The 5 Best Gardening Gloves

Material: Bamboo | Number of Pairs Included: 1

The Pine Tree Tools Bamboo garden gloves immediately stood out from the pack because of their superb fit. They're dexterous and agile, with a comfortable second-skin feel. As a bonus, they are latex-free, constructed from bamboo. The protective rubber-like layer on the palm side of the glove provides excellent grip and water protection, and the back of the glove is breathable and absorbent. This pair excelled in our dexterity and comfort tests, and we also discovered that the finger pads are sensitive enough that you can use your touchscreen phone without taking them off, a nice modern touch.

Our sole issue with the Pine Tree Tools Bamboo gloves is that they can only be washed in cold water and cannot be put in the dryer. However, we don't find ourselves frequently washing our gardening gloves, as they are intended for dirty jobs. At the end of the day, we don't mind the slightly more complicated washing instructions for a comfortable, dexterous, and more environmentally friendly pair of gloves.

Material: Polyester and Latex | Number of Pairs Included: 2, 6, or 10

The Cooljob Gloves are a simple and effective pair of gloves to keep you comfortable and clean in the garden. The slim and elastic fit allows plenty of dexterity, and the latex finish on the palm side of the glove keeps your hands dry while working in wet soil. The fingertips of these gloves are also sensitive enough to use a touchscreen phone. We found this pair to be a great all-around option for just about any gardening activity.

The comfortable cotton-elastic back of the Cooljob Gloves makes the product extra breathable and form-fitting. However, they also have a greater propensity to stretch out over time, catch on thorns, or wear down. Out of the packaging, these gloves have a powerful and off-putting chemical smell, but it wore off over time. This pair turned out to be one of our favorites due to the comfortable fit and great dexterity they offer, as well as the great value they provide at their price point.

Material: Pigskin Leather | Number of Pairs Included: 1

Looking for a great leather glove for your gardening chores? Handylandy Pruning Gloves are by far the best leather gloves we tested. They offer the best fit, provide comfortable and agile finger mobility, and have a sleeve to protect your arms when pruning rose bushes. We appreciated the sleeve protection when sticking our arms deep into a summer squash plant, and also found that we could roll the sleeves up when we didn't need the extra protection. We were pleasantly surprised by how adept these gloves are with delicate tasks and how comfortable they are for extended periods.

These gloves weren't without a few minor flaws, however. After leaving the Handylandy Pruning Gloves fully immersed in water and allowing them to dry, the protective sleeve became stiff. But after a couple of uses, they broke in again. It came to our attention that these gloves need to be taken care of if you want them to last. This is not a pair of gloves to leave in your garden bed every night, or they could easily become stiff and even break down. They are a glove designed for thorny tasks, and not so much digging in the dirt.

Material: Polyester and Latex | Number of Pairs Included: 2

The Amazing Stuff for You Grippy Gloves are comfortable, protective, and durable. These gloves fit and feel great. The elastic back and band make this glove feel like a sock for your hand. The protective latex layer is flexible and holds up well against dirt and thorns. This product also allows for dexterity and makes it easy to pick up small seeds.

However, these were among the least breathable of the gloves we tested. If you tend to spend long days in the garden, these gloves might become uncomfortable after 30 minutes or so, especially in the summer heat. For short periods, though, their poor breathability is hardly noticeable. This is a workhorse glove for a quick pruning or replanting project.

Material: Leather | Number of Pairs Included: 2

The FZTEY Thorn Proof glove is great in both the garden and in any workshop. These gloves have a comfortable worn-in feel almost right out of the box, and offer a versatile range of capabilities. Although they make an excellent garden glove, they are also good general work gloves and can be used for anything from handling splintering wood to repotting a delicate prickly plant.

Although we loved the durable leather make and the simple and comfortable design of the FZTEY Thorn Proof glove, we found that they were not agile enough to handle small seeds. We also observed that these gloves bleed a little bit of yellow when soaked in water. Overall, these gloves offer adequate protection and comfort.

Material: Cotton | Number of Pairs Included: 3

The G and F 1852-3 glove is simple and is 100% cotton. These gloves come with PVC dots for grip and fun, colorful designs for style. We saw that the PVC dots on this product work incredibly well and make it easy to pick up tiny seeds or grains of rice. We also discovered that they are easy to wear for long periods and have excellent breathability. This model is easy to throw on for quick garden work and comes in a set of three, each with a different color and design.

The G and F 1852-3 gloves were not as fitted or comfortable as some other gloves we tested. We didn't like that you can feel the seams inside the gloves while wearing them. We also found that because these gloves only have the PVC dots and no further latex or rubber protection, they aren't great for working with plants with thorns or spikes, and we would not recommend pulling out a large yard full of dead weeds with them either. The soft, breathable fabric is easily penetrated by anything sharp.

Material: Leather | Number of Pairs Included: 5

We enjoyed the OZERO Leather work gloves in both the garden and in the shop. The leather feels nice against your skin and has a slightly waterproof finish to help repel water. The leather did a great job of protecting our hands against thorns and cactus spikes and even kept our fingers warm. These are also the most affordable leather gloves per pair that we tested. Since they are so similar to some of the other leather gloves, they are a great deal. If you are looking for a glove you can wear while picking blackberries or handling cactuses, these are a great option.

