Should I remove my engagement ring when gardening?

Yes. Remove it before you garden. A diamond won't scratch from soil, but the mounting will. A prong-set engagement ring is a small machine for catching on things, and gardening is full of things to catch on.

Prongs are meant to hold a stone, not survive being raked across terracotta, fence wire, and the handle of a trowel, and a single good snag can lift a prong enough that you lose the stone and don't notice for hours. Pavé is worse. Those little beads are tiny, and a glove seam can peel one back without you feeling a thing.

Mud is also a problem. Cold, wet fingers shrink. Add soapy mud and a ring that fit perfectly at the bench will slide off in the flower bed. I've had a client find a ring in a compost bin three weeks later with a metal detector. It wasn't pretty.

If you won't take it off, use a snug nitrile glove under your garden gloves and check the prongs after every session. But the smarter move is a $20 silicone band. I take mine off too.

Last spring a client named Dana lost a diamond from a pavé halo while repotting orchids, and she found the stone in the bottom of her glove hours later, but it still cost $180 to reset and six weeks without the ring. Put it on a dish by the sink before you pick up the trowel.