Gardening is immensely rewarding and lots of fun, but it’s also very hard work.  A good garden wheelbarrow can save your back and make working in your garden a pleasure instead of a chore. While you may think you don’t garden nearly enough to really need a wheelbarrow, once you own and use one you won’t know how you ever got along without it.

Choosing the right gardening wheelbarrow requires a bit of imagination and a willingness to part with more money than you might want to spend. Think through the kinds of tasks you routinely face in your garden and your yard to get a sense for how you might use your wheelbarrow most often. For example, if you put in a large vegetable garden every year and care for lots of specimen trees and landscape shrubs you will certainly need a larger, sturdier piece of equipment than you will if you just plant a narrow front bed with annuals and occasionally fertilize a small patch of grass.

Once you get a sense of what your needs actually are, look for a wheelbarrow that exceeds those needs. Most people severely underestimate home improvement tasks, and gardening is no exception.  Even the most casual weekend gardener is going to need a wheelbarrow that can tote at least 300 pounds. Remember, bags of compost and top soil typically weigh 40 pounds each. Throw five of them in a barrow with a couple of flats of annuals and you’re already near capacity with a 300 pound cart.

Wheelbarrows come in three basic varieties: Plastic carts with plastic wheels (including collapsible carts), steel three-wheeled carts with rubber wheels, and four-wheeled garden carts with removable steel sides that look like children’s wagons (only larger).

Plastic wheelbarrows are the least expensive option, but plastic can’t usually handle much more than 200 pounds, sometimes less. If you love the compact, easy-to-use look of a plastic wheelbarrow, by all means pick one up for weeding and for picking up leaves and sticks. Just make sure that you also invest in a steel, heavy capacity wheelbarrow with rubber wheels and a warranty so you can tote rocks, soil, stumps, gallon perennials, and other heavier items with ease and confidence.

Collapsible wheelbarrows that can carry up to 250 pounds are available at gardening retailers and through specialty web sites online. These little wheelbarrows are good choices for apartment dwellers and for people who own townhouses or care for very small lots with little storage space. A collapsible wheel barrow can be folded up and stored inside your back door, and then can be unfolded to accompany you while you weed. Collapsible wheelbarrows are also sturdy enough to carry your new plant material and soil from your car to your garden in the spring (so long as your purchases are modest and weight less than 250 pounds).

A durable steel three-wheeled barrow is a better choice for most homeowners with standard yards and average gardening needs. A steel barrow or cart is going to cost you at least $100 or even more, but if you balk at this expenditure and go for economy you will end up replacing your purchase in a year or two and at that point you will be frustrated and sour on the whole idea. So bite the bullet and buy quality the first time out.

Look for a major manufacturer of garden tools and implements and buy a wheelbarrow that comes with a warranty. Buy the highest capacity wheelbarrow you can afford. You will almost certainly haul more stuff in it than you think you will, and in this case, more really is better.

Garden carts are another good option, especially for homeowners who plant big vegetable gardens or do a lot of landscape maintenance. A steel cart with removable mesh sides and four wheels that holds at least 750 pounds will become your best friend when you are pruning or installing new shrubbery or perennials, and you can even pull your dog around in it when you are bored.

Any professional landscaper will tell you that skimping on essential tools is a bad idea that wastes time and causes injury, and a wheelbarrow is definitely an essential gardening tool. Buy the best one you can afford, and do your research before you shop. Lots of great web sites review specific brands of garden wheelbarrows online and will even direct you to the retailer with the lowest price.

It doesn’t get much easier than that!