Skip to main content

Your guide to choosing a garden cart for all your yard projects

From material to weight capacity, consider these factors when you buy a garden cart

Green garden cart with basket on the side full of fruit
Oleg Mayorov / Shutterstock

Gardening can become quite the workout as you pace back and forth to retrieve planting tools, toss away weeds, and unload soil. To make matters easier for yourself, invest in a garden cart. While you might need to set aside some money, your body will thank you for this initial investment, and you’ll be able to take your go-to gardening supplies with you as you work. If you’re in the market for a garden cart, here’s our cheat sheet on what to look for.

Why should you use a garden cart?

Gardening is seldom as easy as plopping down a plant in your garden. It’s a game of long-term maintenance that requires mulching, weeding, planting, and digging. While you’ll get your cardio in, it can get very tiring very quickly. A garden cart is a tool that’ll make your time in the garden so much easier and quicker when you need to get heavy items from point A to point B.

While a 4-inch flower pot might be no big deal to carry, a 50-pound bag of decorative landscape rocks is a different story. When you need to transport heavy tools and supplies — think shovels, soil, mulch, and pots — you’ll be grateful to have a garden cart by your side.

Red garden cart at a nursery with plants loaded on it
Evgenii Panov/Shutterstock

Garden cart features to consider

It’s tempting to head straight to your local hardware store and pick up a random garden cart, but keeping in mind specific details will help you choose the right one for your needs. When selecting a garden cart, here are the main factors you should note.

Material

Material is one of the most important features to weigh when you pick a garden cart. Generally speaking, garden carts are made of fabric, metal, or plastic. If you don’t have a lot of heavy-duty tasks in the yard, a cart made out of a thick, weather-resistant polyester material should be sufficient. For those who do work with heavy materials, a metal cart may make the most sense, although you want to look for some kind of powder-coated finish to avoid the hassle of rusting parts. It may also be worth looking into a cart with a plastic or poly bed to cut out worries about rusting altogether.

Weight capacity

Weight capacity is an important factor to consider when you’re picking out a cart for your garden. If you have a small patio garden, a fabric garden cart with a 50-pound capacity might be all you need for breezy tasks, such as weeding and deadheading. This simple design should be sufficient for carrying around not only dead foliage, but also medium-sized planters and small tools. On the flip side, if you’re regrading a gravel landscape or need to tote around bricks for edging, you’ll need a garden cart that can take on more weight. Some carts can take over 1,000 pounds, although you’ll likely need to connect this kind of large load to a tractor.

Foldability

Those who don’t need to carry around heavy items may be interested in a fabric garden cart that can fold down for easy storage. Other than convenient storage, there are foldable carts that make carrying your load easier. For example, some metal carts come with side panels that can fold down — this makes it easy to extend your cart bed’s surface area so that you can carry around large gardening tools and plants.

Handles

Handles make it easy for you to push and pull your cart around. Standard handles typically include a single pull-loop connected to a longer piece, but some feature a wide design that makes pushing easier. Many are made of metal and may come with grips for comfortable and ergonomic gardening. There are also handles that are adjustable, meaning you can keep them at just the height you need or fold them down. If you work with heavy materials, it’s worth looking into handles that you can remove or set aside so you can attach your wagon to a tractor or ATV.

Wheels

Without a trusty set of wheels, garden carts are essentially glorified shelves. When looking into cart wheels, you’ll typically see either flat-free or pneumatic tires. Flat-free tires are made with solid polyurethane foam, so you don’t need to worry about flat tires. However, they don’t handle heavy loads very well and tend to be more expensive. Pneumatic tires, on the other hand, roll smoothly and provide good traction. That said, you do need to keep an eye out for flats. When looking at garden cart models, check if you can get replacement tires in case your wheels break down.

Black wheelbarrow in a garden
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Different types of garden carts

There is a great range of garden cart types out there. Here are a few of the most common types and what you might use them for. Remember to pick one for your personal needs instead of opting for one with the flashiest specs!

Loading large plants and produce: Utility cart

From time to time, you may need to move large container plants and freshly harvested produce around in the garden. A utility cart with mesh side panels can help get the job done. If you find you need more surface area, many utility carts can also convert into flatbed carts so long items don’t jostle out.

Transporting heavy items: Dump cart

Whether you need to unload gravel, mulch, or soil, a heavy-duty dump cart (such as the ones from the brand Gorilla) can come in handy. Your typical dump cart usually features a sturdy poly bed that can handle 500 to 1,200 pounds. Because they’re designed to carry heavy loads, many dump carts can also easily attach to tractors or ATVs.

Manually pushing loads: Wheelbarrow

One advantage of a wheelbarrow is that it’s easy to push — wheelbarrows are usually designed with two ergonomic handles, one to two wheels, and a sloped tray. If your gardening materials aren’t heavy enough to warrant a tractor, a wheelbarrow can be a very comfortable tool to maneuver.

