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.

Tips for Selecting a Garden Hose

Finding a new garden hose is easy. You can find garden hoses at home improvement stores, hardware stores, department stores and online stores in a wide range of sizes, types and styles. Finding the right garden hose is not so easy. When choosing a garden hose you should consider how you’ll be using it, how you’ll be storing it, whether your new hose needs special capabilities and where it has to reach. Not sure which is the right garden hose for you? Consider these factors in making your choice.

How Long Is Too Long?

You know your hose can be too short, but can your garden hose be too long? Absolutely, say gardening experts. The longer your hose is, the harder your water has to work to get to the nozzle. If you’re using a long hose to reach a garden just a short distance away, the water has to travel a longer distance and needs higher water pressure if you want more than a dribble at the business end. Hoses that are too long also tend to get tangled more easily and are more prone to being damaged and causing trips and falls. Advice? Buy a hose that’s not more than 10 or so feet longer than the distance you need to carry it. Got two areas you need to reach, one further away from the faucet than the other? Split the difference, say the experts. Buy two shorter hoses so that you can use one to reach the nearer patch and hook them together to get to the further one.

Special Use Hoses

A hose is a hose, but some hoses have super powers. Think about the ways you’ll be using your garden hose to figure out which special capabilities or features make sense for you. One special type of hose that’s gaining popularity is a drinking safe garden hose. The interior of some garden hoses have an inner coating that contains lead and other chemicals. Standing water in those hoses can become contaminated. If you have kids who drink from the hose or if you water garden vegetables, you might want to err on the side of safety and opt for a drinking safe garden hose.

Storage Ease

A coil garden hose is designed to make storage easy in small places. Rather than being a long, stretched out tube, the coil garden hose coils like an inner spring, making them easier to control in tight spaces like your patio, or even your kitchen. If you choose a standard garden hose consider purchasing a garden hose reel to store your hose safely off the ground and prevent it from kinking and tangling when it’s not in use.

Expect to spend $25 to $40 for a high-quality garden hose that will last you for years. While there are cheaper hoses available, you’ll end up replacing them multiple times and spending more in the long run than if you buy a good, high quality garden hose in the first place.

Specialty Garden Hose Products and Accessories

Make your gardening and your outdoor life easier by choosing specialty garden hose products and garden hose accessories that help protect your hose, extend its life and give you capabilities you don’t get with ordinary garden hoses. Here are just a few of the specialty garden hose items you should have in your arsenal of gardening equipment.

Garden Hose Reel

The way you store your hose when it’s not in use makes a big difference in how long it lasts and how well it performs its job. Being in contact with the ground can contribute to mold and rot that will substantially shorten the useful life of your garden hose. A hose that’s sprawled on the ground is always at risk of being run over by a lawn mower, tractor or vehicle. It’s also an accident waiting to happen when people trip and fall over it. A garden hose reel is the ideal storage container for your hose. There are many types of hose reels available, but they all provide the same basic benefits. When you roll up your garden hose and store it on a reel, you get it up off the ground, making your yard a safer place for you and your garden hose. And in most cases, when you roll the hose, you’ll be emptying any standing water that can contribute to the growth of bacteria inside the hose.

Garden Hose Fittings

The metal parts of your hose are called garden hose fittings. They include the hose connector that screws onto your faucet or to nozzles and sprinklers, and the collar that connects the connector to the hose itself. High quality garden hose fittings can increase the life and utility of your garden hose. Cheap garden hoses are often made with poor quality metal that bends and warps, making it impossible to get a good, non-leaky connection to your water faucet. You can buy garden hose fittings to repair damaged hoses or to make them more useful at many online sites that sell garden hose accessories.

Coil Garden Hose

Coil garden hoses are a specialty garden hose that are ideally suited to small spaces, such as patio gardens. Usually made of high-quality vinyl, they’re coiled in the shape of a spring, minimizing the amount of space needed for their storage. Most coil garden hose products will be ideal if you need a ½ inch garden hose that’s less than 50 feet long.

Choosing the right garden hose accessories can make it easier to care for, maintain and store your hose properly, extending its life and saving you money.

Garden Hose Tips and Tricks

Does your garden hose tangle when it should lie flat? Do you have trouble reaching your entire garden? Are you tired of having to buy a new garden hose every year? These garden hose tips and tricks can make your gardening and outdoor cleaning chores so much easier!

