In article , johngood_____
wrote:

Our very small front garden was created by dumping about18 inches of soil
over the paving stones. (it was all too solid and cemented in to dig up).
Consequently we have to water very frequently.

We have decide to buy a hose reel. The other day we saw some in B&Q.
The store make was £20 and the hozelock one was £25. We already have a
Gardena one in the back garden, but as its freestanding, it keeps tipping
over when you pull with any viguour, which is annoying.

What one would people here recommend to buy, the b&q, the hozelock or
perhaps some other make? Thanks for any advice.

I would recommend Hozelock any day - they have the biggest range of
reels/carts and more bang for the buck, which is why they dominate the
market ... plus I like to buy British where possible and afaict all the
superstore own label products are shipped in from the Far East so
support and spares can be sketchy at best.

But if you use a hose frequently in a small garden, you should look at
a wall-mounted reel like the Hozelock Auto Reel or Mini Auto Reel both
of which will rewind the hose automatically for you and will save you
so much grief that the extra few quid you pay will seem like the best
investment you ever made. I also have two freestanding reels which
don't fall over when you pull the hose out - a Fast Cart and a Compact
Cart - but these are bigger than you probably need.

If your garden is small and thirsty, have you considered a
semi-permanent automatic irrigation system? You could save much time
and energy by laying out a drip irrigation system with a tap timer to
turn the water on and off automatically. You might also look at
Hozelock's clever AquaPod system which enables a dripper system to be
set up, moved around and extended in just a couple of minutes.

Or, if you just want to make your existing reel more stable, look for a
hose guide which you can feed the hose through to keep it
smooth-running when going around corners. You can get the wall-mounted
type or one with a ground spike and they will help to relieve the
direct strain on the reel.