Enter the lowly garden hose. While humanity’s love affair with emerald-green grass has been documented since before the Elizabethan era, it wasn’t until the garden hose entered the picture that things really started taking off. In the early 1600s, the British epoch of gardening began, with an English lawn being the absolute envy of all European gardeners. Seen as a status symbol among the aristocratic gentry, no fine country house or estate would be considered complete without the vast, sweeping verdigris delights of perfect turf. This extravagance took a lot of work, a lot of time and a lot of water. Fortunately for England, it rains a lot. Hence, if the grass needed watering, no need to fret; Mother Nature would be along shortly. Not so the rest of Europe. Drier climates and hotter temperatures made keeping a green lawn almost impossible, with endless back-breaking trips to the river, the well or the creek.
Although there are records of a type of garden hose dating back to around 400 B.C., this implement was made of hand-sewn ox gut and was hardly of any use, certainly not enough to water the grand and still growing estates of Europe in their day.
In 1672, the first European garden hose make its appearance in Amsterdam. First made of linen, then of leather, this hose was the brain child of Jan Van der Heiden, a young man who initially invented the hose to help put out fires that ravaged his beloved city in 1652.
With the birth of the hosepipe (British term), gardening took a whole new turn. No longer at the mercy of the rain gods, people were going crazy with the size of their gardens: the unique and rare plants they could now cultivate, the ease with which hoses allowed easy and frequent watering. The passion was fueled and cultivated by ever-increasing machinery and cheap materials.
The trend continues. The passion remains fervent and there is no end in sight. Check out our other articles on various types of hoses, hose care, FAQ’s and other helpful ‘hose-must-knows’ on this site.
Research taken from the following sources:
Scott-Jenkins, Virginia. “The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession,” Smithsonian Institution Press. May 1994.
Van Sickler, Michael. “Keeping Up with the Joneses’ Lawn,” St. Petersburg Times, St.
Petersburg, Florida. September 11, 2004.
Borman, F. Herbert., Balmori, Diana. Geballe, Gordon T. “Redesigning the American Lawn,” Yale
University Press. New Haven, Connecticut. 1993.
