The best gardening gloves you can buy right now

IS there anything more important than a pair of the best gardening gloves? Especially now as mulching season hits, rain is lashing down and the temperature has started to plummet.

I was always of the opinion that one pair of gloves should fit all but, after reviewing them for this article, I can safely say that there are none suitable for everything.

So here at Sun Selects we’ve put several pairs through their paces in as many different gardening situations as we could, to find you ones that fit your job, well, like a glove. 

There are a few things to consider when choosing a pair of the best gardening gloves and the most important one is (if possible): try before you buy.

From brand to brand, the sizing differs and there’s nothing worse than gloves that swallow your hands or restrict your blood flow. 

Ideally, and this does depend on what you need the gloves for, make sure you can wash them. If you’re just prancing around your front garden doing a few snips here and there then it doesn’t matter so much.

But if you’re a professional gardener like me, then it’s absolutely necessary that not only can you wash them regularly, but also that they dry properly and quickly.

And, ideally, you need them to be cheap enough to take a few pairs with you to each job. 

Last week during seven hours of mulching in the pouring rain, I needed three pairs of dry gloves to avoid what I dramatically suggested was Trench Finger, but was really just cold, wet, miserable hands. 

So, with that in mind, let Sun Selects guide you through the tricky world of gardening gloves and, hopefully, we’ll be able to help you find the best one for every job. 

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Email: veronica.lorraine@the-sun.co.uk

Best gardening gloves at a glance

• Best all-round gardening gloves: Niwaki Gardening Gloves
• Best budget gardening gloves: Dex Fit Work Gloves
• Best winter gardening gloves: Niwaki winter gloves
• Best looking gardening gloves: Burgon and Ball
• Best gardening gloves for thorns: Gold Leaf Touch Tough Gloves
• Best heavy-duty gardening gloves: Wilkinsons Rigger Gloves
• Best gardening gloves for kids: Wilko

Niwaki Gardening Gloves

• Niwaki gardening gloves, £6.60 at Amazon – buy here

A question you should ask yourself when trying to buy the perfect all-rounder is: “can I hold a seed between my finger and thumb?” If the answer is no, then those gloves you’re trying on are not for you. 

Or, if you’re a maintenance gardener who visits three or four houses a day: “Can I do my laces up in them?” When you’re constantly taking your boots on and off on people’s doorsteps, which is time-consuming anyway, the idea that you have to take your gloves off to tie your laces every time also renders them useless.

Niwaki’s Gardening gloves genuinely do give you enough sensitivity to hold a seed and tie your shoelaces, although probably not at the same time!

They fit snugly to your hand and they have what feels like rubber (but is probably a magic Japanese material) that allows you to grip. They also have a unique sizing just to Niwaki, so never has it been more important to try before you buy. 

Even Niwaki admits they’re not for ripping out brambles (see another category for that below), but I would say they’re pretty universal. 

Definitely good for weeding, pruning, dragging dead branches around, and gripping bags of wet mulch as you gingerly take them through a client’s house.

Plus, they’re available for under a tenner, so you could get away with having at least two pairs in the bag for when the winter weather wipes out the ones you’re wearing.

Niwaki says they’re handwash, but I’ve put them in the washing machine twice and they seem ok. Perhaps the magic Japanese grip might wear if you wash them too many times, but then, I refer you back to the price. These are definitely a top all-rounder. 

DEX FIT

• DEX FIT work gloves, £12.99 at Amazon – buy here

To be honest, these were my go-to before coming across the slightly more stretchy Niwaki ones.

Technically, they’re not actually gardening gloves, but instead are marketed as work gloves and many of their users work in warehouses.

But I’ve used them in the garden for the last three years and they’re absolutely brilliant. They’ve helped me prune, dig, weed, carry pots around, pick up huge quantities of wet leaves, sow seeds and grip rakes, spades and forks.

Really lightweight and properly elasticated, with a snug fit and a thick-but-not-too-thick rubber coating, they’re perfect for a whole range of outdoor jobs.

And, one massive plus point: you can use your touch screen phone while wearing them; there are not many gloves that pass that test. 

They are machine-washable too and have seed-holding and lace-tying capabilities. 

As a great all-rounder, these gloves are great value too. At the time of writing, you can pick up a three-pack for well under £20.

Niwaki Winter Gloves

• Niwaki Winter Gloves, £13.20 at Amazon – buy here

In the current financial crisis, it seems a bit spenny to have a pair of gloves just for when the temperatures drop. 

But, if you’re a professional gardener out in the cold British winter day after day, storm after storm, sometimes you need something a little bit extra, a little more comforting, and a lot denser.

Niwaki’s Winter Gloves fit the bill. They’re still finger-hugging and provide a reasonable level of dexterity. And they’re fleece-lined, providing a really cosy warmth. These ones do have a rubber coating and although you probably couldn’t pick up a seed, you can still tie your shoelaces in them.

Again, great for a whole range of gardening jobs, from scooping up piles of sodden-raked leaves, pruning, gripping rakes and spades and pushing your way through tangled trees to get to the dead, diseased and damaged branches.

