Garden hose mistakes – yard experts reveal 6 'severe' errors that can ruin your hose, fry your lawn, and even change the color of your plants

There are few pieces of garden equipment as essential as a hose. Your lawn and plants need a lot of water to look their best, and a hose is the most efficient way to provide it.

It's a simple tool, too, and most people think there's nothing complicated about watering plants - you just turn on the spigot and drizzle water over your yard.

However, gardening experts have revealed some common garden hose mistakes that could be destroying your hose, drying out your lawn, and even changing the color of your plants. Here's how to avoid them and maintain this most essential garden tool.

1. Leaving a hose out in the yard

One of the most common hose mistakes is to leave it out in the yard once you've finished watering. It can be a real pain to reel in yards and yards of hose, especially in larger plots. However, this can damage both the hose and your lawn.

Garden expert Ryan Farley says: 'I think it’s a mistake to leave a hose out in the yard, and I would always recommend reeling it back in to a secure spot when you’re done using it. Hoses can be damaged and worn down faster when direct sun is beating down on them, so it’s always best to have them in a shaded area when they’re not in use.'

Yard hoses can also damage your lawn. Lawn expert Steve Corcoran says: 'You want to avoid leaving your hose out in the yard. When it is draped along your grass, the grass that it touches can get damaged. It not only blocks sunlight, but it can also get really hot and burn the grass, leading to discoloration on the turf.'

Thankfully, this is an easy fix. Steve says: 'You should use some kind of reel or pot to store your hose when you aren’t using it. There are lots of different options out there, and the best one often just comes down to personal preference.'

Ryan Farley

Ryan Farley is the CEO of LawnStarter, a lawn care service founded in 2013 and based in Austin, Texas. 

Steve Corcoran

Steve is a lawn expert and CEO of Lawn Love, a lawncare company.

2. Hanging a hose on a nail

Another common mistake is to hang your hose up on a nail or screw. This is clever, cheap garden hose storage - you can just bang a nail into a fence or a shed and hang up your hose without paying for a hose reel or hook.

However, a nail can cause a lot of damage to your hose. A nail focuses all the weight of the hose into a tiny point, and all this pressure can cause significant damage.

Ryan Farley says: 'I recommend against hanging a hose on a nail, just because it’s not providing an even enough surface for the hose to rest on. I’ve seen nails result in pretty severe hose kinks since the material will weaken and bend in that one spot it’s hanging from.'

Instead, use a cheap, rounded hose hanger like this one from Walmart. It's more expensive than a nail, but it will prevent kinks and damage to your hose and keep it in working condition for decades.

3. Using the wrong fitting on the faucet

Poor faucet maintenance is another hose mistake that causes leaks and water waste at the faucet. Thankfully, it's easy to stop a hose from leaking at the faucet. In most cases, replacing the washers in your faucet will solve the problem.

You also need to be careful about over-tightening the connectors at the faucet. It seems counterintuitive, but over-tightening can strip the threads in the connectors, so they loosen over time and start to leak.

4. Using rough hose settings on delicate plants

It's tempting to use a high-flow watering setting in the yard, especially if you're in a rush. Plants need water, so the obvious logic is to give them as much as possible as fast as possible.

However, strong watering settings can damage delicate plants. 'Jet' or 'cone' settings on a hose gun can easily knock petals off hydrangeas and begonias, for example. It can also lead to over-watering, drowning them and causing root rot and brown, mushy leaves.

Instead, most plants prefer gentle watering from a mist or sprinkle setting at soil level. This prevents water damage on the leaves while ensuring a steady, even supply of water at their roots.

5. Using a hose without a filter

A rare mistake is neglecting to use a filter on your hose. Not every gardener needs to do this, but there are a few places around the country where this can be a significant issue.

If the water you get from the city is especially hard, you could be damaging your plants. This water has high levels of magnesium and calcium. These minerals can interfere with soil pH, which hinders your plant's ability to take up nutrients and in turn, impacts its growth and health

In some cases, hard water's effect on pH can even change the color of your plants. If your azaleas are looking washed out, they're probably affected by hard water, and if the blue hydrangeas you bought are looking pink, the soil might be made too alkaline by hard water.

You can solve this problem with a hose filter like this from Amazon, which will reduce the amount of calcium and magnesium in your water.

6. Forgetting to winterize your hose

This is only a problem in the late fall, but forgetting to winterize your yard hose can cause significant issues. If you don't, your hose could freeze, and the expanding water can crack the inner lining and create leaks when you come to use the hose the following spring.

Thankfully, this is another easy fix. You need to disconnect the hose from the faucet, open the hose nozzle to drain it, and then store the hose somewhere warm and dry. This will protect the hose from cracking and leaking.

If you've made any of these mistakes and are left with an old leaky garden hose, don't just throw it away. There are plenty of ways to reuse an old garden hose as grips for tools and buckets or as a soaker hose for irrigation.