Ever been all ready to pounce on a project in the garden, only to have that admirable impulse thwarted by the lack of something, like the right soil amendment or, tool? Bummer. Well, another make-or-break ingredient for most of my projects is a container (or 2) for hauling, and here are my favorites.
Buckets and large plastic nursery pots
I use these more often than anything — for moving soil, mulch, weeds and other plant matter, rocks, trash, and so on.
How many? At least 5 buckets — they cost about 4 bucks. And as many of those large garden center containers as I can get my hands on. They don’t last forever, though, not the way I treat them. (They eventually split in the bottom.)
Pans — the kitty litter kind or the cement-mixing kind
Those long, flat black ones in the photo cost about $6 and are PERFECT for carrying plants, even really heavy ones like shrubs. I also use them for rocks.
And what gardener can function without kitty litter pans? I know I couldn’t. For transporting plants around town to plant exchanges or to contribute to the gardens of coachees (an unadvertised bennie), they’re the best.
Garbage cans for taking it to the curb
My town picks up garden trimmings weekly, and most people follow orders and bag them in those tall paper bags that cost 50 cents each. I did, too, til I learned that stuffing them in regular old reusable garbage cans is also allowed. Thank goodness, because it would take a hazmat costume to stuff my near-lethal rose trimmings into paper bags without drawing blood, and the bags would still get ripped up.
Tarps and sheets for dragging
With about 50 deciduous trees on or over my property, leaf-hauling is serious business. And I accomplish it primarily with sheets that have worn out their welcome in the bedroom. Their second life in the garden can be a decade or more.
That bedraggled tarp — literally — moves my trees, shrubs, and leaves. It’ll last a few seasons before I tear it to shreds going down my rough stone steps.
