Eye has healed..yaay!
Goggles bought and worn twice last week and thankfully doing their job whilst cutting away brambles from an old fence and yes, a bramble stem did hit my face so, thank you goggles, you’ve already paid for yourselves!
Now it’s the turn of gloves.
Not being a glove expert, but I’ve tried various types of gloves to try to protect at least my hands and fingers from being pricked, stabbed, popped and scratched and yes no matter which pair I buy they all fail….And for those pairs which are of thick leather or classed as welders gloves, they are so stiff to wear, they become difficult to hold plant stems and the secateurs to do the ‘job in hand’.
It’s easy when gardening to be as careful as possible to negate the bodily damage done working around prickly plants, but when working in customer’s gardens and wanting to be as efficient and effective at clipping, pruning, restoring and removing said prickly plants it’s such a challenge also not to end up leaking the red stuff contained within my body, mopping up with tissue as I garden along. Not to mention the later evening discovery of broken off tips of thorns lodged firmly in my hands and fingers causing pain and swelling. Oh, the joys of gardening!
So I thought I had got that ‘eureka’ moment last week in the discovery of a “guard glove”, a gauntlet type of glove for my fingers, hands and even my arms upto my elbows!
Fantastic, or so I thought. Now, I’m not one to impulse buy, I researched these gloves before pressing that all familiar online ‘purchase button’ making sure that this company (never used before) was genuine, which it was.
Reviews stated they were “just what I needed” “worked well” ” brilliant purchase for the gardening I do” and the photos of someone grabbing a length of barbed wire and stems of thorny roses made me ‘believe’ they were the ones I desperately needed. And to cap it all they looked so good, I bought two pairs!..hmmm.
Arrival within two days of purchase, wow, impressive delivery!
Gloves, well made, good fit for my fingers and hands right upto my elbows, yep as described in the advertising info.
Ran out into my garden with glee, now, I really should have tried carefully, but I got caught up in the moment, as I thought I had solved my problem, I just grabbed the most prickly rose bush I could find.. and …”ouchy, woah, that hurt so much”
Did they work and protect my hands and fingers as described… did they heck! They were terrible! But not to be defeatest, I put two pairs on each hand just to test their resilience to thorns and yep as thought, they were just as terrible!
And not to be put off totally, the bramble clearing the next day for a customer, I tried again, and within one minute of wearing them they were off again! They were really worse than the cheapo ones I usually wear knowing that ‘they’ were no good when working with prickly stems.
So, I contacted the supplier explaining my prickly predicament and they very quickly offered a full refund. I wonder why? Did they also know that these ‘anti thorn gloves’ really didn’t work?
In my emails to the supplier I asked them to get a pair and try for themselves, only to be told they didn’t have any rose or bramble stems in their office!….. I’m still thinking about sending them my failed ‘guard gloves’ back to them with a selection of thorny rose stems and brambles for then to try.
So, my journey continues to find gardening with prick and pain free hands and fingers!
…. now time for a cup-of-T
Telstales 