Railroad spikes to corral wayward garden hose

For years I've been struggling with the garden hose as I hand-water plants in the front yard. Even though I have rocks placed in strategic corners that are supposed to keep the hose from strangling and mangling plants, it doesn't always work, especially if the rock surface is a bit slick.

Last week I happened to be on Etsy and through sheer chance I came across a listing for old railroad spikes. BINGO! This could be the solution for my hose troubles.

I ordered 10, and they arrived in a small Flat Rate Priority Mail box. Considering how heavy the box was, that's a great way to squeeze value out of flat rate shipping!

I was under the impression that I'd get “[r]usty 100 plus year old Railroad Spikes found in Mohave Desert [in] Southern California.” These look quite new to me, with just a breath of rust on some of them. But for my purpose it doesn't matter. It's not like I was going to add them to my collection of railroad memorabilia.

Driving the stakes into the ground was laughably easy because the soil is so loose. As a result, they are more wobbly than I'd like them to be, but after a few trial tugs, that doesn't seem to be a problem. We'll see what my experience will be over time.

This turned out to be a quick and easy solution—essential requirements in my world (especially “easy”).

There are all kinds of “real” hose guides out there. The authors of this wiki on the “10 Best Hose Guides” say they spent “20 hours on research, videography, and editing, to review the top selections.” I'm sure their picks are far superior to my cheapskate solution but they also cost a lot more. Their top choice, the Yard Butler HG-18, is $12.20 on Amazon—for a quantity of one! That's far too rich for my blood. I'd rather take the money and buy plants.

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