Use a Garden Hose Reel

Storing your garden hose properly makes a difference in so many ways. A garden hose reel will keep your hose off the ground – and out of harm’s way – and prevent rot and fungus that can shorten its life. In addition, rolling up your garden hose on a reel will empty all the water, which reduces the likelihood of bacteria growing in standing water inside that dark, cozy, warm environment.

Maximize Hose Output

The diameter of the garden hose you choose affects how much water is delivered at the business end of the hose. The most common garden hose sizes are the ½ inch garden hose, 5/8 inch garden hose and ¾ inch garden hose, as well as 1 inch water hose. Unless you’re filling a swimming pool – or watering troughs – regularly, a 1 inch water hose may be overkill, but a ¾ inch garden hose is ideal for most household tasks, from watering your garden to washing down your siding.

Use More Than One Garden Hose

Need to reach more than one place on your property? The longer your garden hose is, the less water pressure you’ll get from it. If you need 50 feet of garden hose to reach the flower beds by the driveway but only 25 feet to get to your vegetable garden on the other side of the house, why not invest in a multi-connection manifold for your outdoor spigot and keep two garden hoses connected – a 50 foot one to go in one direction and a 25 foot one to reach the veggies. As an added bonus, you can water both gardens at the same time.

Get the Right Garden Hose Fittings

The garden hose fitting attaches the garden hose to your faucet. You can make your watering chores easier by making sure that the connector is made of good quality brass that won’t warp or get bent out of shape if you step on it. You can also buy various attachments for your faucet that will make your hose easier to connect, or provide a swivel function that prevents wear on your garden hose.

Most importantly of all, always buy the best quality garden hose you can afford. Paying a little more for your hose in the first place can save you a lot of money over the long run.

How to Love Your Garden Hose

Most gardeners have a decidedly rocky relationship with one of the most important partners in their gardening efforts – their garden hose Anyone who keeps a healthy garden has nearly daily use for a garden hose watering plants and keeping the lawn looking fresh and green. For many of them, using their hose means wrestling with an intractable and unwieldy garden hose that insists on fighting them every step of the way. It kinks and twists, constricts their water, splits at inconvenient places and drips or leaks at the tap. You can avoid all of these problems and start to love your garden hose if you follow these tips to buy the right hose for your needs and care for it properly.

Pick the Right Hose for Your Needs

Do you really need a 50-foot one inch water hose for your garden? For most casual gardeners – people who have a small vegetable or herb garden in their backyard – a 25-foot ½ inch garden hose or ¾ inch garden hose are more than sufficient for their needs. If 25 feet isn’t long enough to reach most of your garden, consider a 50-foot garden hose but keep in mind that the longer your hose is, the more difficult it will be to handle. If you only need the additional length occasionally, consider buying two 25-foot garden hoses and coupling them when you need to get water beyond its reach.

Specialty Garden Hose Types

If you have a special watering need, chances are there’s a specialty garden hose to meet that need. Among the most popular specialty hoses is the drinking safe garden hose Most common hoses are lined with a plastic that may leach lead and other toxic substances into water that stands in it for any length of time. Drinking safe garden hoses are made of a non-toxic material. If your children – or you – drink from the garden hose on hot days, or if you use the garden hose to fill drinking containers, you’ll want to use a drinking safe garden hose that is safe to drink from.

A coil garden hose is designed for use in small and confined spaces like your patio. When you’re not using a coil hose, it curls into a tight spiral like a spring, making it much easier – and more attractive – to store and use.

Store Your Garden Hose Properly

A garden hose reel is one of the best ways to store your garden hose It keeps the hose off the ground where it can rot or be damaged by lawn mowers and garden tools. Rolling your hose up on a reel also drains the water from it, which helps lengthen its useful life by preventing bacteria and mold growth inside the hose.

If you’re in a rocky relationship with the wrong garden hose it’s time to go shopping and find a hose that will make your life easier.

Is One of These the Garden Hose You Need?

A garden hose is not just a garden hose anymore. Today, you can walk down the aisle in a home improvement or gardening store and find a coil garden hose, irrigation garden hoses, flat garden hoses, water safe garden hose, ½ inch garden hose, ¾ inch garden hose, 1 inch water hose, heated garden hose – and those are just a few of the selections. If you’re in the market for a new garden hose, one of these specialty garden hose options may be just right for you.

