I wish I had known these sooner!
It seems like every year I have to make a trip to the local Walmart to buy a new garden hose. One hose accidentally got left out all winter, while another hose got crushed when someone ran it over… I could go on and on. Since we do a lot of hand-watering during the summer, we need a functioning hose, but I've always felt a little bit bad about trashing the old, damaged hoses. So this year I thought I'd put on my thinking cap and try to come up with some ways to use an old garden hose (if only to ease the guilt a little!) But luckily for me, a bit of internet research yielded several results! I ended up with 10 clever ways to put my old garden hoses to good use, and I'm excited to share them with you today!
If you have a way to use garden hoses that isn't listed here, I'd love to hear about it. Leave a comment at the bottom of this post, and your response could be featured in a future blog post!
Our two-car garage is just barely big enough to fit both my SUV and my husband's truck. The tight squeeze means that I have to be really careful when pulling into the garage, and when opening my car doors. But I recently discovered that a garden hose can help protect my car from the hazards of our small garage!
Use screws to secure a short length of garden hose to points where your car might make contact (like in front of the bumper and where the doors open). The hose will act as a cushion between your car and the garage walls, minimizing damage to both.
You can turn an old hose into a soaker system for watering your garden! Soaker hoses are more efficient, because unlike traditional hoses or watering cans, they deliver water right to the base of your plants. That means less water gets wasted or evaporated, and it's actually less work for you!
You can keep the blades on your axes, hatches, and saws sharp by sheathing them in between uses. An old garden hose can easily be turned into enough sheaths for all your tools!
Measure the blades of the tools you want to cover, then cut a length of hose to match each one. Use a utility knife or craft knife to cut a slit in each hose piece from one end to the other. Slide the piece of hose over the blade, and you're done!
You can use the same technique outlined above to make an easy-grip handle for buckets! Just cut a small length of hose, and use a utility knife to create a slit from one end of the hose piece to the other. Slip the hose piece around a bucket handle to make it easier to carry!
You can also use it to carry grocery bags, shopping bags, and all kinds of other things!
Use segments of garden hose to make covers for the chains on your backyard swings. You won't have to worry about little fingers getting caught in the chains anymore.
Even the gentle stream from watering can might be too forceful for some delicate potted plants. Use a small piece of garden hose to make an in-pot watering system!
Cut a piece of garden hose to match the depth of your pot, then drill several holes along the sides. Dig a hole near the center of pot down to the bottom and slip the hose inside. Fill the empty spaces back in with dirt, and you're ready to water! Pour water into the open end of the hose, and the water will seep through the holes to deliver water to the roots of your plant. Your delicate plants will appreciate this gentle method of watering!
Your old garden hose can help you organize your garage by getting larger tools up off the floor. Hang up a board along one of the walls in your garage, then screw a piece of garden hose near one end. Make a loop large enough to accommodate the handle of your rake, shovel, or broom, then screw down the hose on the other end.
Repeat the process until you've created as many loops as you want. Slide your tools into the loops, and you're done!
If earwigs are feasting on your plants, you can use a garden hose to create a simple and effective earwig trap.
Cut a piece of hose about 12″ long and place it in your garden where the earwigs tend to hang out. Earwigs like to hide in cramped, dark places, so they will crawl right into the hose. After a few days, empty the hose section into bucket of soapy water to kill the earwigs.
It can be a pain to sand curved areas of furniture, trim, and crown moulding, but a garden hose can make it easier! Cut a short section of garden hose, and wrap your sandpaper around it so the gritty side is facing out. Grip the hose and it against those tricky curved areas, and you'll be done sanding in no time!
Cut a small section of an old garden hose to use as a door stop. To "install" it, just squish the hose flat with your hands and slide it underneath the door. When you let go, the hose will expand to fill the gap, and the door will stay in place. Easy!
I've used pieces of garden hose to encircle branches or young tree trunks to attach to a sturdy support (fence or stake) until they are no longer needed. Sometimes old pantyhose works too for a season.
I have a cousin who weaves old garden hoses and makes them into sculptures….really! On a more mundane note, I will use this idea for my meat cleaver which doesn't fit the knife rack, and my special pointed dressmaking/embroidery scissors which I've never been able to make any cover that doesn't wear through very quickly. Thanks for these ideas.
Love these ideas! Love your site!
I took an old hose, cut it and used it to 'link' a good hose through a hole in my pump house (I have a well.). So when time to bring it in for the winter, I just unscrew the good hose and put it in the pump house, Next spring, just re-hook it up the the already-there hose. No need to thread it through or anything.
I used an old garden hose and zip ties to make a doormat, from a picture I saw on Pinterest. It held up for about a year until the zip ties gave out.
Ages ago we strung a chunk of hose on a rope to support a newly planted tree. the hose protects the bark of the tree so the rope doesn't hurt it. I hope that made sense.
I was reading a container gardening book this past winter, were they used one as a container. Using zipties they made circle, ziptying the free end to the piece being overlapped, and continuing around and up to the size wanted. If you didn't tighten them too much and/or used a soaker hose you could water by attaching to hose. I though it was good recycle idea, and if you are really good, the hose and zipties form a pattern.
If not put trailing plants in it to hide the pot.
If you have a dehumidifier in the cellar, but no sump pump, you can put the dehumidifier high enough to attach a length of hose to drain into your utility sink. That saved my back in one of our houses.