Garden Hose Accessories That Make Your Life Easier

Now that you’ve got the right garden hose, do you have everything you need to make your gardening life easier? There are a number of garden hose accessories that can help you store your hose safely and extend its utility for all types of uses. These are some of the most useful accessories that you can use with any 1/2" garden hose or 3/4” garden hose.

Garden Hose Nozzles

The nozzle you choose to use can turn your gardening and yard chores into a piece of cake. You can choose from nozzles with pistol grips, straight grips or textured grips to make it easier for you to hold and turn the nozzle to different settings. High quality garden hose fittings make it easy to use just about any type of nozzle that fits your needs. The best of those available allow you to set the water anywhere from jet stream to light mist.

Garden Hose Fittings

Garden hoses are most likely to fail at the nozzle end, where the fittings can wear through the hose material. Replacement garden hose fittings are handy to keep on hand for quick repairs, or you can try replacing the standard fitting on the hose with one that swivels or revolves when you’re attaching it to the faucet, saving a lot of wear and tear on the hose.

Garden Hose Reels

Garden hose reels are among the most important of all accessories you can buy to go with your garden hose. Keeping your hose off the ground helps prevent rot and mildew, makes it easier to drain the hose after use and helps keep bugs out of the hose body. There are dozens of different styles of garden hose reels, including wall-mounted reels and portable metal garden hose reels that you can roll with you to anywhere on your property.

Garden Hose Sheaths

Do you get tired of green and blue garden hoses? These days, you can buy a garden hose in any one of a variety of colors, including the typical many shades of green, black and blue garden hoses. If that’s not enough color for you, though, a couple of manufacturers have come up with the ultimate garden hose accessory – garden hose sheaths. Made of thin polyurethane that slips over any standard 1/2 inch garden hose or 3/4 inch garden hose, the garden hose sheaths come in a variety of lively prints that are guaranteed to bring some chic color and style to your garden or patio.

Three Features of a Quality Garden Hose

Spring has sprung and it’s time to get your yard in shape.  Whether that means planting rows of tomatoes, beans and peas or getting the fertilizer out and whipping your grass into shape, you’ll need a high quality garden hose to help you with your tasks.  But ask any experienced gardener and they’ll tell you that a bad garden hose can make life on the lawn miserable, while a quality garden hose can make it bliss.  Here are four features to look for when buying your next garden hose.

The Right Material

Just like in most things, if you buy a cheap garden hose, you’ll likely be stuck with a hose that kinks up, bends and cuts off the water, or has leaks popping up all over it.  What’s worse, some hoses use toxic substances that make it dangerous to drink water from it, fill up your kid’s pool or water your vegetable garden.  When buying a garden hose, you’ll be able to choose from vinyl, rubber or one that uses both materials.  You’ll get more wear out of a rubber hose, but keep in mind that they are heavier, so if you have to haul it all over the yard, that may not be your best option.

The Right Fittings

Have you ever had a hose that sprung a leak at the fitting?  It’s irritating because when that happens, the person using the hose usually ends up drenched by the time they’re done watering the lawn.  The right garden hose fittings are important, and in order for yours to last longer and be more durable, look for a garden hose that uses solid brass fittings.

The Right Reel

No one likes to see a garden hose sprawled out all over the lawn, but unless you have the right garden hose reel, storing your hose can be more hassle than it’s worth.  Look for one of quality that allows you to wrap the hose up easily.  If you don’t want to have to store your hose, opt instead for a coil garden hose.  When it’s not in use, it handily coils up and stores away neatly.

Don’t let a cheap garden hose spoil your gardening fun.  Enjoy your time outdoors by making sure that you get the right hose for the job you’re doing.  Whether that’s a coil garden hose, a drinking safe garden hose, or just a high end hose that won’t kink or break, you’ll reduce the hassle and concentrate instead on the pleasure of your lawn.