soaker hose tips
Soaker hoses are a gardener’s best friend. Just set them in your flower garden once in spring and don’t move them again until you put them away in fall.
These porous, capped hoses, available from garden centers and hardware stores, lie on the ground and “sweat” when hooked up to water. The water soaks into the soil and nothing is lost to evaporation or overspray. In flower beds use long hoses. For young trees, you can also find soaker rings, like the one below right.
Here are some tips for working with soakers:
? Find a length that works best with your bed. In a flower bed, there’s nowhere to go with extra hose, and hooking too many together may compromise your water pressure.
? Before you put one in the garden, lay it in the sun so it’s flexible.
? Use ground staples to pin the hose in place around tight turns.
? Mulch over your hoses to hide them.
? If your soaker springs a leak, duct tape it — or don’t. This is one time a leaky hose doesn’t matter!
