Gardening Sunscreen: What to Use and When to Reapply

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Most of us don't think of the garden as time in the sun. It's the back door and a job that was meant to take five minutes. An hour later the sun has come round past the shed and you're still out there in a t-shirt. The back of your neck tells you about it that evening.

Why is sunscreen easy to forget while gardening?

Because it doesn't feel like a sun day. You go out to pull one weed before lunch, and then the tomatoes need staking and the jasmine has got away from you again.

Man-Cutting-A-Leaf-With-Pruning-Shears

The shears and the watering can are easy to remember because the job doesn't start without them. Sunscreen has no such reminder built into it. The first news of it is red arms and a red neck at about six o'clock.


Bent over a garden bed, the parts facing the sky are the back of the neck, the tops of the ears and the part in your hair. The gap of wrist between glove and sleeve catches it as well. None of them are places you'd think to check while you're working.

What sunscreen should gardeners use?

Broad-spectrum SPF 50+ is the usual starting point, in something you don't mind putting on again two hours later. Beyond that, the best sunscreen for gardeners depends a fair bit on the gardener. Skin differs, and so does what feels bearable under a hat on a warm afternoon.

Maxiblock Essential 1L On A Wooden Table In Front of A Plant

Texture matters

There are secateurs to hold, taps to turn and a phone to check for the name of a plant you've looked up twice already. Anything that stays slick makes all of that fiddlier.

Maxiblock Outbacker 100mL On A Rock Alongside Garden Gloves and Fork

Mossies love you?

Mosquitoes arrive about the same time the shade does. A combined sunscreen and repellent means one bottle by the back door instead of two, which is one less thing to lose.

What else should gardeners wear for sun protection?

  • A wide-brim hat

    Covers what's hard to check in a mirror. This is a non-negotiable for us!

  • A light long-sleeved shirt

    They're cooler than they sound and take the arms off the reapply list

  • Sunglasses

    Those that wrap a little keep the glare and the dirt out at once.

Sunscreen then covers the skin that can't be covered any other way, which in the garden is mostly hands, face and neck. Timing helps when you've got it. The advice is always to work the cool end of the day, and plenty of gardeners do, but the weeding tends to happen in whatever hour turns up spare.

Working the shaded side of the house through the middle of the day is nothing new, though it still gets you through. UV doesn't follow the temperature either, so a cool, overcast morning can be worth a look at the UV index before you head out.

Maxiblock Outbacker 1L On A Garden Workbench

How can you remember sunscreen before gardening?

Keep it with the gear. A bottle by the back door, or on your workbench, so it's part of what you pick up on the way out. Putting it on takes about a minute!