A Hose That’s Easier To Use

When we were kids it was our job each and every week to help dad wash the car and work in the garden. We didn’t have any lawn, but planters completely surrounded our home – 360 degrees. There were fruit trees, lilies, roses and every kind of shrub and hedge imaginable – a veritable forest. Unfortunately for us there was only one hose bib (outside faucet) in the entire yard. That meant spreading and stowing 250 feet of hose each and every week – month in and month out. What a nightmare that was! It doesn’t seem so bad when only one length of hose is needed for a task. However, when you’re 12 years old, several lengths of hose connected together can be frightfully heavy. The task of “tubular” management really becomes a “heavy” issue. That was then and this is now. And although we are still doing our gardens every week, we both have more than one faucet in our yard. In fact, we have several strategically located throughout our entire landscape. No more multiple lengths of hose for us. Unfortunately, not everyone may have this choice, so read on for a wetting alternative that is as easy to install as it is convenient.

Keep in mind that for some time now the code has required exterior faucets at both the front and rear of a home. This makes wetting, washing and watering things a bit more convenient than when we were kids, but even two faucets may not be enough in a larger yard. Additional faucets take time to install and hard work is usually involved with trenching, backfill and associated replanting. If you want an easier solution mount a faucet onto a wood or metal stake and adapt the nipple of the faucet to a female hose connection (a standard fitting that converts regular pipe threads to hose size and that costs about $3). Here’s how you do it:

• First choose a thick wooden stake that you can drive into the ground deep enough so that it won’t wobble when you tug on it.
• Next, drill a one-inch hole somewhere near the top of the stake.
• Purchase a hose bib (faucet) from the plumbing section of your local hardware store that has a built-in mounting flange. Be sure that the mounting threads are male (normally the case with this kind of hose bib).
• Purchase an adaptor that has female pipe threads on one side and female hose threads on the other.
• Next, use two screws to mount the hose bib to the stake and then install the adaptor onto the back of the faucet.

You now have a faucet mounted on a stake that has male hose threads on the output side and a female hose connection on the input side. The contraption you just made can now be semi-permanently mounted anywhere in your yard. It can then be connected by any length of hose from an existing faucet and can be left in place permanently or relocated from time to time. Climbing through thistle to get to your hose connection? The connection we have here can be a short one that makes “getting to the faucet” a “cake walk”. Also, the same exact device can be used a hundred feet away. If you intend on making our above-ground connection permanent “more or less”, then you will want to use something to cover the hose. Doing so will prevent premature deterioration which is exacerbated when water remains in a hose – which would definitely be the case here.

By the way, there are devices that already exist just like the one we’ve described. They are slightly more expensive than ours because they normally come with steel mounting posts and some even have a hose-mounting hook as well. Oh, and don’t forget, someone else has to be paid to do the fabrication. Whichever you choose, ours or theirs, be sure to protect the hose connecting the house to the extension faucet and be absolutely sure to disconnect everything before going on vacation and during the winter. A burst hose can loose 6 gallons (or more) per minute. By the time such a leak is discovered hundreds of thousand of gallons of water could potentially be lost.

Also, it may take a little extra hose, but be sure to lay the hose out so that it is no obtrusive and so that it does not become a trip hazard. And, that’s all there is to it.

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