On my balcony is an assortment of potted plants ranging from herbs to vegetables. I make watering these plants part of my daily routine. The hardest and most time-consuming part of this routine is getting the hose up to the balcony. I would try throwing the hose up to the railing, which would often miss its target and come crashing back down to the pavement. Other times I would try standing on a patio chair and hook the hose on the railing while being careful not to fall. After getting the hose in place, I would go upstairs and water the plants as usual knowing full well I still have to get the hose to the other balcony to water the plants there. I would try swinging the hose across the way to the other railing only to have it fall back down to the pavement instead. Surely there must be an easier, faster way to do this
After some brainstorming, I arrived at a simple solution that saves me time and my sanity. All you need is a tennis ball and some string, such as twine for tying up a chicken before placing it on the rotisserie. The tools you’ll need are a drill with a 1/2 inch bit, a screwdriver and some strong tape like Gorilla Tape.
I started by cutting off a long stretch of string, around 20 to 30 feet, and tied one end to the hose. So far, so good.
Then I took my drill and drilled a hole through the tennis ball.
Next I stuck the screwdriver through the hole and taped the string to the end of the screwdriver as shown. In my case I didn’t have a 1/2″ drill bit, so I used the 3/8″ bit I had. The resulting hole was smaller and a tighter squeeze for the string, so some strong tape works, such as Gorilla Tape.
To feed the string through the ball I just pulled the screwdriver out. Voilà.
All that’s left to do is tie a knot around the ball.
And it’s done.
Now when I water my plants, I bring out the hose and throw the tennis ball at the railing of the balcony. After going upstairs, I simply pull on the string to bring the hose up to the balcony to water the plants as usual.
When I’m ready to water the plants on the other balcony, I lower the hose to the pavement and throw the tennis ball at the other railing and repeat the watering process. When I’m done, I lower the hose to the pavement one last time and then go downstairs to turn off the water and put the hose away. Simple, but it saves me so much time and spares the nozzle from those damaging landings on the pavement.
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