Uses for old garden hose

[applestar]

4. Cut them to desired length and use across path as connecting section for soaker hoses in beds.
5. Thread hay string through them and use to cushion trees and branches when staking or training them.

[Charlie MV]

I cut them to 18 inch lengths, thread dock lines through them and place them where they will prevent dock lines from chafing. We use a 1" dock line so you have to thread them on a very hot day when the hose is flexible. We've had 1" lines chafe through overnight in storms.

I I used to cut them various lengths and put male/female ends on each end to hook to a 4 valve carburetor to get water to soaker hoses when I believed the myth that watering plants from above was harmful to them. Now I have a 7 foot tall oscillating irrigater that covers the garden in 3 moves. It's much faster and really puts out the water.

I also take up billions of square feet in my garage saving used, useless soakers and short hoses to hook them up to old carburetors that I forget about and run over with the lawnmower. Let me tell you. When you hit one of those big brass carburetors with the mower it sounds like a train wreck. The carburetor looks like a train wreck too.

[Kisal]

Split a section of old hose and slip it over the wire bail of a bucket, then wrap it with duct tape to secure it. It makes carrying the full bucket easier on the the hand.

[stella1751]

Good stuff, guys! I see possibilities here and perhaps an alleviation of some of my guilt. I held on to the old one as long as possible, but it finally became too much of a chore to work with it, what with every new kink quickly becoming an established old kink.

Now that I'm thinking alternative uses, well, I don't feel so bad about the disposal of the old one. I wonder whether it could be split, flattened, and used between layers on my raised beds so water doesn't seep out the sides. Just a thought I'm now having.

Too bad the manufacturers can't figure out a way to make hoses out of bind weed with dandelion ends. Then I'd have no guilt for having purchased the new hose.

You've got me thinking. Thanks!

[dirtyfingers]

I cut up short strips of it and duct tape/electrical tape it to the bottom of the pivot support of the hand held boat mover dolly so when you stop, the rubber acts as a brake so the dolly and boat doesn't move. An old hose provides a lot of brake shoes!

[stella1751]

Digression Alert: Rather than start a new thread, maybe I can get some more mileage out of this one. What do you do with your broken Walls-O-Water? Do you repair, or do you recycle? I have a huge stack of ones that have anywhere from one to three broken ribs. One especially windy year, I cut two or three and wrapped them around the bases of tomato cages. Other than that, they just sit in their big stack because I don't want to throw them out.

Do people mend 'em with those repair kits or find another creative use for this great blue plastic?

[Bobberman]

Use 7 foot sections of the hose to connect water barrels togethr with the syphon effect so you have water in the main barrel all the time. I connect 4 -50 gallon barrel and fill them all at once and my main water barel nver runs out of water. Actually my amil water barrel that gets water from my greenhouse roof fills all the barrels from the main one! Just start the syphon effect and place hose at bottom of two barrels and do the same with all barrels. The hose can even rise 6 feet in the air and still work or one barrel can be 10feet away from the other!!

[imafan26]

I save some of the hoses for spare parts and for tree supports. Old or new hoses are also good for laying out the new beds.

[Ohio Tiller]

I have used them nailed to post as cucumber trellis. I found being round they did not damage the stems like hard wood does when the plants get heavy.

[applestar]

Funny! I had just used this 'extendable' hose that is full of cracks as sprinkler hose yesterday

[ElizabethB]

Use old hoses cut into sections to protect tree branches from chafing to hang hummingbird feeders and hanging baskets.

[valley]

I'm sure it has been mentioned, I support trees in a couple directions to stop trees from leaning away from the wind, the stay wire or string when threaded through the hose, the hose is looped around the tree trunk, the skin of the tree isn't cut by the tensioned line inside the hose.


Mentioned in the second post, just read it. Just read: it's mentioned all through the thread.