Gardening. And dirt under your fingernails.

I don't know if there are any serious gardeners who always wear gloves and have perfect fingernails. I'm sure there are some. Maybe? I just don't know any.

Also, I don't know if I put myself in the "serious" gardener category. But I truly love to poke around in the dirt and it's one of my favorite hobbies. It's really just for fun. I like to see things grow, and flower, and come back year after year. Except the darn weeds, which always come back. Bigger than before.

Weeding is part of the game. And as much as I hate those little buggers, if you don't nip them early, you are doomed. Since this is supposed to be a fun hobby, when the work gets tough, I'm not nearly as excited about it. How this plays out for me is not hours of tedious and organized weeding sessions where I start at one corner and work my way across the yard. It's more spontaneous - like me shuffling to the mailbox, spotting a few weeds, and dashing over to rip them out. Or walking around the corner of the house to grab something, seeing more weeds and doing a quick 10 minute yanking session on the spot. Needless to say, I'm not wearing gloves, I don't have tools, and my fingernails are then stuffed with dirt when I head back in the house. 

It does not make for pretty hands - I can vouch for that. I've just a whole crate full of cute cotton gloves for my gardener's gift sets, plus a couple pairs of more heavy duty ones for myself so I can try to be better about hand protection this summer.

If you're like me, and often get your hands in the dirt, here's a soap tip: scratch your fingernails over a bar of soap before you head out. Easy peasy clean up, with the soap just rinsing away and leaving your nails clean. If you didn't even think that far ahead, then grab that bar of soap at the sink and do it after you've gotten a bunch of dirt packed under your nails. Scrape it up, and better yet, start sudsing with the angled ridge of our nail brush, and you should be good to go in no time. 

A little dirt never hurt anyone. But that doesn't mean you need to carry your garden around with you either.