What a TERRIFIC idea...clay hose pots. I found one that is even more beautiful than the simple terracotta pot. It is hand rubbed copper plated steel one. So I'm stoked! Thank you Lehau13 -- for the excellent suggestions!

julieyankfan...no kidding about that flat hose...I bought one late last summer. The original idea was on target. It was great, too, in the beginning. I didn't need that green plastic thing to rewind it, because I was watering too often and it was only 25'. So, this Spring, I get it out and start watering again. A couple weeks later, it starts to spray a thin spray from the cloth covering. I think, well, maybe it's cuz I didn't winter it over. I take it to the hardware store and the guy says, "gee, I never see these come back, unless the plastic rewinder gets broken. I feel guilty for taking it back, for the little hole, in the cloth. I pay $10 extra dollars and get a 50' one instead, cuz they're on sale. Go home, water one day. Water next day. Third day, I feel a fine mist on me. Hmmmmm, this time I'm suspicious, so I take it back, with no guilt. Different salesman, different response. He says, as he laughs, "These have been the most worthless hoses that the manufacturers put out...good concept, though". I exchanged it for a regular Ace Hardware generic 60' hose and got money back, in the process. So, I bought a big and beautiful full pink rose, named 'Simplicity' with the extra refund. I'll stay with the ol' 'tried and true' type of hose, for my money, thanks anyway. Becky .(*_*).

For a couple of years I had a garden spot away from my house, with no water supply available so if I wanted to supplement rainfall I had to haul gallon jugs of water. To make my watering efficient, when I planted my peppers & tomatoes in the spring, I dug down and buried empty gallon plastic jugs, one between each plant. I had poked 4-5 holes in the bottom of each, of course, and left the caps on until later in the summer. Once the weather warmed, and after a good soaking rain, I mulched the beds 4-6" deep with chopped leaves, being sure to cover the tops of the (so far empty and still capped) bottles to protect them from the sun since I had found that the plastic degrades and becomes brittle when exposed to the sun. (In previous years, just cultivating around the bottles inevitably resulted in my breaking the tops off by midsummer.) When the weather reached a point where I actually needed to water, I cleared the mulch away for the moment and poured a gallon of water into each buried bottle. I set the cap loosely back atop each bottle to keep the leaf debris from falling in and clogging the exit holes in the bottom, then pulled the mulch back up to protect the plastic. I did not care about how long it took for the bottle to empty-- it seemed like a gallon or two a week per plant was sufficient, and the best part is that by burying the bottles the water went right down to the root zone where it was most effective. As for using wall-o-waters, since I had gotten some free from a friend, I tried them last year with 3 really early tomato plants I started specifically to experiment with. While they survived a good bit of frosty weather, in the end the plants I had started weeks later and planted out a month after the first ones when the weather had warmed quickly caught up to the wall-o-water ones and all the tomatoes pretty much bloomed & set fruit at the same time & rate. So my conclusion is that it was satisfying to my eager gardener's soul to be out planting early, but it really made no difference in overall plant performance. I have found the same to be true with early plantings of such things as peas and salad crops, too. Early plantings may survive, but later plantings quickly catch up and may even surpass earlier ones that have been stressed by the weather.

hosenemesis- your name cracks me up! I had to check your profile (to see whether you created it today) and am in AWE of your garden. Find that PVC! You must spend so much time watering those beautiful beds/area. BTW - which hose holder(s) do you have, that you dislike so much? fun2behere -- I don't think we'd have the patience to curl the hose up in a planter pot; plus, need a lot to reach far ends of front lawn. oakleyok - that's what we had too, on a covered patio, but we bumped out the front of our house 5' last summer and no longer have the overhang (or the spigot). DH installed one this past week, dangerously close to my budding hydrangeas. lynninnewmexico - the deer would move in ours, if they could! Let us know how yours works. natal - that is really pretty, definitely one to research. katyb - Now you will have to post a picture so we can see :) rafor - hmmm. Jury's out on that one. Having to tug, twist and snap might be a little too much. (Say, is that at all like the bend and snap? I'm just picturing the neighbors watching :) ... Lazydaisynot- that's what I am concerned about (this will be in the front of the house).