Good news for gardener's hands

If you love gardening but hate the effect of the elements on your hands, here’s some helpful hints to see that your hands return to their soft, smooth former selves.

Wind, water and sun all take their toll on gardening hands, resulting in cracked, sore and callused skin. Team this with the dirt and grime that gets under the fingernails and lodges itself in every crease and crevice on your poor hands and you have yourself some pretty ‘unshow-worthy’ hands indeed.

Tips for gardening hands

Thankfully, I have some hand-protecting tips and tricks to help return your hands to their former glory.

Slather for soft hands
Whether or not you intend to use gardening gloves, be sure to smoother your hands with moisturiser before setting to work in the garden. This will give your hands a protective barrier allowing the dirt to wash off easier. Try Vaseline Petroleum Jelly or Vaseline Intensive Care Healthy Hand & Nail Conditioning Hand Lotion.

Wear gloves
Apart from the fact that there are all kinds of nasties living in the soil (not to mention the spiders), gardening gloves will help protect your hands from the elements and keep them cleaner.

If gardening gloves are too uncomfortable (they do tend to get in the way), try using surgical gloves. Find the thickest pair you can and sprinkle your hands with cornstarch or talc before putting the gloves on. This will help with sweaty hands. They won’t provide as much hand care and protection as gardeners gloves but they will help keep dirt from getting under your fingernails.

Ditch the dirt
Are your post-gardening hands a sight for sore eyes? Ditch the dirt with a handy scrub. You can either use a face scrub from your bathroom or make you own all-natural hand scrub by combining two to three tablespoons of olive oil and three to four tablespoons of sugar or salt. Rub the mixture into your hands for a few minutes and then rinse off with warm water. To get rid of stubborn stains like berry and grass stains, try rubbing baking soda into the stain, leave for a minute or two and then rinse off. Alternatively soak hands in vinegar from your pantry.

Try: L’Occitane Shea Liquid Soap
Try: Billie Goat Soap

Clue up on how to clean nail properly

Post-cleanse care
Once you’ve scrubbed and rubbed your hands clean they may be feeling a little battered, dry and in need of some comfort. Try rubbing some warm olive oil into the cuticles and then slather some Crabtree & Evelyn Gardeners Rejuvenating Hand Remedy into your hands to replenish lost moisture.

Now you have some hand care tricks up your sleeve you can go from gardening guru to glamazon in a few simple steps!