Kitchen Garden Forum

I am planning on writing a new article for my blog and I wanted to ask the community a few questions. Can anyone help me our with the following:

What types of protective clothing do you wear when gardening?
What types of protective equipment do you wear when gardening?
Where do you currently purchase from?

Thanks,
Carlton.

Safety boots, with a metal sole plate and toecap, I wear new for work (office), downgrade to dog walking, then to allotment. Thus three pairs on the go, until the allotment pair fall apart and a new work pair is bought.

Sainsbury's do a rather nice pair of multilayer cloth garden gloves in neon green and I buy a few pairs when they appear each year and have a good pair for logging, a reasonable pair for gardening and a painting pair, with a similar downgrade process as they wear.

Thick jeans in winter and for strimming, shorts in summer, t shirt thickness varies by season.

Safety glasses when strimming.

Safety wellies - when you have trodden on a nail once you learn. Denim work clothes in Summer - can't do shorts I sunburn too easily. Padded, waterproof trousers in the Winter. A visor and heavy gloves for strimming.

depends on the weather and what im doing
, took a pair of sandals on the ride on mowerthis afternoon for when ive got to hop off to open gates, to wellies,socks boiler suit and forestry helmit (full face and ear protection)when using the petrol strimmer yesterday.
i use gloves when necessary (stinging nettles and brambles) and more clothing when temps dictate.

usually sourced from ebay.

At the start no protective clothing until I was using the strimmer whilst wearing sandles and tickled my toes. Now wear Andy Murrey type steel cap boots, shorts and no top when ever I can or old tshirt if a bit fresh. Ere in doors say it’s not a pretty sight.
Supplier of boots ebay, shorts from Spanish holiday years ago.

The only other item for the garden is pair plastic slip on shoes £2.99 for local shop

I always wear an old pair of tracky bottoms this time of year a t shirt in winter a pullover I always were canvas boots even when strimming it's the same in Spain I wear the same when strimming I have the usual pants on but from the knee to my toes I cover in plastic the thicker the better there are weeds over there that send seed heads that go through the thickest of material even my boots but bounce of plastic

Protective clothing? Protecting against what when gardening?
I wear old jeans and t-shirt in summer, covered by a sweatshirt and/or 40-year-old walking jacket when cold or wet.
On my feet, it's old trainers when dry underfoot, Nora wellies when wet.
On my hands, it's cheap woolly gloves inside tough rubber gloves for digging, planting into the ground, pruning etc and disposable gloves for dainty work like pricking out or sowing.
That's been my method for my more than 60 gardening years.

I certainly wouldn't win any prizes in Vogue. Cloggies in summer, wellies in winter. Shorts when it's hot , a pair of old easy wash, easy dry trousers in other weathers and an old anorak which is about 50 years old!
Protective gloves sometimes when weeding but not always. I pop out to hang out the washing, spot a few new weeds and pull them up on the spot. I do often use thin disposable gloves when handling compost and potting up because on several occasions I have found shards of glass in bags of compost.

Protective equipment? A pair of eye goggles (when I remember) when strimming the lawn edges . Not much else. Occasionally stick a pair of seccateurs in my trouser pockets . Haven!t done myself any damage yet.

Where do I buy equipment? Had many of my tools (spade, forks etc) as wedding presents donkeys years ago. Recently bought a replacement lightweight strimmer from B&Q and a new motor mower from a local independent supplier. New secateurs, trowels and small items often come as Christmas/birthday presents bought from B&Q or a garden centre.

Depends on how much forward planning is involved. If I've engaged brain then it would be long sleeves, clogs or trainers and jeans. However, I sometimes find myself in the garden and tackling jobs, wearing unsuitable attire, but carry on anyway. Have found myself out there trying to prune roses and regretting just wearing a short sleeve tee-shirt - but carry on anyway, overcome with enthusiasm. Cannot stand to wear gardening gloves - I like the feel of mud and grit. I find I garden, on a whim, depending on the weather, if I spot a job that needs doing, whilst gazing out of the window, etc. If I know that I need to dig a big hole, for example, then I will be sensible and wear thick boots.

Regarding equipment - does wearing glasses count? All my best equipment has been bought for me as presents - by my lovely daughter, who spends far more than I would. I usually buy secateurs, etc from my local garden centre - mid range price. The spades, shovels, etc are mostly inherited from my parents. All good quality - made to last but wouldn't have been really expensive, just well made.

