Creative Gardening Tools...The Green Tool Cart

I love looking for interesting ways to reduce waste by finding an object used for one purpose and reusing it for an entirely new purpose.

One of the things that frustrated me last year is that every time I gardened, I had to make several trips back and forth to my gardening tools. Now that I've moved, the distance from where we store the gardening tools to the garden is even further, and since I'm inherently lazy, I don't want to walk any farther than I have to. Besides...I'd rather spend more time gardening than carting tools back and forth.

Enter Organic Gardening magazine. I couldn't tell you what issue I saw this idea in, but I immediately latched on. It was a picture of a golf cart and bag being used to haul long-handled gardening tools, such as rakes, manual cultivators, and so forth. I loved the idea and, being a frugal shopper (most of the time), I found a golf cart in decent shape for $1.50 at a garage sale last summer. The problem was that I couldn't find a reasonably priced golf bag that was still in decent shape. Most of the garage sale bags still had clubs in them, priced at anywhere from $10 to $25 for the set--way out of my price range. I did see a few for around $5, but they weren't in very good shape.

Last weekend, though, I hit the jackpot! I went to a ginormous church garage sale and found a bag in very nice shape--almost attractive, actually--without clubs for...$1! I brought it home, strapped it onto the cart, and for $2.50--voila!--a tool cart! The bag has some nice long side pockets on each side for my medium-handled tools, a net on the front to hold in some small-handled tools, and another pocket on the front for gardening gloves, short stakes, and other small supplies. (See photo.) The cart works great for hauling all the tools out to the garden at once and then back to the garage. I highly recommend searching for a bag and cart for YOUR gardening!

Tag! You're It!

I was reading My Grandpa's Garden shortly after posting my "April Showers...." post, only to discover I have been tagged with a gardening meme! Since this is my first official tag, it's only right to contribute. Here are the meme rules:

For this Meme, all you have to do is take some pictures and post them. Any embarrassing commentary is strictly voluntary.

1. Flash Your Seed Stash - Show us where you keep your extras. Or, if your like me, dump that big bag onto the living room floor and grab the camera!

2. Your Favorite Garden Photo - Doesn’t have to be current, just the one you’re most proud of.

3. The Secret Spot - Take a picture of that part of the yard that you’ve given up hope on, nothing will grow, sun doesn’t shine, there is no hope. No yard is perfect!

4. Your favorite garden tool - you know it, you love it, its not getting enough facetime on your blog - showcase it!

5. Your garden rainbow. Go out into the garden and try to find a picture to represents each color in the rainbow, whether all in one photo or seperate!

After reading through the suggested meme options, I realized that my blog has already supplied many of them: I have already flashed my seed stash, I already have mentioned "The Secret Spot" (where the pool used to be), and I've already talked about my favorite garden tool (The Claw). My garden isn't mature enough yet to provide a garden rainbow or favorite garden photo.

I thought instead I would provide a few pictures of gardening tools that I use that weren't necessarily constructed as gardening tools.

#1: The Rain Barrel
I don't have any old-fashioned, wooden rain barrels. I did see that Lowe's has DIY instructions for creating your own rain barrels, but that was going to cost money and take time and expertise that I don't have. So I settled for the next best thing--empty kitty litter buckets. I have them sitting out in various parts of the yard, weighted down by a rock, to catch the rain. Eventually I'll try to remove part of the gutter so the water flows directly into the barrel.

#2: The Plant Stake
When bean and pea plants are small but leaning, I've staked them to provide some support. The stake shown in the picture is a bamboo skewer. I found a pack of 200 of them at the dollar store! One end is pointed, so it's easy to get into the ground, and the top end is flat (when I remember to put the proper end into the dirt, of course). Cheap stakes, bamboo, easy to use, what more could a gardener ask?



#3: The Water Reservoir
Okay, I know that this tool looks like a big pile of twigs and branches. It is. But I was recently reading Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community, which recommended digging a trench in your yard near your garden, placing twigs and branches in it, and then recovering the trench with dirt. The trench acts as a reservoir for water that will help keep some of the moisture in your garden during the dry summer months. Additionally, the branches and twigs break down and contribute to soil building. I haven't dug the trench yet--planting is my priority right now. But I'll dig it (or more likely, hire someone to dig it) soon!

I don't know many gardeners to tag. So the tagging is voluntary--if you'd like to participate in this garden photo meme, consider yourself tagged, post your photos and any commentary you desire, and then post a comment here, indicating that you've completed your meme!