How to Clean Your Dirty Gardening Hands

I haven’t done a decent how-to lately and as I was staring at my filthy grubby hands, I thought that maybe someone would like to know how to pamper our lovely and abused gardening hands.

Just a note, I am doing this from the assumption that many gardener’s are like myself. Nail care tends to cut into gardening time and is kept to a minimum. All I am trying to accomplish here is to get decently clean nails so that they are presentable.

This is what my hands look like after weeding for just 20 minutes. Dirt is crammed stubbornly under the nails and into the cuticle beds. Even if I take a nail brush to my nails, the dirt still tends to stick in those hard to reach places.

On top of that, dirt is terrible for the skin. I end up with hands that the Crypt Keeper would be proud of.

After I do a quick wash, I put together a bowl of three things easily found in the kitchen. Water with a splash of milk and oil (I prefer olive oil).

The bowl goes in the microwave for a minute, just to heat it up a bit.

I soak my hands in the warm mixture for 10 to 15 minutes, preferably while watching some sexy, fluffy prime time show like Grey’s Anatomy.

I also rub a bit of the liquid up on the backs of my hands. Extra moisturizer never hurt.

After soaking, I take a toothpick and run it along the under side of my nail and around the cuticles, slightly pushing the cuticles back.

And in no time at all I have clean nails and I am all caught up on this week’s emotional antics of Meredith, Izzie and Cristina.