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Does It Really Do That? Garden Genie Glove

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - With gardening season in full swing, we wondered if there's an easier way to get your plants into the ground.

The Garden Genie Glove promises to do that, making gardening faster and more fun. But does it really do that?

We asked South Hills resident and garden aficionado Kathy Hall to test the gloves out for us.

She's an artist in her in-home studio and outside in her garden.

From veggies, herbs, flowers and plants Kathy plants them all and has been for over 20 years.

We showed her the infomercial which gives these claims, "The amazing gardening gloves you can't live without. Watch this. Garden genie lets you easily dig and plant your yard all without tools."

She normally uses a traditional shovel and thick gardening gloves to groom the variety of soil and mulch in her yard.

Kathy says she's skeptical, but thinks that putting claws on a gardening glove is a good idea.

The box comes with a pair of gloves. One side has plastic claws on the tips and the other without the tips.
You can buy right or left for the claws, depending on which hand is dominant.

Kathy is petite and has small hands. Her usual gardening gloves are a size small and fit her perfectly.
On the Garden Genie Glove box, it says one size fits most, but right away we noticed they were pretty big on Kathy.

"I think I'll be able to use it, but my fingers aren't going to the end very comfortably so I don't know how much control I'll have," she said.

We start out in the veggie garden with the toughest conditions, which are hard, clay soil. It's a claim the gloves promise to be able to handle.

But for Kathy, the gloves fall flat.

"Oh, this is not gonna work at all. Between the gloves being too big and the soil being hard I really can't do anything," she said.

Out comes the shovel and with a little effort she's able to plant her eggplant.

We move to the other end of the garden that has softer soil.

Just like the infomercial, Kathy uses one finger to plant seeds.

"It's easier just because the dirt is softer, but these gloves are really hard for me to wear. If they were a small, if they were made to size, I think they would be a lot more effective for me," she said.

Up next, we try to plant some herbs in the mulch, which is considered the easiest conditions.

"Once again it is easy, but if I had gloves that fit me better I would really like it so much better. My forefinger and my middle finger are getting a little bit sore at the tips," she said.

KDKA-TV News reporter Christine D'Antonio has bigger hands than Kathy so she tried them on to see if they'd fit her better.

"My fingers aren't all the way to the end, but I feel like I definitely have (more control) yeah," Christine said.

But when she started digging, she wasn't digging the gloves.

"Oh, I see what you're saying (yeah) this is weird," she said.

While the gloves do the trick, for the most part, and fit Christine better making them easier to use, Kathy is not sold.

Does it really do that?

"Not for me. They're more effort than they're worth in my opinion and they don't do what they say. I think I would just stick with my regular gloves and shovel," Hall said.

The Garden Genie Gloves retail for $10, plus $6.99 for shipping and handling.

On the company website, it does mention that the gloves come in two different sizes, but again we used the "One size fits most."

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