Soaker hoses conserve water in the garden.
So much water is necessary to grow most outdoor plants that you may sometimes feel your effort to maintain a thriving garden clashes with the need to conserve our planet’s natural resources. However, you can follow gardening practices that minimize the need for water, such as using soaker hoses, or perforated garden hoses you lay at the base of plants. When you turn on the water, it seeps slowly into the soil without wasteful runoffs. Does this Spark an idea?
Recycled-Material Soaker Hose
Soaker hoses made of recycled plastic or rubber have 60 to 70 percent of post-consumer recovered content, which means they’re mostly made from products that have reached the end of their useful life and are destined for the dumpster. Therefore, while these soaker hoses deliver water in similar ways as others, they offer an additional advantage: They keep old tires and plastic products out of landfills and reduce the production of new plastic and rubber.
Pressure-Rated Soaker Hose
Some soaker hoses come labeled with a water-pressure rating to help you match your home’s water pressure to the right hose. Soaker hoses rated to handle low water flow, for example, might burst or deliver too much water at once, flooding the ground, if your home’s water pressure is high. In this case, one way to control how much water flows through the hose is by turning on the faucet only partially.
Fibrous Soaker Hose
Fibrous soaker hoses are made of porous rubber and are more expensive than the plastic types, but they also last longer. These flat hoses have thousands of holes. You can bury them under mulch to conserve even more water by suppressing evaporation.
Homemade Soaker Hose
A homemade soaker hose is a regular garden hose that you recycle when it becomes old and leaky, creating a new drip-irrigation tool. The holes in the hose are made with a drill and the male end of the hose is either covered with a cap or wrapped with heavy-duty duct tape to keep the water from gushing out. It isn't as flexible as manufactured soaker hoses, but it does the job.
Soak ‘n’ Spray Hose
Popular Mechanics magazine describes the soak ‘n’ spray hose as a soaker hose you lay on the garden to both irrigate your plants’ roots and create a mist above the ground. How high the spray reaches depends on your water pressure, which you can control with how far you turn the water faucet. This soaker hose type is useful if you have plants that benefit from having moist foliage.
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