Gardening gloves that aren't shrinking violets

December 3, 2014 1:41 PM

My husband goes through a pair of gardening gloves every 2 months because they fall apart. There must be a better way.

Husband does a lot of weeding between brick pavers, so the fingertips get worn out extremely fast. Anything cotton is destroyed in one weeding session. He's tried basically every pair at Home Depot/Lowes of various different materials. Nothing has lasted longer than 4 or so weeding sessions without getting a hole. I'd love to get a pair for Christmas (although I did this last year and they were duds, too).

Is there any gardening glove out there that can stand up to prolonged brick abrasions? I've looked at thicker work gloves but I don't think they would allow the fine dexterity needed to grab a tiny weed. Should we just give up and buy really cheap gloves in bulk?

Pretend the price point is unlimited.

Also, to head off any alternate suggestions, unfortunately our pavers are VERYCLOSE together, so specialized tools for weeding between pavers don't fit. That was another failed gift attempt.

posted by gatorae to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

Dirty rigger gloves. Fit well and take a beating.... the film people I work with swear by them.
posted by answergrape at 1:50 PM on December 3, 2014

A friend who gardens for a living got his gloves from his policeman brother - they are leather so very durable, plus thin enough for maximum fingertip sensitivity and manipulability. I don't know the brands, but here's one from a Google search.
posted by mmiddle at 2:31 PM on December 3, 2014

Nitrile gloves are inexpensive and last surprisingly well for me. And the dexterity really can't be beat.

But unless he's weeding for fun and relaxation (which can happen), I'd suggest forgoing handweeding a brick patio and just use non-toxic, readily available boiling water.
posted by vers at 2:48 PM on December 3, 2014

Best answer: My experience is that pretty much every glove I've tried falls apart fairly quickly with the exception of thick leather gloves that don't give enough manual dexterity to do fine weeding. My solution is to weed bare handed.

I've always wanted to try one of these for getting things out from between pavers. (weed torch)

Because fire.
posted by sciencegeek at 3:09 PM on December 3, 2014

TheSweethome.com reviewed gardening gloves.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:33 PM on December 3, 2014

A linoleum knife is an excellent tool for close-quarters weeding.
posted by dogrose at 5:24 PM on December 3, 2014

my husband also uses up a lot of them, until recently he bought those rubberised ones - they look like made from some knitted fabric and then dipped in rubber (latex?) and he is very satisfied with them.
posted by 15L06 at 5:12 AM on December 4, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Instead of getting gloves, I went out on a limb and got the awesome-looking weed torch. It works AMAZINGLY well and it is pretty badass to use. My husband torched our entire front and back yard in 30 minutes; that would normally have been 5 hours of crawling around. Highly recommend for anyone with pavers!

I'm going to get him some of the nitrile ones for normal flower bed weeding. Thanks everyone!
posted by gatorae at 6:32 PM on January 5, 2015 [2 favorites]