Four Clever Ways to Reuse an Old Garden Hose

As you're preparing your yard for spring, you may have no reservations about throwing out the stiff, cracked old hose that sat out all winter--but instead of tossing it, consider repurposing it for use elsewhere in your yard. Here are four practical ways to do just that.

Stabilize young plants

If your springtime sprucing-up involves planting a few trees that will (hopefully) turn into big ones, use pieces of an old garden hose to anchor them to their stakes. Wilson Bros Gardens recommends using old hose bits in place of store-bought tubing for this job. Cut a slit down the side of a section of hose and wrap it around the trunk of the tree and its stake so the two stay together while the tree grows big enough to support itself unassisted. The hose's flexibility will allow the tree to grow without stifling its movement.

Create chain covers

Whether you use chains for outdoor work or to hold up the swings on your kids' jungle gym, a slit-open old hose length is great for making the chain both grippy and less dangerous to fingers. Reader's Digest recommends threading the chain through one of the open ends of the hose if possible, but if that won't work, just cut a slit in the hose so you can wrap it around the metal, then secure with a few zip ties.

Protect blades of all kinds

Before you put ice skates in storage for the summer, use a cut-open hose length to make a great, inexpensive blade protector. You can also keep saw blades sharp and protected this way, too. In fact, any tools or blades that need to keep a sharp edge can be protected in this way, whether for storage or transport.

Make a new kind of hose

One hole in a hose doesn't have to render the whole thing useless. One Good Thing by Jillee recommends poking a few more holes in it to turn make a soaker hose you can lay in your garden to provide a makeshift watering system. Use a small drill bit to make holes along the length of the rubber, then screw a hose cap onto the end. Lay it at the base of your plants and run it every few days for about 30 minutes for a deep watering.

You can also use a hole-filled length of hose as an in-pot watering system by inserting it into the dirt in a potted plant. Pour water into the exposed end to gently water the plant all the way down to its roots.