Gardening and fingernails, a terrible combo

YogiTom

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My job has me outside doing a lot of horticultural work, and my hands invariably show it. And now that I’ve been trying to grow out my nails for fingerpicking, and it is driving me slightly insane.

Dirt gets in under the nails constantly (ew), and even worse I’ve bent my index finger nail backwards several times when pulling weeds.

It feels like fingerpicking ukulele and gardening are incongruous, but I can’t stop doing either...what’s a dirt thumbed strummer to do??
 
My job has me outside doing a lot of horticultural work, and my hands invariably show it. And now that I’ve been trying to grow out my nails for fingerpicking, and it is driving me slightly insane.

Dirt gets in under the nails constantly (ew), and even worse I’ve bent my index finger nail backwards several times when pulling weeds.

It feels like fingerpicking ukulele and gardening are incongruous, but I can’t stop doing either...what’s a dirt thumbed strummer to do??

So is engine rebuilding and finger picking. I just use the orange pumice liquid soap to get the grease off, and since it has the grit in it, can scrap it under the nails too. Follow up is just doing a scrap around with a metal nail file (the one with the pointed tip).

Other thing is to stick fingernail into a bar of soap and rotate a little. That takes it out too. grease it harder to deal with than grease and it works pretty well. And yeah, the worse part is breaking those nails off.
 
When working around the yard now, I always try to wear gloves, as one small motion can set a nail back weeks. When it's my favorite, the pointer nail, it's back to lower volume and lighter strums for a while.

I’m (almost) always wearing gloves when working in soil; you never know when the neighborhood cat or other rodents/critters may have used your garden as a convenient place to relieve themselves. :p

Still, my nail has bent back even with gloves, and that is an awful surprise!

I’ll give that orange pumice stuff a try for the dirt and grime I can’t get out with just normal soap/fingernail scraper, captain-janeway. Thanks for the recommendation!
 
I’ll have to look into that Alaska Pik.

I spent most of today potting plants, with gloves on, and couldn’t bear the level of grime anymore. Cleaned and cut my nails short again as soon as I got home.

Thanks again to all for the input and recommendations!
 
+1 on Alaska picks, but you do have to have some nail tip to use them. They stabilize by having the front edge tucked UNDER your existing nail tip. It doesn’t need a large amount of white tip but it does need a mm or two or it will flop around (enough that dirt would still be an issue). I like them though, since my natural nail is super soft and even a little bit of strumming would wear my nail down to the quick. Aaron Keim discusses them in a fingerpicking Youtube vid.
 
So are metal detecting and working on vintage motorcycles. Nothing like jamming a thorn or a wire into a fretting finger and having it be sore for a week. Before I started playing ukulele it was just part of the territory. Now it screws up my whole life for a week.
 
Just a quick shout out to captain-janeway for the recommendation to use orange pumice soap; it gets dirt and grime out from under my nails like nothing else!

Still need to try the Alaska Piks, as well as the horse hoof strengthener.

All that said, I still haven’t been able to live with longer nails for more than a couple days before I trim them short again...even the “1mm beyond the tip” is far too long for my comfort or taste.
 
I’ll have to look into that Alaska Pik.

I spent most of today potting plants, with gloves on, and couldn’t bear the level of grime anymore. Cleaned and cut my nails short again as soon as I got home.

Thanks again to all for the input and recommendations!

When I used to work on my bikes a lot, I put on latex gloves under my work/mechanics gloves. It keeps my hands super clean.

For nails bending backwards, I think you just have to be careful about it. You can try a clear nail polish to harden the nails more.
 
I agree about wearing gloves to protect the fingertips and fingernails.
 
I will never dig in the dirt with my bare hands again. The other day, I shoved some item way up under my fingernail and I cannot get it out. It has ruined my flamenco strum for the time being. I'm watching it close in case of infection.
 
I will never dig in the dirt with my bare hands again. The other day, I shoved some item way up under my fingernail and I cannot get it out. It has ruined my flamenco strum for the time being. I'm watching it close in case of infection.
Try flushing it out with water.
 
My job has me outside doing a lot of horticultural work, and my hands invariably show it. And now that I’ve been trying to grow out my nails for fingerpicking, and it is driving me slightly insane.

Dirt gets in under the nails constantly (ew), and even worse I’ve bent my index finger nail backwards several times when pulling weeds.

It feels like fingerpicking ukulele and gardening are incongruous, but I can’t stop doing either...what’s a dirt thumbed strummer to do??
Wear gloves and get one of those little weeder tools.
 
If you scrape your fingernails over a bar of soap before you begin, the soap will help keep out most of the dirt that tends to collect under the nails. It will also help make clean up a bit easier when you are done for the day.
 
Wear gloves and get one of those little weeder tools.
I DO wear gloves, and dirt gets driven right through into my fingernails. But they help to keep my nails from breaking. When I wear them. Yesterday, I had to take off my gloves for some really fiddly teeny tiny weeding and I stabbed a pressure treated sliver under my nail into the nail bed. So... no uke for me yesterday. I didn't have the tools to deal with it and had to go to a walk in clinic to get it extracted, it had broken off right at the quick and I couldn't get it out. Gosh it hurt like mad. No fingernail tip now on that finger, so I'll be using my pads for a few weeks' worth of picking :)
If you scrape your fingernails over a bar of soap before you begin, the soap will help keep out most of the dirt that tends to collect under the nails. It will also help make clean up a bit easier when you are done for the day.
That's a very clever idea! I might try that (if I remember....)
 
I just don't rely on long nails to fingerpick. I prefer using my actual fingertips anyways. Seems somehow more 'intimate' than using the keratin of my nails or a pick.

I can't do that with death metal guitar, but I do prefer to use my bare fingertips on a ukulele.
 
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