VX wrote:
On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 17:45:18 +0100, VX wrote
(in message m):



Any suggestions? Any ideas would be appreciated.



Since posting that I've seen some expensive Hozelock self-winding
options that cost £80 or so. These look like they would largely
solve
my problem but I'd really like to spend a lot less if I can...

I think a problem with self-winding hoses (though I've never used
one, so of course I'm just guessing) might be that you could find
they need a fair old effort to pull out: they must work on a spring
much stronger than those vacuum-cleaner flexes.

I wonder if it might be all right to leave the hose extended all the
time, and just move it about a bit when necessary. A black one, if
you can get it, wouldn't be unsightly in most gardens once it had
lost any shine. (I always think black is the best camouflage colour
among vegetation, and can't begin to understand why nearly
everything's coloured green, which shows up like a sore thumb.)

The other thing that occurs to me is to ask if you really need to
water things at all. Unless a plant is newly-planted, or has some
special requirement, I don't really believe in it. If it's not one of
the special cases, and if you aren't in a very rainless area on very
dry soil, I think it's best to let a plant dig down to find its own
water rather than send out its roots too near the surface.

Also, if you don't always feel as strong as you'd like to, then you
may not be able to manage the hose for as long as you really need to
to get the topsoil so soaked that it equalises its moisture content
with the subsoil -- and that should be the target, in a perfect
world.

Maybe your best bet is to forget about watering, and use mulches to
keep the moisture (and weeds) down. Plenty of ludicrously muscular
gardeners do it that way.

--
Mike.