Niwaki, with its usual refreshing honesty, points out on its own website that they are not thornproof, which I concur with, but they are dense enough to provide a good layer of protection. Remember that the Niwaki brand has its own sizing, so try before you buy. 

The only downside is that, although you can wash them, they’re too tight to turn inside out to dry the fleece, so it’s sometimes a race to get them ready for the next day’s job. Definitely worth it for their £12 price tag, though.

Burgon and Ball

• Burgon and Ball tweed gardening gloves, £21.79 at Amazon – buy here

Now, these gloves are not for picking up single seeds, nor are they massively nimble. But, if you want to look good while cultivating your front garden (and why not!?) then these are the gloves for you.

They offer a good level of protection and are ideal for the less muddy jobs around the garden. They’re definitely flexible enough to hold a pair of secateurs, too and they’re ideal for raking and digging while being fairly good for thorns. 

Some could get offended by the fact they’re subtitled ‘Tweed Gents’, but I happily wore them and none of my gardening pals reckoned they would look better on a bloke.

They weren’t a tight fit on me (they are for men after all) I still found them really comfortable. And, although they’re marketed as tweed, the material is really soft and malleable. They’ve got a padded palm and an adjustable wrist strap so all the detritus doesn’t fall down into the glove.

And they’re machine washable; such a plus point. These are a really decent pair of gloves and with the trendy tweed and leather, they should last a pretty long time. A good present for the gardening gent or lady in your life and, at the price point a decent mid-range option, as they definitely do look dandy. 

Pittards

• All Purpose Lined Leather Gloves, £25 at Pittards – buy here

If you fancy paying a little more, may I direct you towards these yellow-lined beauties for £25?

Again, these are not vegan-friendly; they are made of specially tanned rugged cowhide, perfect for those moments when you feel like a cowboy.

Surprisingly soft and supple right from the start, they have a thick suede palm and are a decent all-rounder. Creators Pittards have been around since 1826, and are based in Yeovil, Somerset.

We found these gloves were really good for a number of jobs, including raking, digging, weeding and, frankly, just looking good in the garden. Just beware of ridiculously muddy jobs, as I’m not sure how good they’ll be after multiple washes; the Pittards website encourages the use of leather conditioner if needed.

Another very good present for the gardener in your life, Pittards is a reassuringly expensive brand that’s been around forever and these gloves look and feel fab too. 

Gold Leaf Tough Touch Gloves

• Gold Leaf Tough Touch Gloves, £25.95 at Amazon – buy here

How can something so tiny inflict so much pain?

We’ve all been there: wincing and gasping at what feels like death by a thousand cuts as we try to prune back those thorny roses/brambles/holly/blackberries/gooseberries etcetera, etcetera.

The quest to find a glove that will protect your hands while giving you the dexterity to garden at times feels a bit like Indiana Jones’ hunt for the Holy Grail (minus the hat. And scary skeletons).

But Sun Selects might have actually found the answer (unless you’re a vegan). At £25.95, the Gold Leaf Touch Tough gloves may be towards the high end of what you are prepared to pay. But then again, what price can be put on prick prevention?

They’re made of deerskin leather and Gold Leaf claims they have a ‘high level of protection against thorns’. What’s amazing though, is that you’d think in order to achieve this they’d have to be made of super-thick material, which would result in a total lack of nimbleness.

But this luxury leather is soft and smooth and actually stretches to fit your hand the more you use them. In short, they’re Hollywood when it comes to protection. Plus they have the added bonus of an extended cuff, to avoid the classic ‘wrist ripped apart by roses’ look. And they’re water resistant. 

Designed in the UK and endorsed by the RHS, they market themselves as the ‘World’s Best Gardening Gloves.’ That’s a bold claim, but I’ll tell you what, if I didn’t think the cuff might get in the way in the rain, and if I hadn’t mistakenly left one in the washing machine whereupon it dyed my entire white wash green, I might have just agreed. 

Wilko

• Wilko Rigger gloves, £4 – buy here

These are no-messing, no-nonsense gloves for tough jobs. I’d wear them for digging, gathering wood, building a bonfire, pulling rope, pulling up brambles, carrying concrete and tackling thorns.

Rigger gloves are traditionally designed for rigging and cable pulling, so it makes sense Wilko is marketing them to gardeners. These gloves have reinforced palms as well, so if you’re trying to lift paving slabs, or pull down a fence, these are a top option. They’re not going to give you the delicacy to propagate seedlings, and you definitely can’t tie your laces in them, but when you wear them, you’ll be safe in the knowledge that your fingernails should remain unbroken.  

Wilko

• Wilko kids gardening gloves, £2 – buy here

Let’s be honest, the majority of mini-gardeners are not going to be tackling the big jobs. But what they do want, is to look like mummy and daddy.

They want to put on a pair of good-looking gloves before throwing mud around, upending pots, spraying everyone with water and occasionally planting a bulb upside down; bliss.

These ones from Wilko do the job. They’re £2, they have nice pictures of bees on them, a good cuff, have a reasonable grip and work on little hands aged five to nine.

The only bugbear is that they claim to be handwash only; what parent needs that in their lives!? Apart from that, thumbs up from both my daughters.