Re: always wear gloves
Yes, I always wear gloves at the allotment. We have cats wandering about, and foxes too. And there are squirrels and other pesky pests scrabbling about in the soil so you never know what's there.
It always makes me squirm when I see people handling horse manure with bare hands!! Eeeeeeeek.
And yes, we have all kinds of debris in the soil so you never know what your fingers would come across.
I found one of my seedlings (in a peat pot) that was lying on top of the bed. So something had been having a dig.