Coil Garden Hose

They’re cute, they’re compact and they come in pretty colors unlike typical garden hose colors of grayish green and green. The coil garden hose is popping up on morning talk shows, television ads and in product placements on television shows lately, raising its visibility and making a lot of gardeners think, “Hmm…” Is a coil garden hose right for your needs?

If your gardening space is small and you don’t need a hose that reaches for a full 50 feet, this could be the best garden hose for you. Coil hoses are especially at home on patios and even in your kitchen for watering your plants.

Drinking Safe Garden Hose

Do your kids like to snatch a drink from the garden hose on a hot day? Do you use it to fill your toddler’s wading pool? Then you should know that the typical cheap garden hose has an interior lining that contains lead. On a hot day, the standing water in your garden hose can end up with enough lead to make it dangerous. And while there’s no evidence that plants are affected by the lead in water they’re showered with, they can take up lead from the soil, which soaks up all that water from your garden hose. If you’re using your hose to water vegetables or edible plants, you may want to consider a drinking safe garden hose, which is certified lead-free.

Heated Garden Hose

Not all garden hoses come in when the weather turns cold. If you keep using your hose even after the first frost, a heated garden hose could be a worthwhile investment. Heated garden hoses have an electrical heater at the nozzle and connection ends. The heat prevents the water from freezing inside the garden hose and damaging it. A heated garden hose also cuts down on the time and hassle needed to deal with daily chores that require the use of a hose – you don’t have to wait for the ice to thaw and allow water to get through.

Choosing the best garden hose for your needs will ensure that you get the most use and convenience from your hose. Take the time to consider your needs and choose a hose that meets them instead of choosing the cheapest garden hose on the shelf.

Repair Your Old Garden Hose

A good garden hose is a vital gardening tool. If you buy wisely, the garden hose you purchase can last for years. Occasionally, though, even the best hoses spring a leak, get punctured or need repairs of some sort. If you started with a good quality garden hose, you can easily repair it for less than what you’d spend on a cheap-o plastic hose at the local home emporium. Here’s how to deal with the most common garden hose repairs if you’d rather save your hose than replace it.

Small Leaks

Even the best garden hose can spring a leak, especially if you forget to roll it up on a garden hose reel and it gets run over by a sharp object. If your hose has a small puncture or crack, mend it with hose repair tape or electrical tape. For best results, clean and dry the hose before applying the tape and let it sit overnight before using it.

Leak at the Spigot

The most common reason your garden hose leaks at the faucet is an old or deteriorated washer. Remove the old washer from inside the garden hose fitting, purchase a replacement and pop in the new one. That should take care of the leak for a couple more good years.

Large Leaks

Did you run over the garden hose with the lawn mower or gash it with your weed whacker? You’d hate to throw out 49 feet of perfectly good garden hose when the damage to it only affects 6 or 8 inches. Luckily, you don’t have to. It’s easiest to use a garden hose repair kit – a coupler that holds two cut ends of a hose together. Using a straight, sharp knife, cut out the damaged section. Trim the two ends as square as possible. Take the damaged section with you to a gardening supply center or home improvement store to make sure you get the right size and type of mender. In addition to size – a ½ inch mender kit for a ½ inch garden hose, etc. – you should  also be sure you get the right mending kit for the kind of material your hose is made from: vinyl, rubber, reinforced vinyl, etc. Loosen the screws on both sides of the replacement coupler. Carefully insert the ends of the hose into either end of the coupler until they meet. Tighten the screws until you can’t pull the hose out of the coupler. Attach the hose to the spigot and test the connection.

Replace the Fitting

If you’ve managed to crush or damage the male or female coupling that attaches the hose to the spigot or a nozzle, you can replace it with the proper garden hose fittings. Measure the hose diameter to get the right size fitting. Cut away the old coupling with a sharp knife or blade, squaring off the end as cleanly as possible. Insert the cut end into the new coupling and tighten the screws evenly until you can’t pull the hose out.

Like anything else of high quality, a well-made garden hose will last you for years and is always worth repairing. If your hose is past repair, take the time and effort to replace it with a high-quality garden hose that will last for years to come.