Many years ago I bought a garden cart in a local gardening center. I used it for so many things, not just gardening stuff. Whenever I brought home something heavy in the back of my car–like a piece of furniture, I would often use it to get the furniture from the back of my SUV over to my kitchen door where I could then unload it onto a blanket to drag wherever I needed to drag it. I can’t tell you how many times that cart saved me! I used it for a million things including hauling bales of pine straw, flowers, and heavy shrubs.
After many, many years of use, it began to rust in places and the tires would no longer stay inflated. I finally retired it when the tires would no longer stay inflated for more than a day or two and I’ve been doing without a cart ever since. I’ve really missed it!
Recently, I came across this cart and it caught my eye because the sides are removable, just like they were on my old cart. I never used the side rails on my other cart because I was constantly hauling around huge bags of mulch, large bags of gardening soil, or pine straw–so the sides just got in the way. (Garden Cart is available here: Garden Cart.)
The other major thing I noticed about this cart is the tires are flat-free tires that never need air added to them. Apparently, they are foam-filled. I love that! There’s nothing worse than heading outside to do some gardening chores only to discover you have to get out the air pump and fill up all the tires on your cart. Again.
I put the cart together today. The instructions are given in photos alone–no wording. That was fine except for the part where you attach the bar that the handle connects to at the front. I realized while I was attaching the handle, if I tightened the screw on the bar thingy all the way down as far as it would go, it wouldn’t swivel from side to side. That would make pulling the cart around a corner impossible. I checked the reviews and another person mentioned the same thing so I made sure to not tighten it down all the way, leaving some wiggle room for the handle to swivel from side to side. That worked great!
This was the bed of the cart, awaiting installation.
After I finished putting the cart together, minus the sides which I left off since I prefer it that way, I loaded it down with the flowers that had been on my deck. I moved them into the garage last week when the temps dropped below freezing. Normally each year when we get to this point, I only bring the Foxtail Fern into the garage and I don’t try to save the potted annuals. I always feel bad about that because they are normally looking really pretty when cold weather arrives. I decided this year to try and save everything.
The larger geranium was looking kinda sad, not sure if it got hit by the cold one night before I brought them into the garage or if I didn’t water it enough this past summer, but it’s putting out a lot of new growth/leaves so I decided to try and save it through the winter, too.
The reason I put everything on the cart is I’m hoping to pull the cart out on pretty days and pull it back into the garage at night. My Foxtail Fern always looks pitiful at the end of winter from not getting enough sun, so I’m hoping this will help. I think I’ll set an alarm on my phone to remind me to bring them in at night. If I forget even one night, that could be really bad. I’ll let you know how this experiment goes come springtime!
Do you have a garden cart and find it invaluable for hauling stuff around? I’m excited to have a cart again. You really never realize how much you use them until you don’t have one.
Look at YOU go!!! Go cart!! franki
🙂 An actual go-cart sounds like more fun!
Great idea – I love that the sides come off. We have a couple wheelbarrows that are on their last legs (wheels?!) so something like this might be in our future. Thanks!
I really like that feature, too. Seems like everything I use it for is really wide so the side would be in the way. I like knowing I can easily add them if needed, though.
XXX
My wheelbarrow died, so this looks like a good replacement.
I used to have a wheelbarrow but had a tough time controlling it. I don’t have any problems with a cart, thankfully.
Hi Susan: if you take your geraniums out of the soil and hang them upside down for the winter you can plant them again in the spring. I live in NE and have to bring mine in, in October to the garage. I hang them on a line upside down until December so the root system dries down just a bit. In December I place them in a single layer in a box to insulate them from our frigid temps. I bring them out in March and prune them all the way back at that time and plant them in dirt in troughs to get them started. I have had new baby leaves in 4 hours of doing this! At this time I bring them in and out depending on the weather. We can have frost here until May so in May I plant them in their pots. In your area you can probably do exactly what your doing but rest assured you will have geraniums next spring. If you leave them in the pot I would water them a bit once in a while and they will get ugly but as long as the root system is strong they will come right back. No water needed for my method until I plant them in a trough.
Wow, that’s amazing, Shelley! I didn’t know you could do that! Our date for planting annuals here is anytime after April 15th, so I just have to keep them alive until then. lol I’m amazed you don’t have to water them! So when you place them in a single layer in a box in December, they aren’t in soil or anything? How many geraniums do you normally do this with each year? Thanks for these tips…so fascinating that they can survive the winter out of dirt!
I do have a garden cart that I use all the time and the kids radio flyer comes in handy too! I’ve used Shelley’s suggestion and it works great, you get a lot of extra geraniums that way. I found by chance that you can keep tuberous begonia over the winter in the pot. It was so beautiful I couldn’t bear to through it out so I put it in our lavatory in our garage that is kept above freezing but not really warm. All the leaves died back but in the spring it started growing and was just as beautiful again, 2 years now. I never watered it but it is in a very large pot with lots of soil so it seems to keep just enough moisture. I also have a fern that I use in the house all winter by a sunny window and put it out to rejuvenate it in the summer. Hope you have good luck with your overwintering.
I had no idea that they could winter over that way. I always thought of geraniums as being super picky and almost delicate. They sound much hardier than I ever expected!
I thought about putting them in my breakfast room which has a huge bay window that gets a lot of sun, but there’s also a heating vent right in the middle of it so things dry out quickly in that area…plus I don’t want to get water on my hardwood flooring. So I prefer to use the garage for wintering them over…just not enough sun through the windows there.
Thanks for these tips, Mary Lou!
You’re welcome.
