Yvonne Glasgow
When it comes to watering your lawn and garden, hoses are a must. Unfortunately, hoses end up tangled more often than not. Here are some simple tricks to keep your hoses untangled and the water flowing freely.
Whether you paid for a premium hose or the cheapest model that would hold water, proper care and storage will go a long way towards extending the hose’s life and ensuring frustration-free use.
How to Store Your Garden Hose During the Summer
If you try to put away a tangled hose, you’ll add more kinks to it that will trip you up the next time you use it. Now is the time to unwind your hose and wind it up freshly, so it’s easier to use and kink-free.
Before you stretch your hose across the expanse of your yard to straighten it and wind it back up properly, you’ll want a garden hose reel to store it on. You can always get by without one, but hoses are heavy and a hassle to store without a reel to keep them wrangled in place. With your reel (or just a simple hose hook on the side of your garage if you prefer to keep things simple), it’s time to coil the hose up.
- If your hose isn’t already wound up properly and has kinks in it, uncoil your hose fully. Pull it to its full length across your yard, drain out any water, and remove any kinks.
- Once your hose is kink-free, it’s time to wrap it back up. Begin coiling your hose around your rack, keeping it loose. You’ll start with the end closest to your faucet.
- From now on, when you finish using your hose, empty it of water and loosely wind it back around the rack carefully.
A few extra storage tips: Keep your hose in a shaded spot. Direct sunlight can damage your hose over time. The only time you might want to leave your hose in direct sunlight for awhile is if it is kinked pretty badly and the day you’re trying to unkink it and get it wound up neatly is cool—the heat of the sun will soften the hose and make it much easier to wrestle with.
Also, wind it up immediately after use. Leaving it out (and full of water) may allow fungus to grow in it, plus you risk having it run over by the lawnmower.
How to Store Your Garden Hose During the Winter
When it’s time to put your hose away fro the winter, there are a few things you should do. Of course, the first, and more important thing, is to get it out of the elements. Frozen water can damage the hose and harsh winter conditions outdoors are rough on the materials and fittings.
Here’s how to put your hose away properly to get a head start on gardening come spring:
- Unhook the hose from the faucet and stretch it across the lawn. Be sure that you’ve drained all of the water out of it. Storing it for the winter filled with water will still allow fungus to grow inside. A nice downhill slope will help with drainage.
- Hang the hose on a rack in your garage or shed (or, if you have a portable reel, you can just move that into the garage when winter is about to arrive). Wrap the hose around this rack the same as you did around your outdoor rack, loose without twists and kinks.
As always, if your hose begins to kink as you’re putting it away, pull a couple of feet of the hose back out to unkink and start wrapping again. The proper care and storage of your hose will help you have fewer tangles and will help your hose last longer.
