Batting gloves and Aloe Vera plants

Phil Gurnee ♦ March 23, 2017 ♦ 2 Comments

Most of my spare time is spent gardening and for twenty years I’ve been slicing up my hands when I handle my Aloe Vera plants. I’ve tried using many different gloves but they are either too thick to get the feel for hand pruning the sharp dead fronds or too thin and the fronds slice right through the material.

A few weeks ago I had put on an old pair of batting gloves and was swinging the bat around when I wandered into the front yard with the gloves still on. I pondered the 100 or so aloe vera I had and knew I had to start pruning them while dreading it at the same time. I grabbed one and started working on it without even realizing I had left my batting gloves on. I did one after another and realized that I was going to finish the job pain and cut free. I marveled at how strong and pliable the batting gloves were for this specific task.  It had never occurred to me before to use them but as I thought about it made perfect sense. They gave me the tactile feel I was missing with thick leather gloves, but they were strong enough to keep my hands from getting shredded.

I’ve spent the last few weeks pruning the rest of the Aloe Vera in my garden and while I now need a new pair of batting gloves for baseball, I have a fantastic pair of beat up gardening gloves.

You can teach an old dog new tricks.