Cool thread Vic. I'm just starting out, and I already curse my lanky, green friend. Arch nemesis, thy name is Hose.
Rain dances in the nude at midnight haven't helped just yet, so I'm learning to live with her. My favorite thing to do is to walk outside, turn the hose on and completely soak myself from head to foot. Then I start watering; when she sprays me and leaks all over me, I throw my head back and laugh maniacally. "I win today, you infernal beast!"
I swear it helps.
What do you do with your hose??
Two years ago I spent $175,000 on my house. We did everything inside and out. Windows, siding, foundation, kitchen, family room, and on and on. Do you think I was smart enough to ask the plumber to put a watering conection in the back of the house? NO - NO - NO, that would have been too easy. I like dragging 100 feet of hose around from the front. It fills in that 30 minutes that I would have spent doing something I might enjoy.
Dumb, thy name is Chuck!
Victor.....................mine are outside year around. I use Wally World's best . I replace one every four or five years. Once in a blue moon I wack one with the mower. I keep a few parts handy to CMA. I cut my grass at 3 1/2 - 4 inches. The hose is about an inch at the fittings. I run right over them all the time. In time they are under grass clipping mulch.
Any photos of the dances, brooklyn?^_^ Chuck, we all do stuff like that. Dwaine, that's an interesting approach - cover it up so no one notices! But once you use it and move it around, there goes the clipping cover.
So what's unusual, ugly or wrong with a hose being seen in and around the lawn and gardens? If I had to put away a hose every time I use it I would not wash the car, the patio furniture, the windows in the house or bother with gardening. I deal with seventy five to two hundred feet where the watering is done. The only other option is to bury an underground pipe system which is a problem in itself of another nature. Now you have outlets standing up here and there to knock out with a mower and still need a half dozen lengths of hose to coil and hang up.
With a high stand of grass it will hide in a day or two after having been moved. Highly mowed grass is easier to manage than scalped lawns. Highly mowed grass is healthier and needs much less watering. Most weeds are darked out of the picture.
Nothing is wrong if that's what you like. I would just rather not see it all over the garden - just my preference. Besides, I don't cut my own lawn, so the cutters can show up on any day and they would find a way to kill it, even though they cut high. In the front, for example, the hose has to go through beds to get to the rest of the garden and they use the trimmer around all my beds so it would be in the way.
Yep you are right. I took my mowing back from the outside service guys the day they wanted seventy five bucks more to set their mowers up to four inches for me.They cut everyone else their standard two and a half inches. Besides they chewed, smoked and watched Delta fly over all the while they were weed wacking. I did not mind that but then they wacked some good plants and went to the bathroom out behind my shed where the rubarb turned yellow. I may have to go back to a service but it would not be that slipshod firm for sure.
Egads! I think I'll stick to having DH do the mowing and I'll whack the weeds! I don't need to pay anyone to watch the planes fly into Stewart!
Victor i think your solution is to install an irrigation system and get rid of the hoses. I also leave mine out although I typically put them up to cut the grass.
And I just knew you would comment on the dancing in brooklyn!! From what I can tell your the only one that can get away with it:)
I have considered it, Bill, but never seriously looked into it. I'm sure it's not cheap and I hate the idea of ripping up beds to install it. I would use a drip system if I did.
Here's a quick hose-coiling tip I picked up from professional boat maintenance people: When you're coiling the hose on the ground, alternate every other loop under itself. Hard to describe, but lay down one loop like you normally would, then on the next loop, instead of placing the end with the rest of the uncoiled hose on top, put it UNDER the rest of the loop. Alternate these. It's going to look like you're asking for trouble, but your coil will lay flatter and will be less likely to kink when you pull it out.
I'd still rather use a hose reel if I could find one that worked decently. But between a decent a hose reel and a decent spray head, I feel like I might be busy looking for awhile.
I still can't envision that, 2-1.
