HAVE YOU HEARD THE GOOD NEWS? *

 * As it's Sunday I thought a little Christian note was required.

The good news is that I bought a garden hose today.

Having got back into gardening in a big way (see previous post) I thought that better hosing is needed. The fittings on the current ones are buggered and, with Summer here or on the way I'll be having to water the vegetable garden a lot and The Old Girl will be watering all of her pot plants on the deck. This will mean there will be garden hoses snaking around everywhere creating hazards and unsightliness.

Retractable hoses are the answer but, I've been burned before when buying things like this. I've learned that the cheapest is rarely if ever the best and that it's best to pay extra for quality and longevity.

I did some 'research' on-line and found that the cheaper 'house brands' from Mitre 10 and Bunnings had very poor reviews from the poor punters who bought them as did the cheap junk from The Warehouse and some on-line deal places like The Market NZ and Trade Tested. The best according to reviews and consumer ratings, for NZ, is Gardena. The products are significantly more expensive than the other brands though. The 30 metre variant is just shy of $400 (available from Bunnings, Mitre 10 and other retailers) and the 20 metre one is just under $300 with the cheapest at Bunnings at $268.

I've decided that I want to buy two of them, one for the deck area at the front of the house and one at the back of the house for the vegetable garden but I don't fancy paying up to $600 for two (I'll buy the 20 metre ones and use short link hoses if I need more distance). I told The Old Girl that I'll look around for a bargain and await sales. With superior brands though there aren't often discount sales of their products (Apple is a good example) so I thought that I'd wait a bit. When I checked my mail I saw that I had a Fly Buys email telling me that there were only a few days left to take advantage of their sale. I don't accumulate many Fly Buys points and when I do never use them but I checked and saw that I had 288 points. I went to the site, logged in and did a search on Gardena retractable hoses and found that by using the 288 points I could get a 20 metre Gardena for $220 with free delivery. "You beauty" I thought and did the transaction.

I'll trial this when it arrives and if it proves to be as reliable and as robust as the reviewers have said I'll hang out for a deal on another one.