While watering the garden, the OZERO Leather Work Gloves happened to get wet enough to soak through the cowhide. After removing the glove, we found that it had left yellow stains on our hands, and on the following day, we noticed the glove had shrunk a little. Our tests on these gloves reinforced that they bleed yellow and shrink when they get wet. We also found that they are not very dexterous and are not good at working with small delicate things.

Why You Should Trust Us

Our landscaping team spends hours in the garden, most of the time wearing gloves. They have learned the ins and outs of garden gloves, what to look for, and what to avoid. Although garden gloves come in all different shapes and materials, our team has learned the advantages and disadvantages of each. Whether you are looking for waterproof gloves, gloves for weeding, or perhaps just something comfortable in the garden, we made sure to cover all the bases. We soaked the gloves in water, dug into the dirt, and went deep into thickets of roses.

Head tester Liv Mertens loves gardening and understands that a good pair of gloves is essential to a good experience in the garden. From weeding cattails to pruning roses, she has been working in the garden since settling in Reno. She organized the product testing based on her own experience, making sure to test the gloves for durability, comfort, precision, and protection.

Analysis and Test Results

By creating a series of tests based on what one might want out of a garden glove, we could determine which products performed best in which areas. We tested the versatility, durability, comfort, and extra features that some of the gloves included. For each metric, we performed tests to help us determine the functionality of each product and give you a better idea of what each glove can do. We tried to pick up a single grain of rice on a hard flat surface, repot cactuses and house plants, and weed dry foxtails with each glove. We left each pair in a bowl of water for a couple of hours and then noted how well they dried out or if the colors would bleed. We grabbed thorny vines and squeezed till we could feel each thorn.

Versatility

Ideally, we want one glove to do it all: weed, prune, and plant. Instead of having an arsenal of gardening gloves, it would be undeniably easier to have one glove that is good at everything. And yet, inevitably, there will be some gloves that are better at one thing and other gloves that are better at another. Although it is important to know what you want out of a glove before making a choice, it is also nice to have the option to use it for something unexpected. For this reason, we decided that the versatility of each product was an important factor to test. We tested each glove for pruning prickly plants, handling small and delicate seeds, repotting plants, and weeding.

To test the dexterity of the gloves, we designed the rice test. This was a simple test to see how easily you can pick up a grain of rice with each glove. This test reveals what it might be like to handle small seeds or do delicate pruning in each of these gloves. We found the gloves that performed the best in this test were the Cooljob Gloves and the Pine Tree Tools Bamboo working gloves. Both pairs easily grabbed a single grain of rice off of a flat hard surface.

To test repotting, we simply repotted some of our own plants, and to test pruning, we grabbed a thorny stem on a rose with each pair of gloves. We were able to tell right away that the G and F 1852-3 gloves would be difficult to use for anything prickly. The Handylandy Pruning Glove is our favorite due to the long protective leather sleeve.

To assess what each glove would be like while weeding, we pulled a yard full of dead dandelions and cattails. We found that almost every pair of gloves ended up with dry sticks and prickly things sticking out of it except for the leather pairs and the Pine Tree Tools Bamboo gloves.

Comfort

The comfort of each glove heavily relied on its fit. This includes seams, stretch, and material. Alongside fit, we considered breathability for longer and hotter days in the garden.

To test breathability and comfort, we wore each pair of gloves for 45 minutes without taking them off. Although simple, this test told us a lot about the comfort of the gloves. During the comfort test, we fell in love with the Pine Tree Tools Bamboo gloves. We expected them to be sweaty and hot due to the rubber-like outer coating. Instead, we found that the material was both breathable and absorbent enough to keep the glove comfortable for extended periods of use.

As we went through the testing process, we discovered that the OZERO Leather Work Gloves and the FZTEY Thorn Proof gloves had uncomfortable seams between the fingers. The more they broke in, the less obtrusive the finger seams became.

Durability

To test durability, we decided to put the gloves in extreme environments. Our water test entailed soaking each pair of gloves in a bowl of water for a couple of hours, then removing them and waiting for them to air dry. Once dry, we put them back on to see if the gloves held up. The first thing we noticed with this test was that the leather gloves bled. We already knew this might happen because while watering the garden, one of the leather gloves turned our tester's hand yellow. The water test revealed that the OZERO Leather Work Gloves bleed the most, the FZTEY Thorn Proof glove bleed a little less, and the Handylandy Pruning Gloves hardly bleed at all.

Features

All of the gloves we tested had specific features that distinguished them from the rest. We assessed each feature, from PVC dots to pruning sleeves, and rated their effectiveness. Grippy materials like those on the Cooljob gloves helped us hold tools securely. We loved the longer cuffs of the Handylandy pair for jobs where we encountered thorns or when harvesting from prickly plants, like some squashes.

Conclusion

In reviewing these 7 pairs of gloves, we discovered a preference for well-fitting dexterous gloves over something that may offer more protection but less finger agility. The more time we spent in each of these gloves only reinforced the importance of being able to use our hands with freedom and comfort. For this reason, we were drawn to gloves that felt more like a second skin than a thick protective coat; these were usually stretchy with a protective but flexible layer on the inside of the hand. Although we preferred these gloves, they did not offer the same protection against thorns and weeds as thicker, less dexterous gloves. Each glove offers a technical advantage depending on what you need out of your pair of garden gloves. We hope our review has helped you choose the right pair for your gardening needs.