Four bags of potting mix, a tray of punnets and a bale of sugar cane mulch, and the car is parked out the front. That trip down the side of the house is the part of gardening nobody enjoys, and it is the reason half a wheelbarrow of mulch ends up on the path. This is a garden cart that folds flat, lives in the boot, and pulls the whole load in one go on four swivelling wheels.

Why It Stands Out

• It folds to nothing — 40 × 13 × 60 cm packed down. That is behind the shed door, under the potting bench or flat in a hatchback boot, which is not true of a wheelbarrow.
• Four wheels, not one — a barrow needs you to balance it. This just rolls, so you can walk it one-handed down a path with a coffee in the other.
• The handle adjusts two ways — telescopic for height, and the angle drops right down so you can pull it low and easy or set it up near vertical to push.
• 600D Oxford tub on a steel frame — tough enough for soil and clippings, and it hoses clean afterwards. The frame is steel tube, not alloy.
• 4.3 kg empty — light enough to lift into a boot on your own, which matters more than it sounds.
• Folds in one pull — a strap in the middle of the base. Grab it, lift, and it collapses. No tools.

Where to Use It

• Car to the back yard — the job it does best. Potting mix, mulch, pavers, seedlings, a bag of blood and bone.
• Harvest from the veggie patch — tomatoes, pumpkins, citrus, an 80 litre tub of beans, without walking back and forth.
• Tools to the far end — secateurs, gloves, stakes and twine in one trip instead of four. A garden trolley and a tool cart in the same thing.
• Green waste to the bin — prunings and weeds wheeled to the kerb.
• The nursery and the markets — a folding cart in the boot means you buy what you want, not what you can carry.
• Beach and camping — a beach wagon for chairs, an esky and towels across grass and hard sand, and a camping wagon from the car to the site.

How It Works

1. Lift the two side rails apart — the X-frame underneath opens and the tub pulls square.
2. Press the base down until the frame locks flat.
3. Extend the handle and set the angle you want.
4. To fold, pull the strap in the centre of the base — the whole thing collapses on itself and the handle slides back in.

How to Get the Best Out of It

1. Load heavy things low and centred — over the axle line, not stacked at one end.
2. Pull rather than push on rough ground — the front wheels swivel, so pulling lets them track instead of fighting you.
3. Line it for wet loads — an old tarp or a builder's bag under soil and manure keeps the Oxford clean.
4. Hose it out and stand it up to dry before folding.
Tip: where it wins is volume and distance — a big awkward load over a long path, which is most of what a garden actually asks for.

The 66 × 39 × 31 cm tub carries a rated 68 kg, and the solid rubber wheels roll beautifully on paths, pavers, lawn and hard sand.

Care and Maintenance

• Rinse the wheels after the beach — salt and sand in the bearings is what kills these.
• Dry it before folding — Oxford cloth packed away damp goes mouldy and smells.
• Store it out of the sun — UV is harder on the fabric than any load you will put in it.
• Check the frame pins each season and put a drop of oil on the wheel axles.

Specifications

What's Included

• 1 × Folding garden cart with telescopic handle