There are certain ways you can make your life a little easier when it comes to watering the garden. Buying the right equipment will allow you to take it easy just a little bit more often. One of these things is a soaker hose. If you don’t know anything about what a soaker hose can do for your plants, then it would be very beneficial for you to educate yourself on how it can help your situation.
What Is a Soaker Hose?
A soaker hose is something that you can install in your yard to irrigate your plants. You lay a soaker hose down in your garden and it has these small holes where water will pour out of it. It will water your garden very effectively and can get the water right to the locations where your plants need them most. When water is allowed easy access right to the source of your plants’ roots, it will help them to stay even healthier than before.
These types of hoses are made from completely recyclable materials. You can feel good about purchasing one when you know that it’s friendly to the environment. Generally, these hoses are made from rubber and some polyethylene. They’re built to be fairly durable and should be able to withstand several seasons for you.
Reasons to Use a Soaker Hose
There are many reasons why you should consider buying a soaker hose for your gardens. The most important reason is that it is an extremely convenient and safe way to water your plants. It waters your plants low to the ground and delivers the water right to the roots. This ensures that any foliage around your plant will stay dry, preventing the chance of fungal growth happening near your plants.
Fungal growth can create a number of nasty problems in gardens. This can outright kill certain types of plants and can seriously hinder the growth of others. Avoiding problems with fungal growth makes for a more convenient gardening experience and cultivates a better environment for your plants to thrive. Taking this into consideration, it’s easy to see why soaker hoses are popular.
Another important reason why you should use a soaker hose is that it saves on water. You will have to use far less water to water your plants than you would while using other methods. This is a less wasteful way to ensure that your plants are getting the proper amount of irrigation. It’s more effective than a hose or sprinkler while using up fewer resources.
How to Set it up
Setting up a soaker hose is just as easy as getting a sprinkler system set up in many ways. You need to place the soaker hose, or a series of soaker hoses, in particular spots in your garden. Hooking it up to your water line is just as simple as using any regular hose. Just try not lay more than 100 feet of soaker hose in your garden as it would be better to use multiple hoses.
You can permanently place the hoses in your gardens underneath some mulch. This way, the hoses aren’t visible but will still have the intended effects. You should never bury the hoses under soil though because they won’t work as well. Putting your soaker hose under as much as two inches of mulch will work just fine.
Remember to space out your hoses properly. You don’t want a bunch of hoses bunched up near one another because the water could pool together. Watering too much is bad so place them in spots that will give your garden the most coverage possible. As long as you space the hoses out intelligently, you should have an easy time watering your garden from there on.
For the best results, you may want to add several other components to the soaker hose for maximum functionality. You can set up a water filter inside of the hose to make sure that your plants are getting the highest quality possible. This isn’t necessary but is something that some people like to do.
Many people enjoy setting up timers so that their hoses will water the plants at specific times. This doesn’t take too long to get going and the benefits of setting a timer will be worth the effort. Also, attaching a pressure regulator is highly recommended. It will ensure that the hose stays at a steady pressure of around 10 psi, keeping the watering consistent throughout your garden.
Conclusion
Making use of soaker hoses is an ideal solution for any garden. Whether your garden is large or small, a soaker hose will be a great benefit to you. It will allow you to water your plants more effectively while wasting very little water. This is better for your water bills and the world as a whole.
With these hoses being so simple to set up, there isn’t a good reason not to make use of them. They can be used to great effect as long as you’re willing to get them set up. It won’t throw off the look of your garden because you can hide the hoses under mulch. This will be a winning idea for making maintaining your garden as easy as it could possibly be.
