Gardening can take toll on your hands and skin

By Korky Vann

Hartford [Conn.] Courant

HARTFORD, Conn. — Right now, summer gardeners are wielding rakes, trowels and shovels to tend lawns, veggies and flowers. But all that outdoor work can lead to a bumper crop of muscle aches, insect bites and wrecked manicures.

At the end of the day, Marci Martin, who overseas Elizabeth Park’s 15,000 rose bushes as well as 150 varieties at her home in Windsor, relies on a fingernail brush (she goes through three or four a season) and super-fatted soap to get her hands clean, often followed by Crabtree & Evelyn’s Gardeners Hand Therapy to moisturize dry skin.

“This time of year, I always have my hands in the dirt,” Martin said. “Gloves are my first line of defense, followed by sun screen and bug spray.”

Although few Americans face the same thorny situations as Martin, the National Gardening Association says there are 90 million households in the U.S. with a yard and/or garden, which means a big market for seasonal gardening remedies. In response, specialized toiletries and body products are sprouting like, well, crab grass.

Take Butta Hand Cream for Gardeners, for example.

Lynne Killey, founder of Queen Bee Sauce, the company that produces the butter-yellow cream, created the formula for her mother, an avid gardener.

“The cream is really viscous and creates a barrier to protect skin. It also has natural insect repellents such as oil of lemon grass, camphor and citronella,” Killey said. “We recommend that people put it on before they put on their gardening gloves.”

Another option, Bag Balm, has been protecting farmers’ hands for more than a century. The salve, which contains lanolin and antiseptic, was originally developed to treat cows and other farm animals, says company spokeswoman Shawna Wilkerson.

“Farmers who applied Bag Balm to cows’ udders saw how it healed their own hands,” Wilkerson said.

In the end, though, the weather may provide the best green-thumb therapy.

“My favorite moisturizer is humid summer air,” Martin said. “You can’t beat it for dry skin, and it’s free.”