Upgrade Your Garden Hose To Make Watering Easier And Faster
Do you have a mis-behaving garden hose? Struggling each time to handle it? You need a garden hose to keep plants watered, so make sure you have a good one.
Do you have a garden hose that just refuses to relax, is constantly tense (hmm, sounds like some people I know!) and doesn’t cooperate when you are putting it away after it’s served its watering duties? No matter what you do it continues to flail about in unruly coils, gets kinked, stops the flow of water and leaks in various places.
This wastes time, can cause you to be stressed out and can actually damage plants as you try to pull the hose through the yard.
Wouldn’t it make your gardening easier if your garden hose would just behave!
The tip here is to purchase the right garden hose and banish that old hose to soaker hose duty or other uses. And use the right hose hanger, hose end nozzle and maintain the hose so it gives you many years of use.
Why You Need A Garden Hose
I have an in-ground sprinkler system that has a timer. However I use my garden hoses for the following tasks:
- watering my containers – while I prefer to use water from my rain barrels I usually run out of water in mid summer as we get very little rain in July and August. And watering by hand with a watering can takes a long time so the hose is quicker.
- rinsing off garden tools and my wheelbarrow – while I have a sink in my greenhouse, some garden tools are too bulky and easier to clean outside with the hose.
- pressure washer – it needs a good steady supply of water, so the hose has to deliver a high volume of water.
- washing the car.
- rinsing off wood after cleaning – I need to periodically clean off accumulated dirt and mildew off my wood deck railings and greenhouse with oxygenated bleach and need to use the hose to rinse off the bleach solution.
- filling the water barrels – I do manually fill up some water barrels that I use for drip irrigating plants such as my raspberries in the hottest months of the summer we don’t get any rain.
- sprinkler – while I have an in-ground sprinkler system, occasionally I might need to water something separately without having everything else in that sprinkler zone turned on. So being able to setup a manual sprinkler is handy.
The Best Quality Garden Hose
The hose that I recommend and has served me well for the years I have owned it, is the Flexilla hose.
It is made of a strong polymer blend, is very flexible (hence the name Flexilla), is relatively lightweight and is quite visible. Very easy to coil up and doesn’t fight you, to make watering easier.
There are three convenient lengths depending on what you need to reach all corners of your garden. I have two of the 50′ hoses and my mother has a 100′.
I regret I didn’t buy a 75′ hose for the backyard as the 50′ hose barely reaches to my compost. With a longer hose you can weave it around your flower beds instead of through them. So measure carefully and buy the right size to begin with.
While you can buy these hoses locally at a big box store, nursery or home centre, sometimes Amazon has specials on these moderately expensive hoses, so it pays to check first. I’ve provided three links depending on what length you need. So click the links below first to check the price and compare with prices you might find locally.
Get a decent hose hanger that won’t damage your hose
We are used to the stamped steel hangers of old because they were cheap and available everywhere. There are a few issues with these:
- sharp edges that can cut into your hose
- not large enough to hold a decent size hose
- loops not easy to remove
When I bought my first Flexilla hose I also bought an easy to use rack. Check out the Amazon link below since not all local retailers will carry this and you can save some time looking around.
The nice thing about this holder is that it doesn’t have any sharp edges to damage your hose, it allows your hose to literally pull off when you need more length and it is a very simple sturdy design that is easy to install with some screws.
If mounted high enough it can hold a 100′ hose with ease and without having the loops fall off.
Get good quality garden hose-end attachments
Having the right, quality attachments on your hose is the final purchase you need to make to complete your garden hose setup.
I prefer having attachments that can stop the flow of water without having to run back to the faucet and most of the ones you can now buy have this feature.
You also need a few different spray patterns. But maybe don’t go for the ones that have 10 patterns as you likely won’t even use half of them. The ones I would say are mandatory are:
- spray or shower – this is good for general watering
- jet or stream – for general cleaning of garden tools and other things
- mist or soak – for misting newly planted seeds and increasing humidity in the greenhouse on hot days by misting your plants
This set is close to what I have and is a good compromise of quality, utility and price. Sometimes Amazon has these on special so click the link below to check the price.
How to maintain your garden hose
Now that you have a proper hose and a place to hang it, you will want to maintain the hose so it gives you many years of service.
- don’t run over it with the lawnmower and keep sharp objects like pruners, hedge shears, plant stakes, etc away from it – otherwise, you just end up with a really expensive soaker hose!
- always ensure that you turn off the water supply and empty the hose of water before putting it away – water remaining that freezes or heats up can damage the hose, especially if you have a shutoff hose attachment on it
- coil it up neatly – the hanger I recommend helps, but you still have to make an effort to allow it to naturally coil up when you hang it up
- keep the hose end covered, especially when pulling it back to the hanger; leave the hose-end sprayer on – rather damage that and replace it than the end of the hose that you will then have to cut off and replace, affecting the integrity of the hose
- these hoses are UV protected but it still helps if you can keep it out of the sun
5 ways you can repurpose your old garden hose
If you are replacing your existing hose, you now have an old hose to get rid of. You could just toss it but if you want to be frugal and more environmentally conscious, you can re-purpose the hose.
Here are some ideas:
- soaker hose – just stab it with something sharp all the way along the length
- protection – use short pieces around straps or rope when staking up a tree after planting or supporting other plants to prevent chafing
- rain barrel hose – cut a short length off the end that connects to the tap and use it on your water barrel to fill watering cans
- blade protection – slit a short length and put over sharp pruning saw blades to protect the blade and you
- door stop – place a short piece under a door to keep it from swinging shut
Investing your money in the right hose makes all the difference in keeping the time you spend watering at a minimum. And make it less stressful as well!
