Strawberries and Mending Water Hoses

by Hibiscus House

I've been busy mending the water hoses today and trying to find out why the left side of my strawberry patch is so much smaller than the right. Join me won't you.

strawberries and mending water hoses, gardening, plumbing

I used to watch my mama mend water hoses and wonder why is she doing this when she could just go buy another. I now know why because that can get expensive.

We had a little puppy here that loved chewing up my water hoses. It was like the best treat in the world when he was out running around to chew them into and then chew up the gardening nozzles.

Today I saw that one very expensive long hose was leaking at the connection to another. I thought maybe a little washer might stop the leak, but no such luck. I replaced with a female repair kit.

All it took was (yeah) cutting that end off that was leaking with my pruning shears and putting the mending part on with a phillips head screwdriver. Truthfully I think I found that part at the dollar store but have others stored in a bag in a drawer that were purchased from Lowes.

It is good to have these things on hand for emergencies so you don't have to stop what you're doing to clean up and go to town.

The other day I noticed the strawberries I had recently put in were not responding in the same way. Granted the left and right sides have different varieties but something is wrong. I have a small path in the middle of the patch so that I can get in there and pick.

I found the problem, the soaker hose had a massive leak and the right side of the patch was reaping the benefits. Left side was dryer. I chose to replace that soaker hose. It was pretty fragile. Does anyone know if you can repair those flimsy things?

These little beauties are getting some water now! I hope they survive out here. If not I may plant in a raised bed on legs to prevent the voles, moles, rabbits and groundhogs from eating them up. The covering I will add will hopefully prevent damage from the deer and birds we have out here. Otherwise I have no idea as to what else to do out here in animal kingdom!