Five Things Your Garden Hose Would Tell You If It Could Speak

If you’re like most homeowners, you probably own at least one garden hose. Chances are, in fact, that you own one “good” garden hose, and the extra one that you can’t attach to the spigot but will work when coupled to another hose, and the one that split last summer but you’ve mended with duct tape and use in the rare event that you have to get your hose all the way around the house to the driveway. If your garden hose could talk, it would probably tell you a thing or five about how to properly care for your best gardening tool.

Buy a Quality Hose from the Start

The aisles of the big box stores are lined with cheap bargain hoses, mostly made of vinyl with little or no reinforcement. They can cost you from $8 to $12, and will last you just about the amount of time you’d expect from those low prices. Even with excellent care, a garden hose made from cheap vinyl will age and crack quickly. Worse, it will make your gardening life miserable by kinking at the worst possible times and refusing to connect properly to the spigot. A good quality garden hose, often reinforced with nylon or natural fibers, will last you for years. They’re more flexible, wear better and are made with garden hose fittings that won’t bend and warp out of shape, so you’ll be able to connect it to your spigot as easily in 10 years as you did when it was brand new.

Don’t Leave Your Garden Hose Lying on the Lawn

Aside from the fact that a loose garden hose is a tripping hazard, the constant contact with the ground encourages rot and can shorten the life of your hose. Invest in a garden hose reel to store your hose when it’s not in use. As a bonus, you never have to worry about running over your hose with the lawnmower when it’s rolled up on a reel.

Don’t Replace, Repair

Accidents happen, even to the best quality garden hoses. If your hose suffers damage, there are ways to repair it using garden hose fittings, couplings and other specialty items and tools. You don’t have to lose your investment just because you accidentally backed over the end of your hose.

Empty Your Hose Before Storing It

One of the advantages of rolling up a hose on a garden hose reel is that it naturally empties all remaining water from the length of the hose. Standing water can breed bacteria and leech chemicals from the lining of the garden hose, spraying unsavory things like lead over your vegetables and your soil. The few extra minutes it takes to properly drain your hose is well worth the time.

Take Advantage of Specialty Garden Hoses

If you have a special need, there’s probably a garden hose designed to fit it. A drinking safe garden hose is the best choice for young families, for example, where young kids often drink from the hose. A coil garden hose is the ideal choice for a patio or enclosed space, while a heated garden hose makes it easy for you if you need to use the hose regularly throughout the colder months.

Whatever your choices are, make sure that you care for your garden hose properly and it will serve you well for years.

The Best Garden Hoses Money Can Buy

Garden hoses – is there any piece of garden equipment that is less respected and more likely to cause problems than the lowly garden hose? The litany of complaints about the garden hoses people own is endless – they’re too short, they’re too long, they kink up and cut off your water supply in the middle of watering the vegetables. Worst of all, they spring random leaks and splits that consign them to the trash heap and have to be replaced every year or two.

If that sounds like your experience with garden hoses, it may be because you’re buying cheap hoses to save money. If you’re in need of a replacement garden hose, take some time to determine the best garden hoses for your needs – and avoid the cheapest garden hoses in the gardening aisle like the plague.

Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Garden Hose?

Actually, yes. When your garden hose is much longer than you need to reach the places you want to water, there’s far more tendency for it to get kinked or bent and damaged. In addition, because the water has to travel further from the faucet to the nozzle, the water pressure at the nozzle is greatly reduced. Figure out how far your hose needs to reach and buy the size closest to that length. If you commonly only need 25 feet of hose to reach your garden but occasionally want to get the hose around the front of the house to the driveway, but two garden hoses – a 25-foot hose for your regular needs and a second garden hose to extend its reach when you need to get to the driveway.

What Difference Does Hose Diameter Make?

The diameter of garden hoses directly affects the water delivery capacity of the hose, but it’s not a linear projection. For example, you don’t get twice as much water capacity from a one inch water hose as you do from a ½ inch garden hose. In fact, a ¾ inch garden hose will deliver twice as much water to your garden in the same amount of time as a ½ inch garden hose. The most common sizes of garden hoses sold for home use are ½ inch garden hoses and ¾ inch garden hoses.

Hose Materials

For best results and durability, choose a reinforced rubber hose rather than a cheap vinyl hose. Look for brass garden hose fittings at both ends, and invest in a hose that is attached to the hose fitting with a brass collar that allows you to turn the threaded coupling freely.

When you choose the best garden hoses money can buy, you’ll get longer life, better performance and more happiness from your garden. Take the plunge – buy a good garden hose and see how much easier your gardening life can be.