rose but they are not advertised as such. I wear my gloves at work for 2-3 days a week plus at the allotment a similar amount and I have had them since Christmas 2012. They have had a few periods of absence without leave in the garden, but I still have an entire pair which is miraculous. They remain in good usable condition, and the seams are intact. I could see some of the stitch work along the thumb seam when I first had the pair and I thought that they would be a weak point as a result but I was wrong. A quick look online shows the current RRP is just £2.99 which is a bargain. The Town & Country Site website lists 3 colour choices - purple, lime and raspberry. Mine are pink but they look darker than the current raspberry so maybe my shade is discontinued or the picture makes it look lighter. Whatever colour you pick, you will have a good buy.
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Poundland Heavy Duty Gloves
by jazzypinkpuppet
As I am getting my garden ready for the sun that is just waiting to burst out into the sky, I decided I needed to do some major weeding, cutting and planting. I popped along to my local pound land for some little pots but came across these whilst I was there, here is what I thought.......
Well to look at they are not very ... attractive, the picture shows grey and green but mine are grey and blue, I also saw grey and red. They did have some pretty ones with flowers and another pair with little butterflies on but these seemed much harder wearing and I decided to protect my fingers over fashion.
They only come in one size which is actually very big, I have big hands for a girl, when I was growing up my mum always said I would be a brick layer, but these are still quite big on me. I think they are aimed at big man hands and the pretty flowery ones are for the ladies. It didn't matter too much that they were big, they didn't fall off but they didn't keep all the dirt out so my hands were still a bit grubby after my gardening.
Having said that the reason I wanted them was to stop my fingers being cut up by thorns and stinging nettles and they did that job well.
They are made of a thick material that to look at looks like suede but it is a faux version, I am not sure what exactly.
I could pick up stinging nettles by the bunch and wasn't stung once, also cutting my roses back and no thorns hurt or scratched me at all.
After the first use of quite a heavy session in the garden they were filthy, the light grey was now black however they were fully in tact with no tears. I have used them at least ten more times for gardening bits and bobs. I have also used them when I was putting up a fence to stop me getting splinters and they worked a treat.
They are looking a little worse for wear but they are still perfectly in tact and doing their job great.
For one pound you really can't go wrong, I have had expensive gardening gloves in the past, my dad bought me these bionic ones that cost about £20 and I threw one out with the hedge cuttings by accident :-0. Yes they are not the best looking or most comfortable but I bet the are the cheapest and they do the job just fine.
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B&Q Ladies Reinforced Work Gloves
by carlz2001uk
While putting a few Halloween lanterns in my garden yesterday afternoon, ready for the trick or treaters, I noticed that my garden was in need of a little tlc. I do keep up to it quite a bit, but haven't really had chance to give it one last tidy up ready for winter, and although I was unable to mow the lawn, I needed to tend to the beds ... and just do a little tidying around. I'm a little girly though, as much as I like being in the garden, I simply can't get my hands dirty or risk chipping my lovely nails! My husband bought me (as a joke I may add!) some gardening gloves, and I use them every time I go into the garden to do any kind of tidying around or planting. I don't think he meant to, but these gloves are actually work wear gloves, but this is even better for me, as they are reinforced and thicker than the usual gardening gloves I have used in the past.
I often struggle with gloves, even women's gloves sometimes, as I have thin hands with long thin fingers. Even women's gloves, with a one size fits all sizing, often ending up looking like goalkeepers gloves on my hands and I struggle to keep them on. These gloves are the best of their kind for me, sizing wise but they are still a little big, they seem to stay on better, perhaps the thicker reinforced material has something to do with this.
As I mentioned, these gloves are reinforced, which means they are perfect for usual gardening jobs, but also for more intense gardening when you are moving shrubs around, etc. I have often cut my hands when I have been tending to the garden, especially the annual upkeep of the buddleia, which we use to screen part of the garden, which by the time it needs a trim is usually around 8 or 9 feet high and can be pretty non sympathetic on my hands. The gloves are twice the usual thickness of gloves and have a long wrist guard which I find extremely useful. The suede palms, make it difficult for anything to penetrate through. They are still flexible and allow the hands to bend easily, which I was surprised at when I used them for the first time. The time when they are most useful is when you are clearing hedges or garden waste.
The gloves aren't going to win any style awards, but no gardening wear is really! They are practical and durable and perfect for what they are intended for. Grey and green in colour, it makes a change from the usual pink that any women's gardening wear seems to have to conform to.
For me using them yesterday in October, they were ideal as they kept my hands warm while protecting me from the dirt and any cuts or grazes. However in summer months, they can make the hands sweaty and sometimes when the heat is really high, they can be quite unbearable. For the protection they offer, it is to be expected that they will make the hands sweat, but it's still uncomfortable when it happens.
The biggest test for me on the success of these gloves is whether or not they keep my nails looking as pretty as they did when I started and I'm sure you'll be ecstatic to know they do ; )
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