Guest post by Emira Mears

Try saying that three times fast. TrugTubLove. TrugTubLove… Anyway. Gayla’s post about Lee Valley got me to thinking about my last Lee Valley impulse purchase. I had stopped there on my way back from picking up a load of compost, and tried very hard to restrain myself from making too many luxury garden purchases. Afterall, while so much of what is there is truly wonderful, nifty and swell really: I don’t need it. I manage to get by in the garden with my second hand tools and bits and pieces borrowed and acquired from here and there just fine. Still, nice shiny new things are always alluring.

Somehow, in spite of my resolve, I managed to justify the purchase a red plastic tub. How? Well you see, ever since we bought our place and I got to work on the garden I’ve been scrounging the house/thrift stores/garage sales and the like for a good all-purpose garden bucket. Something that I could use for both a 30 minute weed session, or to transfer compost around with me while planting bulbs, etc. Growing up, my mom had a bucket that she called the “weed bucket” that was just such a multi-use item. It was made of galvanized steel and though I haven’t seen it lately I bet she still has it. I ended up sans bucket and making due with cardboard boxes for small jobs and the wheelbarrow for larger ones last year, but kept on the look-out all winter. As nothing had materialized and because no matter how much I try, my resolve at Lee Valley is really pretty minimal, I caved and bought one of these Trug Tubs. And I have to say: I kind of love it.

I’ve used it for all kinds of gardeny things, like:

• Weeding
• Repotting plants at the office (I brought down a load of potting soil from home to the office in the tub and voila!)
• Soaking my bulbs before planting them
• Carrying transplants from one part of the yard to the next

And I’m sure I’ll get up to much more with it over time. What I like about it is that it is a big enough size to hold a whole lot of weeds, a good amount of dirt, etc. but it is not so big that I overfill it to the point of not being able to carry it (the kind of thing I’ve very likely to do). The fact that it is flexible means that I can often carry it around with one hand while carrying tools, etc in my other hand and as a neurotic multi-tasker that makes me very happy.

So yes, it is plastic, it is undoubtedly not something you have to spend $40 on as other thing will do, but as my one big garden “tool” purchase for the year so far, it has been pretty darn satisfying.