Carts are very handy since they are flat. I have a wagon that tilts back to empty dirt. I’ve used that feature quite a bit. What is the advantage of the mesh bottom on your cart? The problem with wagons/carts is you are limited in their width for moving around in small places. I love my wheelbarrow because it gets into those small paths and corners and you can carry quite a bit of weight. I also bought a cart with two wheels which I do not like and it has tires that lose air. Also have a very old rubbermaid cart which comes in handy even though its handle split and plastic tires that have never failed! Very rare for frost here to hurt my geraniums. I do know when a branch breaks off you can just stick it in dirt and it continues to grow.
I think they are always constructed with a mesh bottom to let dirt/water fall through so it doesn’t accumulate on the cart. Also, it makes the cart lighter for pulling.
It’s been getting down into the 20’s here the last week or so…that always kills my annuals. Fortunately, spring comes pretty early here. I didn’t know that about if a branch breaks off, I need to try that. I sometimes accidentally break one when I’m watering them or trying to remove the dead blossoms.
Some of the tops of my begonias have suffered from the cold. They usually come back in spring. On the geraniums pull off any leaves of the stalk that will go below dirt. New sprouts happen pretty quick. If I see a geranium color that I don’t have I take a slip whenever possible.
I gave my husband this exact cart for Christmas. He loves it.
That’s awesome to hear! Hope the tires work as they are advertised! 🙂
Hello! I’m new to your blog. We have two similar carts that we bought years ago when we had big plans about gardening. We never got into like we’d hoped we would, and the carts got shoved aside and ignored. Fast forward some years and we’re now into selling things we make at the local farmers market and craft sales. Lugging the crates of our items is a pain in the butt. And then we remembered those carts! LOL They need some cleaning and maintenance but oh my, they will be so handy when we get them pulled out of storage and refreshed.
Deb, that’s awesome that you remembered them and they are working so well for your new adventure. I love it when I realize something I already have is perfect for another need!
XXX
My husband puts the geraniums in the garage every winter and they have lasted for years. They get scraggly but fill out and bloom when put out in the spring. We are two hours north of you so our temps are similar. No prolonged freezing temps like up north were I have heard about unpotting them and hanging upside down. I never tried that when I lived up there. Good luck!! and love that cart.
It would be so nice if this works. I may be impatient in the spring and want instant gratification for the large geranium that I always place on a chair on the porch…so I may end up buying a new one. But hopefully, the smaller ones will still look good in the spring. I’m always amazed how well the Foxtail Fern winters over. I usually lose a frond or two, but it puts new ones right back out once it’s outdoors in the spring.
I don’t have a garden cart, but I was very excited to find hose reel carts in Sam’s already a couple weeks ago. I snagged one of those babies. I completely understand the functionality of your cart, and love the idea of those tires. Good purchase, Susan!
Thanks! I’ve never used one of the hose reels but they look really efficient and handy. Rita, what kind of hose do you use? I bought one a few years back in Home Depot that never freezes/cracks and I love it, but not sure how well it would wind up on a hose reel thingy.
I always bring my geraniums in and leave them in the soil them in the soil and pot they are in. I do not water them. I usually have mulch left around them since I use mulch around my potted plants to keep them from drying out too much in the sun and to keep the water from splashing when watering them. In the spring, I do as Shelley does and prune them back and water them. Geraniums can withstand temperatures to 40 degrees F. So as soon as we start getting highs in the 50s I take mine out on sunny days and let them get sun, then bring them back in until I’m sure the temps will stay above 40 and then I leave them out. I have only had one geranium that has not regenerated and I think it was because I watered it during late winter a few times and without sunlight, I believe it rotted the roots. No matter which method you use, you will likely have a fresh, lovely plant in the spring. Begonias can be done in much the same way. You can also bring those into the house in front of a sunny window and treat them as house plants through the winter. Then put them outside when temps allow.
Because my garden paths are so curvy and restrictive, I don’t have a cart; but I do have this: https://www.gardenersedge.com/leonard-gardenglidetransporter/p/AG1. It’s a great tool for me.
What a neat device! I can see how it would work well on tight garden paths/corners.
I had a cart just like that for years and years (except it had regular tires) and I wore that puppy out! I loved it. Never replaced it because Ben and I got together and I didn’t need it anymore anyway. But with the no flat tires, I think I see one in Ben’s future!
I have a Gorilla Cart that I love, but I admit I wish it had some sort of drain hole to empty water from it. It does have the capability to tilt up from the base. I’ve had it for 3 or 4 years and store it outdoors, and this was the first year I had to refill the tires. I’m curious how much weight the foam tires on your cart will support?
The ad says that is will support up to 800 lbs but I would never put that much weight on it…that’s a lot! You can read more about it here: https://amzn.to/3zJRb42 . I know Gorilla Cart makes several different styles. So far, I really like this one.
I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to move ANY cart with 800lbs in it! Thanks for the link, I was showing it to my daughter, she’s interested in one for several different purposes.
I have a garden cart like that which I do use, but yes, the tires tend to need inflating about once a year. Your newer version sounds great. I appreciate the ladies commenting on over-wintering geraniums and begonias. I keep them going as long as possible and hate it when the frost finally gets them. With the rising cost of everything, I just may give it a try this year. Like the old saying goes, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I’m going to really try to keep these alive this time. Exactly, definitely worth a try. Let me know if you do that, Cyndi.
Thank You so much .My first read here , just learned so much.I Loved my wheel barrel,our last move it was left at the house we had. I miss all my garden tools. You made my day and others who wrote thank you!AA