I’m Splurging on an Electric Wheelbarrow This Black Friday, and You Should Too

For Black Friday, I’m buying an electric wheelbarrow and I refuse to feel bad about it. You should consider one, too, particularly if you’ve got aging parents who love to garden, or you are the aging person who loves to garden. 

I’ve spent 20 years priding myself on the countless number of wheelbarrows I’ve moved full of dirt, compost, wood chips, and wood. But time is not on my side, and it’s getting harder to do as I approach 50. This summer I borrowed a neighbor’s electric wheelbarrow. Surely, if I married the wheelbarrow, I couldn’t be expected to return it, right? The wheelbarrow wasn’t doing all the work for me; it was giving me a gentle assist, meaning that I was capable of doing more work without that work ruining my body. Black Friday is the perfect time to consider machinery like this—here are four models I’m looking at. 

Classic wheelbarrow with power

There’s a reason the classic wheelbarrow design works: It can squeeze into tight spaces, it has few parts, and can be easily dumped. Corners are less of a problem with a wheelbarrow than a cart, as is turning around, which it can do with almost no room. Here are two I’d look at.

Electric utility cart

Although they lack some of the flexibility of a classic wheelbarrow, utility carts can hold more weight and larger cargo. Most of them allow the sides to come off to become a flat cart, and these carts are forward-driving, instead of tow behinds, which I prefer.