Four Reasons to Hate Your Old Garden Hose

Most serious gardeners – and a lot of homeowners who don’t garden – have a love-hate relationship with their garden hose – and there’s not a lot of love in that equation. Despite the fact that the garden hose is the single piece of gardening equipment that most gardeners use every single day during the gardening season, a lot of folks don’t put a lot of thought into buying the right one – and once they’ve bought one (usually the cheapest one they can find that meets their minimum requirements), they often don’t realize just how much of their time and energy they spend dealing with a recalcitrant, balky or downright surly garden hose. Is it time to replace your old hose with a shiny, new one that will do what you want it to – without getting all kinky and spitting water at you? Here are four reasons to hate your old garden hose enough to replace it with one that will do the job so much better.

It Doesn’t Reach Where You Want It to Go

Okay, admit it. You’ve done this: you stretch the hose as far as you can – usually going back to unkink it when it decides to get curled up on itself – turn the water as high as possible and aim the water for the one corner of the garden where you garden hose doesn’t quite reach.  Among other things, that kind of stretching isn’t good for your garden hose – it puts stress on the garden hose fittings and makes it more likely that it will separate from the tubing. More importantly, it makes it a whole lot harder to water the whole garden effectively.

It’s Got Splits and Leaks Here, There and Everywhere

Cheap hoses split and break with alarming regularity. Most commonly, they leak around the faucet, where they don’t attach properly. Better quality hoses are made from materials that resist splitting and separating from the garden hose fittings, so you don’t end up patching them with adhesive tape.

The Nozzle End Is Deformed and Misshapen

Speaking of garden hose fittings, cheap hoses often have fittings made of tin or other soft metal that bends and deforms with the slightest pressure. You never have to worry about your hose fitting your faucet when you invest in a good quality garden hose with solid brass or high quality plastic fittings.

It Could Be Poisoning You

You knew your garden hose was out to get you, but you probably didn’t realize that it’s trying to poison you. A number of consumer watchdog groups have tested the water that comes out of typical cheap hoses and found alarming amounts of lead and other chemicals. The solution is a drinking safe garden hose if you drink from your hose or fill kiddie pools with it.

Why put up with a gardening tool you hate when you can eliminate the problems and make your gardening much easier with a new garden hose?

Give Mom a Summer of Fun Gardening with a Garden Hose for Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is coming up fast. Have you decided on a gift for mom yet? Before we go any further, let’s get one thing out of the way. Mothers do not hate practical Mother’s Day gifts. In fact, mothers love gifts that show you appreciate the things she loves to do and see how hard she works. So what do you get for the mom who loves gardening and working around the outside of the house? How about replacing that worn-out old garden hose she’s been lugging around the yard and driveway for years?

Oh, I know. You’re thinking, “A garden hose? For Mother’s Day? Are you kidding?”   Not at all. Here’s why a new garden hose makes a great Mother’s Day gift for a mom who loves to spend time in the garden.

The Right Garden Hose Makes Gardening Easier

Unless you’re the one doing the yard work, you don’t realize how much time gardeners spend wrestling with a balky hose that insists on kinking up – usually all the way across the yard from where you’re standing. Aside from that, older garden hoses can be bulky and unwieldy, wrapping themselves around patio furniture and getting caught on garden edging. And if she works in a small space, a coil garden hose practically stores itself, saving her a ton of time every time she waters her plants. Don’t you think mom would rather spend that time doing the more fun part of gardening?

A Bigger Garden Hose Gets the Watering Done Faster

No, not a longer hose – a fatter one. In fact, a 3/4 inch garden hose delivers water to the plants twice as fast as a 1/2 inch garden hose. And because you get stronger, steadier water pressure, mom can take advantage of the variety of garden hose nozzles on the market for specialty uses like misting. Again, mom can certainly find better ways to use her time if she can get the garden watered in half the time, right?

She’d Never Think to Buy One for Herself.

Well, if it sprang a leak, she might, but chances are she’d just patch up the old thing and keep right on using it. It can be hard to justify replacing a trusty old tool when it still does the job, especially if the only one it inconveniences is mom. So, rather than spending the money to buy a high-quality, durable garden hose, she’ll keep wrestling with it and dragging it around, making more work for herself.

A new garden hose may not have the bling factor of a pretty birthstone ring – you know, with all the kids’ birthstones – but you know she’ll never take it off and lose it in the flower bed, right? Mom probably won’t ask for a new garden hose for Mother’s Day, but you can bet she’ll appreciate it every single day of the growing season.