It's the same way you wrap cable in theatre, which we call over-under wrapping. If you mean what i think you do. i have been trying to teach non-techies to do it for years, it lets your cable play out neatly as you are running it from point to point, especially if it is heavy multi-cable. It keeps thin cable, like mic cable, from tangling into hairballs while stored too.
One of DH's students came to water the plants when we were gone and thought it was hysterical that i over-under wrapped my hose.
i thought it was just me!
i'll look for one of the tutorials.
Here you go - from 2001, i think a generation of techies have now learned how to coil cable from this video:
http://stagecraft.theprices.net/gallery/cablewrap/cablewrap-rm.html
Do people with irrigation systems have trouble cutting them when digging etc.?
That's another issue. Thanks for the link, Amy. I'll check it out.
Dave, I just have soaker hoses, but did put a shepards hook through one last summer,and wondered why 1/2 of my garden didn't get much water. Fixed it this spring.
I've done that too, Deb - while planting.
Underground drip lines only cover 1% of the garden area. Yep I can usually cut one off. That is why we keep splicers in stock.
it's the dang connectors and watering wands and the part of the reels that attach to the hoses that always fail on me. Even brass ones. I wish I could find a high end professional plumbers online store or even a "real" farmers online store for outdoor faucets and hand pumps and such.
Daisy, have you checked out Grower's Supply?
No, Mamasita, I haven't. I've checked out Gardener's Supply, but never Grower's Supply, but I'm going to right now! Thanks!
daisygrrl
Wow!! MAMASITA, YOU ROCK!
I just spent only 5 mins on that site, and I am already in love. Thank you!
daisy
What do you plan to buy, Daisy?
You are very welcome, Daisy! I ordered some remnant shadecloth from them and was pleased with their product and the catalog they sent. I do recommend them.
- Lynn
I think there is a co-op for heat mats from them going on now. Also, the plant label co-op was from them as well.
I'm looking at some of their heavy duty plumbing stuff, of course. But I also saw that shade cloth and am considering....
;-)
I'm off to find them.
Check out the sale section. I got a great deal on a huge remnant of 60% shade cloth and there were other things listed as well. They sent a full catalog and I just love leafing through it. Lots and lots of great things! - Lynn
Gardener's Supply has evolved! Evolved from a company trying to make a buck before it's time with all organic supporting supplies to an employee owned what you see now. I was a so called test gardner early on. I commend the employees common success because now I too always have two or three of their items on the to do or must wait for category. It is one of the catalogs that does not get tossed to the round file.
Is Growers Supply more likely to have hose reels, parts, connectors that don't leak or fail?
Can't say for sure about that Victor. Their policy is 30 day return. Their catalog shows some pretty amazing things in all price ranges. You could always shoot them an email with your questions before you decide to buy, though.
I didn't find the hose stuff I hoped they had.
Sorry to hear that! Do you have the catalog? I found it was easier to go through than their site. I still like to see things and True Value has most of what I need immediately.
No catalog, but it didn't seem to be one of their categories. It does seem to be a great site though.
I have had it with the HOSE JOB. I am sick of untangling it. I am sick of getting wet and I am sick of lugging 300 feet and getting WET. Had it; Sorry guys and gals I had to vent.
Oh yeah you lug it 300 feet and have to hook up the sprayer and the thing leaks on the hose end. Sorry I am very peed
I too hate to wrestle with my equipment- especially the hose! Last year I googled 1/2" hoses, because in the past I found the smaller diameter was easier to use, and gives better pressure. I bought 100' of hose here http://www.factorydirecthose.com/site/932652/page/388991 It is pricey, but it is the BEST I have ever found- NO kinks, absolutely indestructable. And I now have a water pressure rewind reel from WalMart- about $50. I really like them both.
And the reduced flow rate of the smaller hose is tolerable, JoP?
Definitely- it doesn't seem like "reduced flow"- it has more pressure as it comes out-This is a fantastic garden hose- They have my testimonial on their website! Very good folks to do business with, also.