Getting Your Garden Hose Under Control

Now that we’re a couple of months into summer, there’s a good chance that you’re getting a bit fed up with your garden hose If you’re like a lot of folks, you’ve probably spent almost as much time untangling the blessed thing as you have using it for its intended purpose, whether that’s transporting water to your thirsty plants, giving the kids a good soak-down on a hot afternoon or washing the car to keep it looking spiffy-clean. In the worst case scenario, you may be in the market to replace your garden hose after running over it with the lawn mower or because it’s sprung more leaks than your kitchen colander. If you’re as tired of wrestling with your garden hose as we are, here are a few tips to help you get it under control and keep it that way.

Wind It Up
Garden hose reels are a gardener’s best friend. A good quality garden hose reel gives you a place to store your hose when it’s not in use – which actually does a lot more than just keep your garden hose from tripping you when you’re on your way to the car. When you keep your hose on a hose reel, you minimize its contact with the ground, which reduces the chance that it will rot. You keep bugs out of it, and, bonus – you automatically drain the hose so that standing water isn’t soaking up all the nasty chemicals the inside of your hose may be treated with.  (Of course, if you choose a drinking safe garden hose to begin with, you don’t have to worry about lead and other nasty stuff in your vegetable patch.)

Prevent Kinking
Kinks are hazardous to your hose’s health, and not just because they drive you crazy enough to stomp the silly thing into the ground. Inexpensive garden hoses are the most prone to the problem, but even higher quality hoses can end up with their kinks set into them as if you’d pressed them in with a hot iron. There are a few ways to prevent kinking. The first is to choose a portable garden hose reel that you can wheel around with you. The less length you’re dragging around with you, the less likely it is to get doubled on itself and get kinked up.

Your other option is to choose a garden hose that is less prone to kinking in the first place. A good coil garden hose, for example, is specifically designed not to kink up on you, so you can expect it to last longer.

If you’re tired of a garden hose that kinks up and fights with you whenever you turn on the water, check out the selection of garden hose reels you can buy online and get your hose under control once and for all.