Five Uses for a Worn-Out Garden Hose

Buying a new garden hose is a satisfying task – you get a fresh new ½ inch garden hose or a heated garden hose, whatever is the best garden hose for your needs. It makes your gardening and home maintenance jobs easier when you no longer have to struggle with an old garden hose that leaks or kinks up or simply makes your life more difficult. But once you’ve got your new hose installed – hopefully coiled inside a new garden hose reel that will protect it from the elements – you’re left with the old hose, collecting dust or thrown out with the recycling. Why add to the waste stream in the landfills when you can make good use of that old garden hose in so many ways?

Cushion a Bucket Handle

Got a bucket with a wire handle to haul water? Make the task easier on your hands by cutting a section of old garden hose, slitting it lengthwise and slipping it over the handle. You’ll get a cushioned grip that’s kinder to your hands and makes it easier to carry the full bucket.

Protect Your Trees

If you use wire supports to help stabilize young trees, protect the bark by sliding a length of old garden hose over the wire. The rubber water hose will protect the bark and prevent the wire from cutting into the tree and damaging it.

Catch Earwigs and Beetles

If your garden is troubled by pests like earwigs, try this tip from master gardener Sue McDavid, via This Old House: cut six-inch segments of ¾ inch garden hose and place them around your garden. The pests will crawl into them to enjoy the shady cool, and you can collect them later to shake out the earwigs and drown them in soapy water.

Protect Little Fingers

Chain link swing supports can give little fingers a painful pinch. Cut lengths of garden hose, and slide them over the chains on your kids’ swing set. They’ll provide cushioned, protective casings to keep your little ones’ fingers safe from pinching.

Protect Sharp Blades

Slit a length of garden hose and slide it over the sharp edge of an axe, machete or saw blade. It will protect the blade from nicks and protect your fingers from accidental slices when you’re not actually using the blade.

Bonus Idea:

Turn your old garden hose into a makeshift soaker hose. Crimp the open end closed. Poke holes along its length with an ice pick or drill. Connect it up to your spigot and lay it down in the stretch of garden you want to soak.  

Where to Buy a New Garden Hose

So after a summer of wrestling with your old garden hose you’ve finally decided to bite the bullet and invest in a new one. You’re tired of patching the leaks with duct tape. The bucket under the faucet that used to catch the constant dribble leaking from the loose garden hose fittings doesn’t help much now that the leak has turned into a spray, and you’re barely getting a dribble of water from the business end. Where do you go to buy a new garden hose that suits your needs? There are a number of options.

Hardware Store

Most hardware stores stock a few garden hoses in their gardening or yard department. Your selection will be fairly limited, though. They’ll probably stock the most popular sizes of cheap garden hoses, so if you’ll be happy with a 25 or 50-foot ½ inch garden hose, you may find what you’re looking for. If you want the extra watering capacity of a ¾ inch garden hose – which delivers twice the water per minute as a ½ inch garden hose – you may want to look elsewhere.

Big Box Home Store

The local big box home store will carry a larger selection in the garden hose department, but you’ll still be limited – and you’ll pay for the privilege of shopping with the big boys. Chances are that you’ll find other hose diameters, such as 5/8 inch garden hose and even 1 inch water hose, but the home and garden stores tend to offer lots of cheap garden hose products that will crack easily. If you do go the big box route, be sure you read the materials tag to find out what the garden hose is made of, and check to be sure that the garden hose fittings are made of heavy duty brass that won’t warp and bend.

Online Superstore

You’ll find a large garden hose selection at online superstores, but there’s no guarantee of quality. Many of the hoses available at these sites are imported from overseas and made with cheap materials and low standards. You may also find lots of novelty garden hose products, such as soaker hoses and coil garden hose, but you’ll often be buying cheap knock-offs or paying far more than you need to pay.

Online Specialty Garden Hose Supplier

Your best option for finding the right garden hose online is a company that specializes in selling garden hose products. Because their business is selling hoses, you’ll find a full selection of sizes, styles and types of garden hose so you’re sure to find exactly the one you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a drinking-safe garden hose, a heated garden hose, a coil garden hose or 1 inch water hose, this is the place to look. You’ll also find garden hose fittings, garden hose reels and other accessories and supplies to make your gardening life easier.

Is It Time to Replace Your Garden Hose?

The garden hose is a trusty tool and companion to any gardener or homeowner. Imagine your life without your trusty garden hose Without a good garden hose gardeners would have to haul water by the bucket and pour it out over each plant. Homeowners would have to find other ways to wash down their patios and walkways and rinse their automobiles. Cheap garden hoses from the home improvement store may get you through a season or two of watering and home maintenance tasks, but even the best garden hose gets tired eventually. When should you consider buying a new hose for your garden? These warning signs and suggestions can help you decide if you should replace your old garden hose with a new one even if it’s not leaking or obviously damaged.

The Garden Hose Fittings Are Worn or Bent

The best garden hose fittings are made of heavy duty brass that keeps its shape and doesn’t bend and warp easily under pressure. Cheaper garden hoses don’t have those features. The screw connector may warp out of shape, making it difficult to attach to the faucet. The poor connection to the faucet can cause leaks and reduce water pressure. If the fittings and connectors on your garden hose are bent and worn out, it may be time to replace the hose.

