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 With a high-quality commercial garden hose, any project suddenly feels within reach. The devoted gardener will find no shortage of lightweight and heavy duty flexible water hoses over at Apex Hose. If this incredible equipment is making gardening feel too easy, try growing some of these famously challenging plants. If you are using a sprinkler system, remember that optimal watering generally takes 60 to 90 minutes. However, for these temperamental varieties, we recommend doing the work by hand, with a commercial garden hose.

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Growing your own fruits and vegetables or nurturing your favorite flowers from seed to bloom gives great satisfaction. Cooking for your family using your own home-grown produce in your recipes gives great pride. The proof is in the numbers. In recent years, research found that there are approximately 113.5 gardeners in the United States. Many a child has fond memories of their parent or grandparent harvesting the fruits of their labor and making something delicious with them. Cutting your own fresh stems from your garden to place in a vase and use as a beautiful table centerpiece for a holiday makes the event even more special. Growing bountiful produce and colorful flora requires the right equipment, particularly an effective water supply. But beware, not all garden hoses are created equally.

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Winter means time spent away from your garden, but it won't be long before spring arrives. Soon you'll be growing and nurturing your plants as they come back to life in the warmer weather.

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Your love for gardening is pure; not only do you have a green thumb, but you also have the tools of the trade to show you care about quality in your craft. Getting your kids interested in gardening, however, might prove more difficult than you think.

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Whether you're using up the last of your vacation time or traveling for the holidays, countless people are taking to the roads for the ultimate road trip. Before you leave, don't forget to pack these essential items for your trip.

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Preparing your home for the cold winter months to come is never easy, but it's even more difficult for the budding gardener. As seasonal vegetables begin to wilt, here are some essential tips and tricks for preparing your garden for the winter months to come.

 

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For amateur gardeners and professionals alike, choosing the right hose can be a challenge. You want the best hose at the cheapest price, but you don't know how to choose. 

If you're stuck between picking your garden hoses, here are some factors to consider before making the final purchase. 

Material

You know about the classic rubber hose, but vinyl hoses are actually way more popular. Unfortunately, the low price is there for a reason; vinyl hoses are lightweight and affordable but the least sturdy material. This means you'll struggle with more kinks and cracks in the line and it will degrade even faster than normal. If you're looking for a hose for a small project, a vinyl hose might work. But investing in a rubber hose will give you the necessary longevity and strength without constant kinking. Rubber hoses are great for the common gardener or the industrial worker. A rubber heavy duty hose offers all-weather durability and packs a punch that costs a little more and lasts a lot longer. 

Pressure

Hoses with a lot of strength are easy to spot if you look at their burst pressure. This value expresses the water pressure at which your hose will break or rupture. If you want a stronger hose, look for a heavy duty hose with a PSI of 350 or higher. 

Width

You might be mixing up the pressure with water flow. A hose with a poor PSI will have poor water flow, but it doesn't mean that you can't get a lot of water with a larger width. The width measures water flow for your heavy duty hose, ensuring you get the proper amount of water delivered to your garden. The diameter typically rests around five-eighths of an inch. Your typical garden and utility hose maker will have a width between a half-inch and three-quarters of an inch, however. It's a happy medium between cost, length, and pressure. 

Length

Everyone thinks that longer hoses are the best. After all, you're able to traverse the entire lawn. Unfortunately, this couldn't be further from the truth. 

Garden hoses range from 25 feet, 50 feet, 75 feet, and 100-foot options. If you want a long hose, 100 feet should be your final length. Anything longer might result in residual water in the hose and take up necessary storage space. 25-foot hoses are usually able to get easy tasks done. 

Before you choose a hose, be sure to consider these essential factors. Your green thumb won't thrive without a good heavy duty water hose.  Read More

If you're looking to buy a hose, odds are, you might end up buying the wrong one. Whether you're a home gardener or a take care of lawns for a living, these are the special instances when you might want a heavy duty hose.

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If you're new to gardening, it's best to start small and work your way up to more complicated vegetables. Here are some easy-to-grow vegetables for the fledgling home gardener.

Pole beans

Once you plant your pole beans in warm, spring soil, all you need to do is install a sturdy trellis for the vines to wrap around. Water occasionally with a flexible garden hose to deliver safe water to your plant. Harvesting is a breeze once they fully mature since the beans will be upright, no digging required. An added bonus is that pole beans are one of the beans that produce for the longest, so you'll be able to convince your friends that you're just as adept as Jack and his beanstalk. 

Cucumbers

Even though cucumbers grow to be pretty large, they thrive in compact habitats when they're grown vertically. They're easy to grow with the occasional watering from your garden hose, but they need to grow for a long time. It's recommended you plant them in early spring and harvest them your last frost. Your handy trellis is recommended for cucumbers too. If you opt to grow bush cucumbers in a container, be sure to water more frequently with your soaker hose since containers dry out soil more quickly. 

Lettuce

This fast-growing green plant is easy to grow and gives you almost instant gratification. You can harvest leaves in as little as a month while you can collect the whole plant between 60 and 80 days. 

Like bush cucumbers, you can opt to grow lettuce in containers as well. Be sure to keep the soil moist with your flexible garden hose. You might want to get a sprinkler system for larger lettuce gardens -- the plant has a shallow root system, meaning it dries out more quickly than other plants in your garden. For continuous harvest throughout the summer, plant lettuce seeds once every couple weeks. Just don't forget to mark the areas with what time you initially sowed the seeds!

If you want to become one of the 113 million people who garden within the United States, consider planting these three crops to get you started. They're easy to tend with a flexible water hose and don't need heavy duty equipment to get great results. Read More