These are the Best Hand-Held Watering Tools

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Watering your garden well is crucial to healthy plant growth. And one watering tool that’s essential is a hose-end sprayer. When you have the right one it’s good to use for just about everything you need for your garden and more. From gently watering freshly planted seeds to spot watering plants, watering container plants, deep soaking trees, shrubs, and vines (I’ll show you how below), and even washing cars.

I’ve gone through many different hose-end sprayers through the years and I have settled on the one that does all the jobs I need it do wonderfully and lasts so I don’t need to keep buying another one.

That hose-end sprayer is a Dramm One-Touch Revolution Spray Gun*. I always choose the one that does not have the squeeze handle, but rather the one that has a one-touch valve operation. This one-touch operation is easy to turn on and off. So once on you don’t have to keep squeezing to hold it on. Plus, it allows easy flow volume control.

This Dramm hose-end sprayer has nine different spray patterns; shower (my most often-used), rain (a little gentler flow), center (to pinpoint the water), fan, flat, angle, soaker, and jet (good for some cleaning tasks), and mist (I use this for newly sown seeds in my seed trays).

Two extras I strongly recommend to go with your hose-end sprayer

A hose screen

A screen insert to go inside. I have gardened in a few places where ants got into the hose (somehow!). So when I turned the hose on, ants went all the way through to my Dramm hose end sprayer… and blocked it. So it was a chore to get the ant bodies out of the sprayer. When those little holes get clogged you need to clear them out and that can be a laborious chore!

The screen insert will prevent a lot of stuff, like bugs or sediment, from clogging up your watering device. But there may eventually be tinier bits of sediment that will start blocking your sprayer. Especially if you’re on a well.

A little maintenance

When you see  some of the holes blocked or if you’re seeing a change in the pattern of the spray or some sprays going in different directions, look at the holes. They’re probably blocked with sediment or calcium deposits. When that happens you’ll need to remove the unscrew the pray piece and us a common pin to poke the calcium/sediment to the inside of the nozzle and wash it in and drain it all out with another sprayer.

And if it’s dripping from the spray selector, tighten up the screw on the face of the sprayer.

A swivel hose-end shut-off valve

The other thing is a swivel hose-end shut-off valve. This gives your sprayer an enormous amount of functionality. It makes it so if your hose is a little twisted, the swivel can alleviate the turning tension you will feel and make it easier on your wrist.

But the cool thing you can do is to use it to set up a longer watering session  and leave it there while you do something else.

Here’s how I have done this. On a new piece of property, off the grid, I started a big garden. We used a generator to pump water up into a tank uphill from the garden.

I only had gravity flow to use for watering. Enough for a hose and sprayer, but not enough to make a good oscillating sprinkler work.

So I attached a swivel shut-off valve between the hose and the sprayer and I was able to lay my sprayer on the ground and turn it so the water would go exactly where I wanted  it to go. It worked. I grew flowers for a local market and for farmers markets and wreath-making. Plus I grew our vegetables, herbs, and fruits.

To this day I still use that method for many of my watering needs.

So when you have that swivel, you gain a lot of functionality!

Combine the swivel with the very best hose-end sprayer on the market and you’ll be doing all your hand watering and other outdoor washing tasks well and with ease and comfort.

The sprayers come in six pretty colors. I like to get the brightest ones so I can find them in my garden easily.

You can get the Dramm here* or look for it in your local nursery/garden center.

And if you prefer a water wand, the Dramm RainSelect Rain Wand*, in a choice of three lengths, 16”, 30”, and a telescoping one. These are the same quality with drip-free ease of use.

Other great tools for flower growing

Some great cutting flowers to grow