Product Review: Wheelbarrow Booster

Sometimes you see an ‘invention’ that is such a simple idea you wonder why nobody has thought of it before. This week I tried out a product sent to me by Joe Smith from Greanbase Ltd, a UK company who have come up with the idea of one such item.

The Wheelbarrow Booster does exactly what it says on the box (or slim packet in this case) – it boosts the available space in a wheelbarrow. More suitable for light barrow loads such as leaves, grass clippings, hay or weeds, it increases the wheelbarrow space by at least three times as much, saving journeys to and from the compost heap. It’s a simple design – a sturdy elastic ‘skirt’ slips over the sides of the barrow, whilst the heavy-duty plastic sides sit above the rim giving the additional capacity.

I took the Booster to a community garden project, several members of whom are involved in Tidy Towns (lots of leaf picking going on there!) Their immediate response was “where can we get one?” followed by “how much?” (potential stockists note the order of the questions…) They were impressed!

I then tried it out at home after a day of weeding my scutch grassy fruit beds. I had several piles of weeds waiting to be tidied up at the end of the day and they ALL fitted into one wheelbarrow load (and in case you’re wondering, because of the light load I could easily push the barrow). The community gardeners weren’t alone in their admiration, I was impressed too.

I hope that garden centres in Ireland pick up on the idea of this great little gardeners accessory. It saves time, effort and lots of bending and retails in the UK at £14.99. I got the impression that it was well made and would last if cared for too.

Although more readily available in the UK, us Irish consumers will have to wait to find the Wheelbarrow Booster for sale in shops here (though Joe tells me he’s talking to potential suppliers). If you’d like to get ahead of your neighbours however, you can order by mail order from Greenbase directly or from Amazon and to cater for different tastes it’s available in green and pink (now had I known that Joe 😉 …)

What do you think? Would it save you time in the garden?