Saturday, April 21, 2007

Introducing the Whizbang Garden Cart & How To Get A Copy Of The Plan Book

John Vivian once wrote an article for Mother Earth News magazine titled Top 20 Homesteading Tools. Number one on the list was "a shiny, metal frame and brown stained, plywood-box bodied, Garden Way-style cart like you see in many rural and suburban gardens." I’ll second that, as will any serious gardener or homesteader who already owns such a cart.

Vivian further explained: "You may remember Garden Way carts from the magazine ads that compared their lightweight and easy-dumping gardening convenience with a tippy, back-straining wheelbarrow. Perfectly balanced on easy-turning, rustproof, chrome-plated spoke wheels, a box cart will let you haul bulky or heavy loads of all kinds."

The Garden Way company went out of business but the fine cart they developed three decades ago has been widely copied and is made by a few different manufacturers. Some of the copies are downright cheap imports— they are not built for years
of hard use and dependable service, and they are, therefore, a poor value. The carts that are built well are, unfortunately, quite expensive. That being the case, I decided to develop my own Garden Way-style cart.

My quest to develop my own cart design started after I bought one of the good-quality, expensive models. I used it and studied it and went from there. My homemade version of the Garden Way style was developed using commonly available wood components and basic woodworking skills. After several prototypes and three years of real-world testing on my homestead, I came up with a cart design that has all the best features of the Garden Way cart and is of far better quality than any factory-made cart you’ll find. Specifically, it is stronger and more durable. Better yet, my cart design can be made for less money. And, amazingly, even
though it is made primarily of wood (instead of bent tubular steel and galvanized sheet metal angles), my cart design weighs less that the "storebought" carts. Best of all, my cart design lends itself to being made from wood parts and hardware pieces that many people may already have around their homestead, which means you could build your own cart for even less money.

I have named my creation, The Whizbang Garden Cart. If you have been a regular reader of my blog, The Deliberate Agrarian, you have already seen the following pictures (taken in 2006) of the Whizbang Garden cart prototype. These pictures show a simple cart that is into its third year of heavy-duty testing.

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My Whizbang Garden Cart with some of my 2006 potato harvest.

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My Whizbang Garden Cart with some sifted compost, which I put on my garlic when I planted it.

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My Whizbang Garden Cart converted to a poultry transport vehicle.

Those are a very small sampling of uses for the Whizbang Garden Cart. This site has stories and photos showing other uses for the cart.

Now You Can Build Your Own Whizbang Cart...

I have put together plans telling you how to build your own homemade Whizbang cart. The plans are in the form of a 45-page book. Here's a picture of the book:

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Anyone Can Build A Whizbang Garden Cart is a 45-page instruction manual. It takes you through the process of making the cart step-by-step. There are 75 illustrations that clearly show you how the cart is assembled. I tell you all about the materials you will need and where to get them. I also tell you how to safely use the cart and care for it so it will last you for many, many years.

You can read the Introduction to my book here: Whizbang Cart Planbook Introduction.


You can order a copy of the book online at the Planet Whizbang web site

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