Jul 15, 2012

How to Make a Soaker Hose for $0

If your weather has been anything like ours, you just might be watering your garden this summer.  We got tired of using the hose and sprayer so we took one of our old hoses that already had a few leaks and kinked something terrible and we made ourselves a handy dandy soaker hose and it cost us exactly $0 - that's right, nothing.  It was free.  We like that.

Here are step-by-step instructions on how to make a soaker hose:

1.  Select the garden hose you want to use for the project - maybe an old leaky one, a cheap one you picked up at an Estate Sale or just an extra one you have lying around.

2.  Locate a piece of scrap lumber or wooden sawhorses to support your hose.
3.  Using a 1/16" drill bit, drill a hole approximately every 2"-3" - drilling completely through the hose.  Depending on the water source you'll use, you may want to begin drilling the holes at a certain distance from the end that you hook into the water.  This will prevent water from dripping out onto nothing if there is space between your water source and your plants.




4.  Take a moment to shake out the little bits so they won't interrupt your waterflow once you put the hose in use.


5.  If you don't envision connecting your hose to another, cut off the male end of your hose and tie or clamp it with whatever you have available.  If you think you may one day connect it to another hose, just tie or clamp it off.  You can leave the male end intact, if you wish.  




Our hose is hooked up to a rainwater tank so the only pressure on our hose is gravity and baling twine worked well to secure our hose.  If your water source has any kind of pressure behind it, you may want a stronger, more secure method of clamping your end off. 




6.  And there you have it, a DIY soaker hose.  Hook 'er up and put that baby to work!  It may take a few minutes for your hose to fill up entirely and begin soaking from end to end - how quickly that happens will depend, again, on the pressure coming from your water source.




We've been using our hose for a few weeks now and it's so nice to just hook it up and let it go for 20 minutes or so.  Our hose is long enough to go the length of one whole row with just a few feet leftover.  I really like being able to position it on the ground, right up next to the plants.  It's been saving a little time and a little money by being able to use our rainwater tank instead of the spigot on the house.

 



18 comments:

  1. What a great idea, wish I had thought of or seen that before I bought yet another soaker hose the other day...next time :)

    Kendra

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    1. There's always next time. :) Thanks for stopping by!

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  2. Great idea! We have at least 2 hoses with leaks, so this is a good way to use them.

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    1. Thanks! We just hate throwing those old hoses out and it seems like they spring a leak at the littlest thing.

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  3. Very good use for those old leaky hoses! :)

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  4. Oh what a great idea! I am totally going to try this!

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  5. GREAT idea! I love soaker hoses, they save me so much water here, and the plants on soakers do better than the others. Now I have another use for my old split hoses instead of tossing them. Thanks for the tip!

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    1. You're very welcome. Thanks for stopping by!

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  6. Genius! I love great ideas! Would you consider sharing on my fist blog hop?
    http://offthegridat-30.blogspot.ca/2012/07/frugal-i-made-it-tuesday-1.html

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  7. Fab idea -- love the idea of recycling an old hose for this. xo

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  8. What a great way to recycle an old hose!

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  9. Oh, I Love this idea. I have some hoses I Hate because they kink all the Imelda and are so heavy. I can just see giving them a new life as a soaker hose. Thanks.

    Yael from Home Garden Diggers

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  10. THANK YOU!!!! I always save hoses, I just KNEW one day I would know why!

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    1. You're welcome! I'm glad I could help you put those babies to use!

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  11. AnonymousMay 26, 2013

    good job...keep posting mopre ideas ...greetings from romania

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  12. Great and smart idea. I'd like to try thank you so much.

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  13. It great when people reuse things instead of going to the land fill.

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  14. It great when people reuse things instead of going to the land fill.

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