Stating-the-Obvious Alert: A good garden hose is great for the garden. One that leaks or is otherwise patched together with hose clamps and expensive fittings where it has been damaged…not so much.
And when it comes to garden hoses, well, an ounce of prevention goes a long way toward making them last season after season.
For example, while one good way to prevent damage to your garden hose is to simply buy a good one in the first place—I like beefy brass couplings that can take life outdoors and the abuse of being dropped on the driveway and dragged across the yard—there are a few other tips that make sense:
Don’t drive on it. So you’ve got the hose stretched up the driveway to get water to that new planting. And coiling it up every day is a drag so you leave it there, right? (I do.) While a few passes over a hose stretched out over the driveway won’t typically blow it out, it will weaken it. Turning the car wheel with the hose underneath it, on the other hand, will really hasten its demise.
Turn it Off. Turn the hose off at the spigot when not in use. Sure, clamping the water off at the nozzle is OK, but do it all the time all season and it’ll shorten the hose’s life because the hose walls remain under constant pressure (add driving on it full of water and you’ve got a double whammy.) Ditto for the nozzle.
Now Mow. And my favorite, don’t risk mowing over it—even if you think the hose is lying flat enough and that the mower blade will clear it, it might not be. Misjudge that runway and, well, whirring steel beats rubber every time.
