A Garden Hose for Arthritis Sufferers

This summer has been, well, A SUMMER if you know what I mean. Living in pain with spinal osteoarthritis has been challenging and relearning how to live my life with lower pain levels has been drama. Happily I have changed my diet, now exercise daily, and am learning to adapt to a different style of gardening. “What’s that got to do with a garden hose?”  Everything, my friends, everything.

You see, kinky hoses have been a factor in my daily life for the last ten years. While “kinky hoses” sounds like a rock band or something incredibly naughty, the truth of the matter is that hoses which kink HURT ME PHYSICALLY.  This limited me in a few ways: 1) I could not water a garden bed without stopping and starting several times to unkink the garden hose in several locations so it took twice as long to water, and 2) Pulling, bending, twisting, and unintentionally hurting myself while gardening is a daily act if you have hoses that kink or knot up and down the length of the garden hose.

A No Kink Hose

This season I was invited to the P. Allen Smith Annual Garden2Blog 2015 event at Allen’s Moss Mountain Farm in Arkansas – a fabulous event where I learned a lot about gardening products (see Allen with me above). While I was there I was introduced to the Flexzilla Hose team (right). I was standing in the back half-heartedly listening because I thought I really knew hoses. They all kinked. They all hurt me. End of story. Then the team started using words like, “lightweight”, “no kink under pressure”, “leak-free connections”, “attractive colors”, and “drinking water safe”. This got me thinking that I could use their hoses for organic gardening because traditional hoses have chemicals associated with their use. It would also reduce my watering time because I would not have to stop and de-kink the kinks.

I called the team when I returned home and asked if I could review several of their P. Allen Smith WaterColors Collection Garden Hoses by Flexzilla® in “Crazy for Coco”. Initially my thought was to bury the hoses so that I could have chemical free water transported all over my garden underground for my organic bed. Crazy for Coco is a nice color because it’s a light brownish tone that hides itself when it’s in the garden – a definite positive – and burying the hoses seemed unnecessary.

Then on July 16, 2015 I was diagnosed with a rather severe case of degenerative osteoarthritis of the spine. It held up everything in my life this summer and I stared at the hoses for a while, afraid to try them, because I knew they would hurt me. Then one day I lost my mind in anger over the old kinky hoses, pulled out the new one’s to test and I have been positively addicted to the Flexzilla hose ever since.

Photo Credit Flexzilla and P. Allen Smith.

Truth is in the Testing

When Flexzilla says the hoses don’t kink, they mean that the hoses don’t kink. Part of that is because of their unique “swivelgrip” feature. I TRIED to kink them and bend them in odd shapes and the garden hose would consistently pop out of the kink attempt and go straight again. Because they are drinking water safe, they are also safe to water organic garden beds. Connecting 3 hoses together meant I could go FAR away from the water spigot with no loss of water pressure and water quickly and efficiently with no hose kinking. To test the theory, I connected 300 feet of hose and watered my farthest reaching garden area and the hoses worked like a champ. Then I laid the hoses out and ran over the connecting units and hoses with my car. I purposely tied the hoses in knots to see if it would cut the water off and the water still powered through. I tried to cut the hoses with the tip of my shovel. No damage whatsoever. Best yet, the hoses did not hurt me – they are light weight and easy to lift, do not kink, attach to my favorite watering wands with no trouble (see below), and are great for my garden needs.

Want a no-kink garden hose that helps prevent arthritis pain and physically makes it easier and less time consuming to water your garden? I highly recommend the P. Allen Smith WaterColors Collection Garden Hoses by Flexzilla® – this is definitely one of the most favorite products I have reviewed in my test garden because of it’s great ability to help me while looking attractive in the garden. Want to impress the gardener in your life? Buy it as a gift for the upcoming holiday season or just get it for no reason at all instead of chocolates to say “I love you!”.