Look at that. The red bud tree (Cercis canadensis) is blooming nearly a full two weeks earlier this year than last year. I wonder what will happen on Thursday when we are supposed to go below freezing again?
I’m not the kind of gardener who runs about covering plants in spring or fall. In the fall, when it’s over, it’s over. In the spring, I wouldn’t have enough covering for everything. I just try to make sure that I don’t plant annuals and tender vegetable plants until I’m confident that we won’t have any more frost. Anything else that blooms early is on its own.
I am the kind of gardener to do my own work in the garden. None of this “hold your drink in one hand and with the other hand point and tell the man where to dig” kind of gardening for me. EAL posted on her blog yesterday about a pair of gardening gloves that she got as a gift that are perfect for that kind of gardening. I saw her pictures of those gloves and thought of the book several of us read in February, Two Gardeners: Katharine S. White & Elizabeth Lawrence: A Friendship in Letters and the caption under a picture of Katharine standing there in her dress and heels that stated ‘she never dressed down to the garden”. I would imagine that those gloves were just the kind that Katharine might wear.
As for me, I wear a variety of gloves, in all shades of green, and here they are:
From top left… those are two new pair of gloves that I’ve just started to break in this spring. The first pair have leather palms, the next pair is the kind where they dip the finger tips in some kind of latex-plastic something which makes it easier to weed with them on. I bought those to replace the ones I lost in the vegetable garden. I lost them because sometimes I take off my gloves to work barehanded, lay the gloves down, and “poof” they disappear.
The next pair (center top) are my old leather palm gloves ready for retirement. You can’t see in the picture, but they have holes in them. The top row ends with some worthless cloth pair of gloves that didn’t make it two days in the garden and another pair of leather palmed gloves that I keep in the trunk of my car in case I am someplace and get the urge to garden (help dig up a plant someone offers to give me from their garden.)
From bottom left… I loved those green suede gloves, and I still do, but I can’t wear them any more. I thought they were so thick that I could pull out some hardy cactus with them. They weren’t. Now they are just full of cactus pricklies, and even washing them didn’t get those pricklies out. But I can’t bring myself to throw them out. We had some good days together, me and those gloves
The next pair, I don’t know when I use them, probably when it is cold and I am mowing, like it will be at the end of this week. The next pair are some old gloves, well worn and retired. And the last little stack is of some cloth gloves I got as gifts that I know won’t last two days on my hands working in the garden.
And not a one of these pairs of gloves are monogrammed. And none of them are pink or purple. What do YOUR gloves look like?
You sure are a fancy gardener, Carol! Garden shoes and gloves???
I admire your organized way!! I always find myself in the garden in socks or worse-barefoot! and I never have a pair of gloves! I bethca your nails are much nicer because you do take the time!
Nice gloves. I think I have as many pairs as you do. I might have more.
Now I’m going to have to find all my gloves and lay them all out and take a picture aren’t I? All because of you:)
None of my gloves have patterns. That is the main difference between our gloves.
I rarely wear gloves when I garden – I like to feel what I am doing. The only gloves I’ve got are a couple pairs of heavy pigskin gloves that I use when I’m pruning roses or dealing with prickly things. Needless to say, my nails and hands look worse than my husbands! Am enjoying your site alot. Alyssa
Sissy… I’ll take that as a compliment!
Chigiy… Yes, now you have to show us your gloves. I want to see what goes with your orange clogs.
Alyssa… Thanks, and I also do a lot of barehanded gardening.
Funny you should write on this today. This Sunday I trimmed back a rose bush and still have the battle wounds. I woke up today wishing I had worn a pair of nice thick gardening gloves because I have a few wounds that still hurt. My problem with gloves is that I lay them down and my hubby throws them in the shed, then they get spiders in them. I don’t wear gloves that have been in spidery sheds!
um, my gloves look pretty much like yours…different gloves for different tasks, but my all time favorites are the cotton ones with the little plastic dots on the palm sides 😉 (oh, and those are purple)
At least now I know to never get you a pair of plane cotton, gloves no matter how pretty they are
You’d think from looking at my gloves that I was some strange mutant with nothing but left arms, seems my right hand gloves are hanging out somewhere with half my socks. No kidding, this weekend I was working in the garden with a leather right hand glove and blue dipped-finger style left hand. The leather right hand is the only right one I can find. But if you saw my garage you’d believe it!
P~
Oh my – another gardening apparel challenge. I love it!!
Your collection of glove looks eerily similar to mine. I am embarrassed to say that I have many more pairs than you have displayed here. Well, that isn’t quite true. As p. points out in the above comment, I have several gloves with a missing companion. They, too, are buried in the garage!
The red bud tree is a gorgeous colour!!
Sister with the Homestead… you have to do something about all those spiders in the back yard!
Cyndy… I think the pair I I wear for mowing has those plastic dots on them.
Eleanor… Yep, I tear right through cloth gloves. They might as well be labeled disposable.
P~… I’ll take your word for it on your garage, though that would be something to see! Maybe make us all feel better about our own garages? 🙂
Kate… thanks I like the red bud, too. It seems brigher this year. I, too, might have more gloves around, these are the ones I found.
How funny. I posted something similar last week and I was surprised to read how many people didn’t use any gloves.
I can totally commiserate with the prickles — no fun there.
We had an old neighbor whose cat used to steal gardening gloves. So they had about 15 mismatched gloves hanging in front of their house for people to come and retrieve.
Carol, I’ll take that challenge. You can see my garage here. I thought that was actually a good idea; make everyone feel good about their garages. I do love to spread the joy!