The Hose Is Worn at the Fitting

In addition, the fittings and connectors on better garden hoses are often attached with a collar that allows the connector to rotate easily when you’re attaching it to the faucet or to a sprinkler. Cheaper hoses don’t generally have that feature, and the hose can wear and break at the place where the plastic or vinyl attaches to the metal collar. While you can replace the collar and garden hose fittings, if the body of the hose is made of cheap vinyl, it makes more sense to replace your hose with a better quality ½ inch garden hose or ¾ inch garden hose and reap the benefits for years.

There Are Kinks in the Hose that Won’t Straighten

One of the biggest problems with cheap vinyl garden hoses is that kinks often set in permanently, especially if the hose remains bent in the hot sun or for more than a few hours. You can avoid stubborn bends and garden hose kinks that won’t straighten out by always storing your hose on a garden hose reel when it’s not in use. If your hose is already damaged, however, it’s  time to replace it with a higher quality, more forgiving garden hose

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.

Hints and Tips for Preserving Your Garden Hose

You work hard to make your garden grow, and your trusty garden hose is one of your most important and essential tools. A lot of gardeners end up replacing their garden hoses every year, but you don’t have to do that. If you start out with a good garden hose and know how to take care of it, you can keep it working properly and extend its life for many seasons. These tips will help you buy the right garden hose for your needs and make it the last hose you’ll buy for years.

Buy the Right Length Garden Hose

A hose that’s either too long or too short won’t serve your needs properly. If your hose isn’t quite long enough to reach where you want, you’ll put extra stress and strain on it by pulling and tugging and stretching it to reach. A hose that’s a lot longer than you need is prone to tangles and kinks, which can wear and damage your garden hose. Buy a hose that’s the shortest length that will still reach everywhere you need.

Buy the Right Diameter Hose

You can reduce the amount of time you spend watering by making sure your garden hose has the capacity you need. A ¾ inch garden hose, for example, delivers twice as much water in the same time frame as a ½ inch garden hose. If you’re filling pools or need to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time, opt for the larger hose. For really powerful applications, choose a 1-inch water hose.

Turn On the Water Before Uncoiling Your Hose

Before you start uncoiling your garden hose, turn on the water. It will prevent the hose from kinking up as you pull it to your flower bed, sprinkler or garden. The water running through it will prevent the hose from folding over on itself, cutting off the water supply and putting strain on the wall of the hose.

Use a Garden Hose Reel

A garden hose reel keeps your hose off the ground where it can get damaged or rot. It also prevents your hose from kinking up and crimping, both of which can cause cracks and damage to your hose. A self-retracting garden hose reel will make your life easier and reduce the temptation to leave the hose on the ground just this once.

Don’t Leave Your Hose in the Sun

Letting your garden hose bake in the sun when it’s not in use is an invitation to wear and tear. The UV rays will dry out the material and cause cracks which reduce the life and usefulness of your garden hose.

If you start out with the right garden hose for your needs and treat it like the valuable tool it is, it will reward you by delivering water without kinking up, developing leaks and tripping you when you walk across your lawn.

Is Your Garden Hose Hazardous to Your Health?

The garden hose is a common, one could almost say ubiquitous, gardening tool. No serious gardener would be without a way to bring water to the furthest reaches of their garden plots. It’s a bit scary to think that your garden hose could be a health hazard, but it’s a fact. Here’s why.

Many cheap garden hoses are made of polyvinyl chloride – PVC. PVC uses lead as a stabilizer, and that lead can leach into water standing in the hose. In fact, when Consumer Reports tested a number of garden hoses, they found that the amount of lead in water that has stood in a hose can be as much as 100 times the allowable concentration of lead. That’s enough to cause lead poisoning in some people – particularly in small children who are much more sensitive to the effects of lead and whose bodies are much less efficient at eliminating it. And THAT is a particularly troubling because – think about it – who in your family is most likely to grab a cold drink from the inviting garden hose? Children, who are most prone to damage from lead, which can permanently damage their brains and nervous systems.

Should you worry about lead if you water your vegetables and fruit with a PVC garden hose? Research shows that plants don’t generally absorb lead through watering, but plants grown in soil with a high lead concentration can show elevated levels of lead. Soil, on the other hand, does retain lead for a long time – it’s part of the reason that children in urban neighborhoods shouldn’t play in lots where old houses have been demolished. How long does it take to build up toxic levels of lead in your gardening soil if you’re watering it with lead-laced water every day? No one really knows.

Luckily, there is a solution – replace your old PVC hose with a drinking safe garden hose. These hoses are made from rubber or have an interior coating that prevents any chemical leaching into the water that passes through it. They come in all sizes and diameters, so you should have no trouble finding a ½” garden hose or ¾” garden hose in 25-foot and 50-foot lengths, the most common garden hose sizes.

And if you go to the trouble of buying a drinking safe garden hose, be sure to follow these other tips for making sure your garden hose is safe for drinking water.

-          After use, drain your garden hose and store it on a garden hose reel to prevent standing water inside it.

-          Keep the hose out of direct sunlight, which can heat the hose to high temperatures and incubate any bacteria inside it.

-          Let the water run for a minute or two before drinking from the hose or filling drinking containers from it. That will flush out any standing water that might be harboring bacteria.