Wheelbarrows

Unless you have enough money to pay someone to do the gardening I would recommend that you think about buying a wheel barrow.

You will have top soil, compost and plants to move. You might even be moving concrete if you want to build some paths.

Its certainly worth spending a bit of money and buying a good one. Probably the best barrow in my opinion is a builders barrow with a large heavy duty plastic tub like this and solid tyres:

I have had this barrow for about 20 years now and its been used at three houses for:

    • Barrowing large amounts of concrete for paths and patios.
    • Mixing small quantities of concrete to avoid staining paths.
    • Moving huge amounts of topsoil.
    • Spreading mulch.
    • Moving tonnes of gravel and pavers for paths.

In spite of being stored outside for most of the time the tub is still watertight and the barrow is always ready for use.

The advantages of the plastic tub over steel are:

    • No rust problems.
    • Lighter
    • Because of the flexibility of the tub concrete that has set in the barrow can be loosened by tapping with a hammer.

A few hints when using a barrow are:

    1. If you are pushing a heavy barrow over rough ground put a couple of planks down.
    2. If you are moving concrete don’t overfill the barrow.
    3. Keep the load as much as possible over the wheel.
    4. If the site is really muddy wrap the tyres in duct tape so bits of mud don’t get stuck in the tread and then fall out on your clean paths.

 

The Settling In Section contains lots of advice on what

to do after you have moved in your new house