Many landscapers are so busy winterizing their lawns, gardens, shrubs and trees that they quite forget about a piece of equipment that has served them well on all those areas of the landscape during the spring, summer and fall -- the garden hose. Our garden hoses lie around on their garden hose reels for so many months consecutively that they become a landscaping fixture that we take for granted. But northern gardeners pay a great price for this oversight when winter arrives, bringing temps in the teens. Bring garden hoses in for storage prior to winter! Also bring their reels in for storage, especially if the reels have any metal components. And more important than a garden hose being ruptured through freezing is what the garden hose is connected to -- your water pipes. Ruptured pipes are costly and inconvenient to replace. So remember:
- Drain your garden hoses, and bring them in for storage and...
- Turn off the outside water supply.
If you do your watering with a lawn irrigation system rather than with a garden hose, you can still use it in early autumn, but it should be retired by late autumn, to avoid damage. Blow it out with compressed air to keep it safe for the winter.
