Welcome to Ask Wirecutter, where deputy editor Annemarie Conte helps you figure out how to make the most of your stuff in real life. If you have a shopping conundrum for our advice columnist, submit it using this form or via Annemarie's Instagram, where she posts question prompts for you.Dear Wirecutter,I feel like I have to buy a new garden hose every year. What hose should I be buying? I’m a sucker for the soft ones, since they are so much easier to wrap on to the hose stand. What should I be doing next winter so they last? We rely on a small network of splitters and connectors to have water both in front and out back off a single faucet in the front. Some combination of pieces end up needing to be replaced every spring.SFDear SF,Wirecutter has had a guide to garden hoses since 2013. That’s over a decade of deep garden-hose knowledge that we can pass along to you. So you came to the right place!If there’s one thing to take away from this article, it’s that you need to stop buying flimsy garden hoses, if you want them to last. “A $30 garden hose isn’t worth the frustration,” said senior staff writer Doug Mahoney, who has been testing hoses and updating the guide since 2018. “We’ve had the longest-lasting results with the rubber hoses we’ve tested. The cheaper vinyl ones weigh less, but they’re also prone to kinking, and they often develop leaks around the hardware. They can even start to crack and leak from the sides of the hose itself.”Doug has a similar setup to yours, so he’s familiar with a lot of the issues that come with it. Hopefully this advice will keep your water flowing all summer long.