Some submissions I’ve received that (so far) have resisted categorization:
On to the garden cart I built:
We wanted a garden cart for our farming this year, but it wasn't high enough a priority to make our 2011 budget. Our temporary solution: I salvaged an old-style golf cart from the junk yard--a Bag Boy--and added a shallow box to it so we could haul tools, seedlings, and harvest bins around the garden.
A genuine bag boy
This particular cart had braces that made it easy to bolt a box to it.
Here's the cart full of seedlings. Here you can also see that I replaced the flimsy aluminum handle with a piece of rebar I salvaged. Still, this cart has limitations. I don't think I would want to carry more than about 60 pounds on it. But it's been useful anyway. A nice temporary solution until we have room in the budget for a stronger one.
...and with tools, which fit nicely into notches I made in the box.
In 2010, Curtis Stone dropped an urban gardening bomb on Kelowna, BC called Green City Acres, a one-acre market garden grown in various urban plots around the city. He is already a local gardening celebrity and from what I have seen, a solid grower. Curtis’ business is pedal-powered, and in this post I want to showcase the bike trailer he designed to haul around his produce and tools—up to 500 pounds worth at a time.
Yep-that's a walking tractor Curtis' trailer is carrying. Curtis designed this trailer himself and built it with the help of a welder-friend. Curtis' urban gardens are spread out around his neighbourhood and he hauls around all of his tools using his bike and trailer.
The trailer frame is 26 inches wide by 6 feet long. Curtis used 2"x1" steel tubing with a 1/16" wall for the frame. He added 16" BMX wheels, welded on an arm, and hitched it to the back of his bike.
The trailer hitch. The plate was designed and built by Curtis' welder. The swivel piece that connects hitch and trailer bar was purchased at Princess Auto (see below).
Oh Swiveleye, cash cow for Princess Auto. Is there anything you can't do?
Here Curtis has added removable side-walls to the trailer to allow for things like seedlings, what looks like a garden spade or possibly a pogo stick, and a large blue tub filled with Tabbouleh for a hungry gardener on the go. His welder added inserts along the edges of the trailer to allow the sidewalls to be inserted using 1/2" electrical conduit pipe. Also note the bicycle's Xtracycle--an extension that can be added to any bike to increase its load capacity. Curtis' rear rack can hold 200 pounds. http://www.xtracycle.com/cargo-bicycles/freeradical-cargo-bicycle.html
The trailer priced out at around $500--$400 for the frame materials and welding labour, $50 for the bike wheels, and $50 for miscellaneous parts.