Thanks for the reply, Wasn't expecting so many of you to help me. It's interesting how some just go out into the garden with "summer" clothes on whilst others tend to protect themselves more with steel toe cap boots.
I love how Peter re-uses his safety boots from work and each time they degrade they get demoted to a different use, I too many a similar pair of "gardening shoes" at home.

Oakridge wrote:Safety wellies - when you have trodden on a nail once you learn. Denim work clothes in Summer - can't do shorts I sunburn too easily. Padded, waterproof trousers in the Winter. A visor and heavy gloves for strimming.

Funny because I instantly burn too, I have heard many stories of people treading on nails in the past, especially when working out in the garden. A story i have heard recently was where a couple purchased a house and the garden was in a mess and as you can gather the fella stood on a nail and ended up in A&E.

Primrose wrote:I certainly wouldn't win any prizes in Vogue. Cloggies in summer, wellies in winter. Shorts when it's hot , a pair of old easy wash, easy dry trousers in other weathers and an old anorak which is about 50 years old!
Protective gloves sometimes when weeding but not always. I pop out to hang out the washing, spot a few new weeds and pull them up on the spot. I do often use thin disposable gloves when handling compost and potting up because on several occasions I have found shards of glass in bags of compost.

Protective equipment? A pair of eye goggles (when I remember) when strimming the lawn edges . Not much else. Occasionally stick a pair of seccateurs in my trouser pockets . Haven!t done myself any damage yet.

Where do I buy equipment? Had many of my tools (spade, forks etc) as wedding presents donkeys years ago. Recently bought a replacement lightweight strimmer from B&Q and a new motor mower from a local independent supplier. New secateurs, trowels and small items often come as Christmas/birthday presents bought from B&Q or a garden centre.

Everyone loves a B&Q, our local garden centre never really stocks many great quality tools, but that is where B&Q comes in. More and more of the people I speak to tend to buy their gardening clothes online, Do you have any experience with this?

We've pretty much given up using our barbecue. Too messy, takes too long to heat up and takes too long to clean.

As there are normally just the two of us we use a cast iron griddle for cooking our meat, chicken, etc on one of these mini little portable one hob gas cookers which are fired by a gas canister. . The food doesn!t get smoke tainted and the amount of cleaning up afterwards is minimal. No charcoal ash to clear away Once we!ve served the food from the griddle pan we just add some water to it add a splash of washing up liquid and put the pan over a low gas for a few minutes. Later it just needs a stiff brush to clean the griddle pan to remove any stubborn crusted cooked bits.

I'm a bit sad!

I wear gloves (mostly), don't own any wellies, no waterproof trousers but do have a bright pink puff jacket thing that lives in the shed (well wearing it is spider dependent), did just wear flip flops in summer until someone got tetanus on the site now wear trainers. Don't strim or stuff (membrane paths), but put my specs on if trimming branches & stuff at a height.

I buy cheap now, anywhere but garden centres as have wasted far too much money on the be all & end all gloves that just don't work in the wet or are sized way to big & they package them so you can't try one on to check the size. Don't wear the disposable or latex gloves either as they may be good for taking someones insides out in an operation but don't hold up to proper gardening & are not very biodegradable! Thankfully I didn't choose a career in hand modelling! I know I'm probably a disaster waiting to happen - or I'll have the best immunity ever?

Westi wrote:I'm a bit sad!

I wear gloves (mostly), don't own any wellies, no waterproof trousers but do have a bright pink puff jacket thing that lives in the shed (well wearing it is spider dependent), did just wear flip flops in summer until someone got tetanus on the site now wear trainers. Don't strim or stuff (membrane paths), but put my specs on if trimming branches & stuff at a height.

I buy cheap now, anywhere but garden centres as have wasted far too much money on the be all & end all gloves that just don't work in the wet or are sized way to big & they package them so you can't try one on to check the size. Don't wear the disposable or latex gloves either as they may be good for taking someones insides out in an operation but don't hold up to proper gardening & are not very biodegradable! Thankfully I didn't choose a career in hand modelling! I know I'm probably a disaster waiting to happen - or I'll have the best immunity ever?

Thanks for the info, Good strong gloves are always important when working in the garden. I will be sure to add this to the article I'm writing, thanks for your help!