Initiating small garden projects: Collapsible cart

If you just need to gather faded blooms and weeds in the garden, a foldable fabric cart with a 50- to 100-pound weight capacity can be a convenient option. You can also use one to tote around essentials, such as shovels, trowels, and planters when you’re doing yard work.

Gardening can be a lot of hard work, and there are times when your supplies are too heavy to carry. With a convenient gardening cart, you’ll be able to get more work done while reducing physical strain on your body. For a fun and efficient time in the yard, a garden cart will be well worth the investment.

Editors' Recommendations

Stacey Nguyen
Stacey's work has appeared on sites such as POPSUGAR, HelloGiggles, Buzzfeed, The Balance, TripSavvy, and more. When she's…
Enrich your soil: The 4 best composts for gardens
Everything you need to know about choosing the right compost for your plants
Compost pile

When you first start gardening, it's overwhelming to think about all the things you have to keep track of to grow healthy and happy plants. For example, one of the most common topics beginner gardeners worry about is buying the best composts for gardens. What type should you use, when should you use it, how much of it should you use, and is there a specific one you should use for particular types of gardening? This can all become intimidating quickly, but we promise that after you read the information below, you'll feel confident in your ability to successfully add compost to your garden soil.

The best types of compost
More often than not, the soil you want to plant your garden in will need to be amended. This simply means you need to add some things to it to make ideal growing conditions for your plants. Almost always, this means adding compost. However, with so many types out there, you might get confused when standing in front of all those bags at the garden center. So what options do you have, and what are they made of?
1. Leaves and yard trimmings
Using the leaves and trimmings from around your yard is one of the best ways to recycle and add vital nutrients to your garden beds. It's low cost, efficient, and moisture retentive. Additionally, these can be used as mulch and compost! Keep in mind, the number of leaves and trimmings available can change from year to year and season to season. So you might have plenty one time but not enough the next. There also may be stray grass or weed seeds that get in there and introduce unwanted plants into your garden. 
2. Manure
If you're lucky enough to have access to fresh manure, you have one of the best resources for a garden. Raw manure adds nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium to your soil, which are the three most important things to have in healthy soil. You might even have access to manure from your own animals! This is a low-cost and waste-reducing way to add essential ingredients to your soil. You can also buy manure in bags at the garden center if you don't have access to it fresh. This is still fantastic for your garden but less great for your wallet.
3. Mushroom compost
Mushroom compost is typically used for, you guessed it, growing mushrooms. However, you can also use this type of compost in your own garden at home. It often contains materials such as wheat straw, manure, gypsum, peat, cottonseed meal, and grape clippings. It's packed full of nutrients and is a sterile substrate that can enhance water retention while also adding essential elements back into the soil. Unfortunately, this type of compost is more expensive than other options on this list and might be best reserved for those growing mushrooms where sterile fertilizers are essential. 
4. Vermicomposting
You might have heard of worm farming, and vermicomposting is the fancy word for it. This is when you let earthworms decompose organic material. The worms eat, digest, and excrete the material and they produce castings, which are nutrient-dense and all-natural. To get these excellent earthworm castings, you can either start your own earthworm farm or purchase a bag of castings at your local garden center. 

Read more
11 plants and flowers that keep bugs away from your vegetable garden for a pest-free harvest
From marigolds to alliums, here are gorgeous, pest-repelling flowers to plant in your garden
A basket of colorful petunias

Aside from looking beautiful, flowers and other plants can bring additional benefits to your vegetable garden. By mixing the following plants in with your tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and other veggies, you’ll have a bit of natural help in preventing pests from infecting your garden. Best of all, these plants offer natural bug prevention that, hopefully, will help limit how much insecticide you'll need to use if insects start to take over a plant. Here are our favorite plants and flowers that help keep bugs away from the vegetable garden.

1. Marigolds
Marigolds are great help for repelling aphids and mosquitoes, as well as small animals such as rabbits. Because they’re on the smaller side, these pretty, golden flowers can easily be mixed throughout your garden without much risk of them getting too big.

Read more
If your yard gets a lot of afternoon light, these are the afternoon sun plants for you
How to choose and grow afternoon sun plants that will thrive
Sunlit garden path and flowers

There are many challenges regarding the sun when it comes to gardening. There's too much, then there's too little. For example, some fruit trees thrive in shady backyards — except most trees do require full sunlight. This is why pruning is necessary. And then there are those conditions where too much sun can affect our plants.

Afternoon sun is challenging. Direct sunlight between midday and sunset is the most intense exposure. Although some plants are labeled for "full sun," extended exposure in that hot afternoon sun may be too much — not all of these are suitable as afternoon sun plants. This is especially so if the sunlight is further intensified by a wall or fence that traps and reflects the sun’s heat during the day, then continues to radiate heat after sundown. These tough areas require tough plants.

Read more