The downside to gardening is all the stuff you have to lug around in order to make it happen. Making multiple trips to and from your garage (or your car, if you’re coming from the store) can be tedious and physically exhausting. A good garden cart can make the process a little less strenuous, and we’ve found a bunch of them in lots of different sizes that you can buy on Amazon, whether you’re just moving around some flower pots or bags of mulch. Because you’re buying this cart, we’re assuming you have a lot of tools already, but in case you’re in the market for some new gear, we have tools recommended by the New York Botanical Garden’s senior curator of orchids and a serious gardening enthusiast. Plus, if you’re looking to bring your garden inside, we’ve got some equipment for you, too.
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Best-rated garden cart
“This thing is a beast,” says one reviewer. He describes it as “well built, sturdy, easy to move across different terrains and yes, EASY TO ASSEMBLE.” Another says it’s been “engineered to be foolproof” and can even withstand a lot of weight thanks to its “heavy steel and large pneumatic wheels for easy yard travel.” This cart can carry up to 600 pounds and “moves like it was sliding on ice,” he says. He also appreciates that the bed “dumps completely vertically at a touch of a release.” Over 400 other reviews mention the dump feature. This cart “tilts and dumps like a champ,” says a third reviewer. “Anyone who does any landscaping get this thing,” he says. “It’s the best cart in the world.”
Best-rated (less expensive) garden cart
Most garden carts are open-faced, but this one has a cover that serves as a handle and a seat. “For me, the best feature, which didn’t even enter into my buy decision is it’s capability as a seat,” writes one reviewer. He thought it was a superfluous feature, yet after trying it out he “was amazed at how useful it can be.” He does warn that it’s “not suited for heavy loads,” making it best suited to more petite gardeners, but regardless, he loves it. Another person appreciates that the handle has “hooks to hang things up on the side,” so he can easily carry “gloves and my cup of water and small pots.” Plus, “the wheels are nice and big,” he says, “so it rolls nice on my rock path and in grass.”
Best heavy-duty plastic garden cart
This is a heavy-duty version of our best-rated pick. It’s much bigger and can hold up to 1,200 pounds, with a dump capacity of 500 pounds. One reviewer says it’s “heavy duty enough to move large landscaping rocks or large pieces of trees I have had to remove.” She also says transporting things hasn’t been that hard, crediting the “four heavy duty wheels,” which “keep the cart level at all times.” Reviewers also praise the dump mechanism: “The dump body is angled at the back to facilitate the process of the dump,” one says. And it’s quiet, which many reviewers didn’t expect. “Because it’s made of heavy duty plastic, it’s not nearly as loud as a metal cart,” another reviewer says.
Best heavy duty metal garden cart
Much like the plastic model, this metal Gorilla Carts garden cart can hold a lot (up to 1,400 pounds). Unlike the plastic model, this metal cart can’t dump anything. Before you buy, “you better make sure you want a large, heavy duty cart” warns one reviewer, who uses his cart to move wood logs and at least one other thing: “The cart might be too big for groceries, but I promise it will do the job,” he says. One happy customer wanted “durable steel frame construction,” because, as he says, that’s what provides “strength, durability, and ease for performing moderate to heavy hauling and other heavy-duty related tasks.” He uses it to haul “plants, garden tools, etc,” but he confirms that it also rolls well on sand if you need to “haul beach items to and from the beach.” Overall, he calls it “very convenient and hassle-free.”
Best garden cart with mesh sides
The removable mesh sides on this steel garden cart make it much lighter than other options that have steel bars. One reviewer describes the benefits this way: “The wire mesh on the bed is the same light stuff used on the sides. A hand cart has to be light enough to handle on outdoor terrain, just as a canoe is light enough to carry through the woods.” The sides are easy to remove, too. According to one reviewer, they are “very sturdy but not heavy,” so they don’t make the cart too cumbersome to move. “Everything to make this wagon easy to pull and still be strong enough to carry a heavy load was thought of.”
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