the only place I use one is a narrow bed along the driveway; it's more convenient to water this way. It is covered by a relatively thin layer of mulch and soil.

It also seems to penetrate quite deep...I usually run it very slowly for about 1 hour

I keep a 100' porous(soaker) hose snaked around the root zone of my banana clump. I let the water just trickle out the open end, then cap it so it soaks out slowly and evenly. Four of the pseudostems are fruiting now. It works for me from 17°F to 118°F!

With the water set to a trickle the "weeping" is keeping frost damage of my banana plant clump to a minimum. The young mango seedling is showing no signs of frost damage so far.

Gen, I used 100m of the stuff about 10 years ago in a trench situation and decided against that action for another time. Just about to buy a 30m roll with included pressure reducer from Pope and will cover this with forest mulch. I think its ability to ooze all along its length is an advantage over dripper pipe in some situations.

BTW: I rescued some of the original hose and am getting some use out of it in small sections. It's somewhat brittle tho' after this time and from sun exposure when tenants had stashed it in a pile. Now this old hose tears easily when forcing in end pieces etc.
Rose

We use a lot of soaker hose but I am still not 100% sure about its success. In my experience if any hose lies on the surface it will either spray jets of water or not weep at all. We rely on dam water for the garden and need to have a very fine filter on the tap that supplies the soaker hose. Needs cleaning every two days...but the last thing you want is to block up those fine pores. I have just planted a small row of miniature box within a few centimetres of a line of soaker hose which we run for a couple of hours every two days in summer. The poor little plants are not looking very happy at all. Wonder if it was too hot to plant, if thebox is too close to the hose, or if I have the wrong cultivar of box. I sure wish it was all as simple as the garden mags make out. Elizabeth

What I call soaker hose and weeping hose are 2 different things. The weeping hose I use is blakc and made from recycled car tyres. I find it good, but if you turn the pressure up it can develop holes. It needs to be kept out of the sun so it doesn't dry and crack. Soaker hose is green plastic with holes along it, and sprays in the air like a sprinkler unless you turn it so the holes face down. It gets clogged up with mosquito larvae and has to have new holes put in it frequently. It also cracks and splits in the sun if it dries out, or is folded up for a length of time. The weeping hose would be best against the soil rather than on top of mulch, and best if it is placed so it feeds water to the roots of plants. You can really only water a narrow area with it, unless you wind it back and forth. I use and am happy with, both types.

Just out of morbid curiosity - if the weeping hose is buried out of sight and yet high pressure can damage it, how do you find out what the "sweet spot" is for the water pressure? Do you turn it on whilst it's above ground the first few times and then figure out that it's, say, two and a half turns of the garden tap?

I tried weeping hose several years ago and was not happy with it. There were spots which did not get watered at all as the hose would not weep, as advertised, along it's whole length. I thought at the time it was my fault and maybe it got filled with dust from the straw mulch I placed on top of it. The problem with the filters I also expirienced - with them filling up too quickly. This year when I put down a watering system I used the dripper hose, this I am very happy with.My 2cw