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Taps and watering cans are fine for your patio pots but no use when it comes to that long expanse of lawn or the flowerbeds at the far end of the garden suffering in the hot sun. You need a hose, but which type: there is surprisingly quite a range. From lightweight sprinkler hoses to vinyl hoses to coiled garden hose.
Types of garden hoses
The lightest least sturdy hose is the type you attach to sprinklers where you want a fine spray at the end. Alternatively, there are soaker hoses that are perforated with fine holes, great for seeping water slowly onto a lawn but not so useful for flowerbeds. Then, you have your medium duty to heavy duty hoses, made of varying thicknesses of polyurethane. All these hoses need some form of connector to attach them to your faucets or outside taps and additional connectors depending on whether you have a sprayer or sprinkler attached to the end. They all have one thing in common, once you get to over 15 feet of hose, they are tricky to store and if you aren’t careful they get kinks in them. The lighter weight hoses tend not to be good if you have gravel paths as stones easily puncture them and they leak. The heavy duty hoses are, heavy, literally, quite a weight to lug to the end of your garden. One option is the coiled garden hose, sometimes called a spring hose it looks a lot like an enormous slinky! It is made from tough polyurethane, is light but, durable and an example of its space saving properties is that a 50 foot coiled garden hose will spring back to about 3 feet which is a lot easier to store. There are also some rather clever, cheap but simple coiled garden hose holders out there, from wire racks to tough plastic pipes that mount on your back wall; easily fitting next to your outdoor tap.
Best coiled garden hose
Firstly, be sure you know the length and width of your garden. Buy a hose slightly longer than the length you need, as at full stretch, a coiled garden hose is likely to be a few inches shorter due to the coiling. The best coiled garden hoses are the thickest ones as they have better spring back, can withstand tough use, don’t tangle or kink and last for ages. Expect to pay from $20 for a 75 foot hose; but if you want quality, pay more, $40, and check out the Plastair or Water Right range of coiled garden hoses.
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Author Bio Box: Patricia Wainwright
Get all the facts about gardening equipment and gardening information at GreenThumbArticles.com!
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