Garden Tool Review: Kitty Litter Buckets

Yup, believe it or not, this one of my favorite garden tools of all time.

My guess is that every single one of us knows someone who has at least one cat. I am going to further bet that of the people you know that own cats, at least one of them buys their kitty litter in the large plastic buckets. After all, buying kitty litter is no one's favorite job, and it is cheaper to buy it a bucket at a time.

I am here to tell you that you need to start having these people save their litter buckets for you. They are absolutely wonderful in the garden.

Need to move some dirt or compost, but don't want to break out the wheelbarrow (or like poor me, don't have one)? These buckets are very sturdy, and just the right size to fill and carry.

How about hauling your smaller gardening supplies around the yard? These buckets are great for small trowels, rakes, gloves etc that often get lost while you putter around the yard. I like to put all my seeds, twine, and misc. planting tools in one during spring planting time so I can keep everything together.

Back and knees sore from hunching over your beds to weed or pick your veggies? Flip one of these buckets over and voila, you have a garden stool that is the perfect height and is totally weatherproof.

Speaking of weeds, do you need somewhere to put the weeds you are pulling until you can get them to the compost pile? Ta-da! You have a bucket to put them it! This is especially nice if you have weeds that tend to not die. Just leave the dry weeds (with all possible soil removed) in the sun to dry out, and they won't take over your compost bin!

Or how about those huge bean harvests? Peas? What about carrots? These buckets hold just about anything, and when full are not too heavy for the average joe to carry into the house. You could also partially fill one with water to rinse veggies right after picking. This keeps the soil in your garden where it belongs, and saves your kitchen from looking like a mud-hole. When you are done, you just dump the muddy water back into your garden!

These buckets are handy to keep in your vehicle, especially if you can find ones with the covers intact. They are a cheap (ummm, free?) place to keep jumper cables, winter safety kits, first aid supplies, etc. This keeps the stuff from rolling around in your trunk and getting lost or jumbled up. They also come in handy when you head out on wild berry and nut picking expeditions.

Add to all these uses the fact that they are weather-proof, easily washable, and stack for easy storage, and you have a wonderful addition to your garden tool collection! You even get to help the environment by keeping plastic out of the landfills.

So what do you think?