I love gardening gloves. I didn’t always. I really hated the cotton gloves and the soft gold work gloves available when I was growing up. I have small hands and it was always a chore to find gloves that didn’t pose a hazard or slide off mid-task. Plus it was difficult to pick up small objects with those thick and clunky gloves.

So I often worked bare-handed in the garden only to come in with dirty hands and nails, a couple scratches and occasionally a broken nail. Then I discovered outdoor gloves made for kids, which fit me well although the shape for a child’s hand is not the same as an adult hand so they weren’t quite perfect.

Several years ago at Michigan Master Gardener College I was the lucky winner of a set of Atlas Nitrile gardening gloves and my addiction to these gloves was sealed as soon as I got home and used them.

There are many good reasons to wear gardening gloves; they protect your hands in harsh weather, for sure but they also:

• keep your hands much cleaner

• protect you from soil-borne bacteria and infections

• prevents cuts and splinters

Atlas Nitrile gloves come in several sizes, they have a breathable back as well as the coated palm, so they’re protective. Another benefit is that the nitrile palm works on a smartphone screen — no taking the gloves off to search on a plant or take a call.

I’ve washed the pairs I’m currently using and let them air dry. This is especially handy when you’re pulling out plants that can cause contact dermatitis — a real issue for me — and you don’t want those oils lingering behind.

I love these gloves so much that I’ve worn out two pairs, the pair shown above is getting close to the point of being trashed but I still have two pairs handy that I can use to get me through this season. Then it will be time to order more. If you’re looking for new garden gloves I encourage you to take a look at the Atlas gloves featured below.

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