Introduction: Simple Wheeled Gardening Cart

About: I'm a gal who's always on the lookout for what other folks call garbage that I can make into something useful. I'm a thrift store/yard and garage sale/Goodwill "Bin/Outlet" store junkie. My craft room overfl…
Here's a very simple one, folks.  (***Quick Edit***:  I've entered this cart in both the Wheeled contest and the Gardening contest.  Please vote for me if you feel that I've come up with a good enough idea.  Thanks all, and have a wonderful day!)

The image is pretty self explanatory but I'll explain some of the stuff.

I was sitting on my back patio planting up my seed trays and such with my tools scattered around me.  It was driving me NUTS!  I'm no neat-nik but having all of my gardening stuff together makes it much easier for me since I'm somewhat disabled so standing and bending isn't something I can easily do.  Plus, at the time I put it together, it was the day after the carpal tunnel release surgery on my right wrist.  Lifting stuff sucked, let alone stirring rabbit poop into my soil.  

The old wire grocery cart was one we picked up years ago and it wasn't terribly well built so we didn't use it long and it floated around our garage for years.  I'd been cleaning my garage and the cart was in use as a garbage bag support for everything I couldn't recycle or donate to charity.  Sitting on my porch, covered to the elbows with soil and dust, cut off jeans smeared with mud and rabbit poo, I had a light bulb moment regarding that cart.

Gather up your tools, bagged soils, composts and such, seeds and you're good to go!  Just drag it around the yard with ya!

This is how I made my cart user friendly:
  • Zip Ties - Make loops through the handles of small tools.
  • Carabiners - Can be clipped on anywhere to hold just about anything; tools, garbage bags, buckets, etc.
  • Plastic shopping bag - We use totes almost exclusively for groceries so I've been coming up with ways to reuse the plastic bags we've built up over time.
  • Shoe box sized bin - Used to hold toys on a wooden rack for my kidlings who have all moved out and out grown such things.  It's now holding random small stuff.
  • Large handful of "craft sticks" (popsicle sticks):  If you have kids who suck popsicle down like little fiends have them toss them in a bowl or something in your kitchen for you to rinse (no soap!).  They make great plant markers.
  • Black Sharpie Pen - to write the name of the plant on the popsicle sticks.
  • Bottle and box of Miracle Grow - Self explanatory.
  • Hard plastic, zippered pencil case - Holds seed packets, both opened and un-opened.  Case is water resistant which helps.
  • Empty dishwasher soap bucket - Rinse out all soap residue before using with your gardening!  I use this bucket to mix gardening soil, compost, and rabbit poop.  (See rabbit in picture.  He's litter box trained and his box is lined with newspaper, shredded paper with no plastic from envelopes, then topped with timothy hay.  I take out the poop and put the rest in the compost pile to break down.)

Step 1: It's Dirt!

The main joy of this basket is that it holds all of the partly empty bags of various soils and composts.  It won't hold brand new huge bags, but at the moment I don't need it for that.

Step 2: Random Small Stuff Holder

As the picture shows, this bin is a great place for all of the little stuff that is easy to lose.  Keep it all in one spot and it's always handy!

Step 3: Seeds, Glorious Seeds!

I fold the open seed packets closed and store them with the unopened packets.  This particular container is water resistant and very sturdy.

Step 4:

Here's a front close-up view:
  • Zip Ties - Make loops through the handles of small tools.
  • Carabiners - Can be clipped on anywhere to hold just about anything; tools, garbage bags, buckets, etc.
  • Plastic shopping bag - We use totes almost exclusively for groceries so I've been coming up with ways to reuse the plastic bags we've built up over time.

Step 5: Protection Is Key

An old grill cover that fit a 19"x19" charcoal grill fits the cart just fine which is a bonus since Mother Nature is off of her meds here in Oregon. :-þ~~

These carts can be found in yard and estate sales, not to mention thrift stores.  They can be easily repaired if the wires of the basket are off kilter or tweaked out of true.  If you can't find one used, you can find them for $20 or less, brand new if you do some searching.

Happy gardening!
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