Winterizing Your Garden Hose

It’s getting close to that time of year when gardeners are bringing in their final harvests and getting ready to winterize the garden. While you’re picking up the mulch and putting in the spring bulbs, don’t forget to take proper care of your garden hose for the winter. If you’ve invested in a decent garden hose, you’ll want to make sure that you store it properly to preserve its life for another season.  Here’s how to do it.

Remove the garden hose from its outdoor fixture. If you typically store it on a garden hose reel or other holder, unwind it.

Drain the hose completely of water. Standing water in your garden hose can freeze and thaw during the winter, damaging the vinyl or rubber. The best way to drain the hose is to drape one end over a fence or chair back and stretch the rest out straight. Starting at the other end of the garden hose, hold it up over your head and start walking along the length of the hose, sliding your hands along it. This will drain any water toward the downhill end of the hose and drain it.

Examine the entire hose carefully, looking for any signs of wear or cracking. Pay special attention to any place the hose may have commonly kinked or bent. If your garden hose is showing signs of wear and tear, this is a great time to find a replacement hose. The end of the gardening season typically means sale prices on gardening tools, so if you’ve been considering an upgrade from a ½ inch garden hose to a ¾ inch garden hose, or thinking of replacing your old hose with a coil garden hose or a drinking safe garden hose, you won’t find better prices than you will at end-of-season sales.

Let the hose lay out in the sun for several hours to completely dry out before continuing.

If you have a garden hose reel, feed the hose onto it, taking care not to kink or tangle the hose.

If you don’t have a reel, coil your hose manually. Take one end of the garden hose in your off hand and drape the hose over your shoulder. Walk along the length of the hose, coiling it over your shoulder as you go until you reach the end.

Store the coiled garden hose in a warm, dry spot in your basement, garage or cellar until spring.

Need to keep your hose out during the winter to water animals or for any other reason? Consider investing in a heated garden hose. While heated hoses are somewhat more expensive than standard garden hoses, they’ll last far longer because they’re not subject to wear and tear from freezing.