Garden Carts Rock!

Last fall, I whined about my wheelbarrow. It is too unstable to maneuver with a full load and the darn nuts and bolts keep coming loose. At my readers’ suggestion, I tightened all the hardware down and applied Loctite. I used the red formula, which supposedly seals the hardware together for all eternity. It lasted through the fall and early spring before I noticed that I was, once again, missing nuts and bolts. Still, I limped along with the crippled wheelbarrow. While I couldn’t use it to carry loads, I still used the barrow as a large mixing bowl for amending my soil. It squeaked and shook as I broke apart clay chunks, but didn’t collapse altogether. I figured that I could make it work until my birthday (November) when hoped for a garden cart from Mike.

My birthday came early when Mike helped me with the planting this weekend. After I told him that he’d have to carry the stripped sod to the compost pile by the bucket-full (because the wheelbarrow just wouldn’t make it), he cried “bullshit” and took me to Home Depot to get a garden cart.

Our new Rubbermaid garden cart is a single piece of molded plastic – no separate components to fall apart! It has two wheels, instead of a wheelbarrow’s single, so it is unlikely to tip over. Growing up on a hobby farm, Mike had a similar cart, in which he claims to have transported endless loads of pig poop. Although he’s never seen anyone hoe like me (I now use the cart as my chopping and mixing bowl), he is pretty sure that the thick plastic will hold up against even my abuse. The cart’s best feature is that it holds 300 lbs. Now Mike can give me and the cats and a load of dirt a ride around the yard.