Mike's Backyard Nursery

The Most Fun You Can Have With Your Bibs On!

  • Home
  • Recommended Tools
  • Products
  • Categories
    • Complete Guides
    • Gardening
    • Growing
    • Landscape Design
    • Plant Care
    • Propagation
  • Contact
  • About Mike
Home » Gardening » An Easy Way to Build the Perfect Trailer for Moving Plants.

An Easy Way to Build the Perfect Trailer for Moving Plants.

Updated : January 12, 2020

3 Comments

An easy way to build the perfect plant moving trailer.

No matter what kind of work you are doing in your yard or in your backyard nursery it’s always nice to have an easy way to move things around. Our biggest challenge at Mike’s Plant Farm is being about to safely move our freshly potted plants from the potting area to the area in the nursery where they will grow out and be sold.

Converting a garden trailer into a plant moving trailer.

My old neighbor was moving and asked if I wanted to buy a garden trailer of $20.00. I said sure! Why not, the tires and wheels are worth way more than twenty bucks!

Originally this trailer had a dump option so the first thing I did was drill a hole and insert a bolt so it could no long dump. That would take all the fun out moving a bunch of freshly potted plants!

Plant moving trailer.

My goal was to increase the capacity, the amount of potted plants that we could fit on the deck without double stacking. I know that this deck now holds 72 plants, pretty sure that’s 72 one gallons. We often use a pot that is a bit smaller than a one gallon so I don’t know for sure which size pot actually fits 72. But I’m pretty sure it’s the trade one gallon.

All I did was cut the end off of a sheet of 3/4″ treated plywood, attach two by fours around the edge so the plants can fall off. Then put some angle brackets in the corners of the two by fours to make sure they stayed put. And no, the plants do not bounce off the trailer as long as you don’t drive like a maniac.

Extending the tongue of the garden trailer since I made the deck longer and wider.

Because I made the deck so much longer I had to extend the tongue of the trailer so we had enough room between the deck and the four wheeler to actually turn the trailer. To do that I simple took two pieces of one inch angle iron, bolt them on the inside of the existing tongue of the trailer, then I laid a couple of pieces of metal across the angle iron for support and welded them into place. I drilled a hole large enough for the hitch pin and welded another bracket over that hole to make the hitch assembly.

After extending the tongue I used the original bracket to make the hitch.

The dimensions of the deck surface are 41 inches by 69 inches. Hopefully I’ll remember to get a photo of it full of plants. We probably have that in another post of video. All of our videos over the years can be found here.

It’s important when attaching the deck to the existing trailer to make sure it is pretty well balanced with a tad more weight on the tongue end of the trailer so you can load the trailer when not attached to the pull vehicle. It also makes it really easy to move around empty when you need to.

Questions, comments, mean things to say? Post them below and I will respond.

Take a gander at these posts...

  • Do You Have Shotgun Fungus?
  • 37 Ways to Know You’re Addicted to Gardening
  • Enhance Your Landscape With Roses
  • Have You Ever Seen An Action Hoe?
  • Heeling In Plants

Comments

  1. alan a minkus says

    February 5, 2020 at 5:34 pm

    Looks like a real good idea. Let the OLD GOAT sun bath on top of the new wagon!!!!

    Reply
  2. Sherwood Botsford says

    February 5, 2020 at 10:13 am

    I have an old boat trailer that is now a 5 x 10 flat deck. Having the deck between the wheels decreases the height you have to lift a pot.

    But: 5 feet is a bit wide to load it from one side. If I were doing it again and needed the same area, I’d go 4 x 12.

    This trailer carries about a ton of potted trees fully loaded. That’s pushing what my quad can pull, but it’s ok for my garden tractor.

    Depending on the layout of your pot yard, a longer trailer may be harder to work with, because the trailer cuts further inside the turn. One way to fight this is to move the hitch point back. If you have a standard receiver, put a 3 foot extension on it, This will also try to straighten out the puller if you get stuck on anything. Use with caution.

    Reply
  3. Howard Robinson says

    February 5, 2020 at 1:02 am

    I have a trailer like that. Now I’m going to convert it to haul plant! I haul rock in it on this Arkansas hill top farm!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Rooted cuttings of variegated weigela in bunches to harden off.

Over Wintering Rooted Cuttings.

Posted On January 8, 2023 By Mike

Mike's Big Perennial Bed.

Mike’s Big Perennial Garden

Posted On January 8, 2023 By Mike

A Profound Thank You from Mike.

Posted On September 1, 2022 By Mike

Finnegan keeping the sun off his head.

An Old Guy, Two Donkeys, a Puppy and a Hammock. What could possibly go wrong?

Posted On July 17, 2022 By Mike

This upside down donkey is a hoot!

An Upside Down Donkey and Cute Puppy.

Posted On July 14, 2022 By Mike

'Rockin Raspberry' Bee Balm.

‘Rockin Raspberry’ Bee Balm.

Posted On June 26, 2022 By Mike

'Bubblegum Blast' Bee Balm.

‘Bubblegum Blast’ Bee Balm

Posted On June 26, 2022 By Mike

Blue Angel Hosta.

‘Blue Angel’ Hosta.

Posted On June 25, 2022 By Mike

Big Daddy Hosta.

‘Big Daddy’ Hosta

Posted On June 25, 2022 By Mike

'Humpback Whale' hosta.

‘Humpback Whale’ Hosta.

Posted On June 25, 2022 By Mike

Complete Guides

Growing, Rooting and Propagating Dappled Willow in Tree Form from Cuttings.

Growing Seeds, Winter Sowing, in Milk Jugs and Kitty Litter Jugs.

The Correct Way to Pot Rooted Cuttings, Nursery Stock Liners and other Plants.

Training Arborvitae and other Conical Evergreens to Grow with a Single Leader.

How to Propagate, Root Cuttings, of Dwarf Alberta Spruce.

Recent Posts

Blue Angel Hosta.

‘Blue Angel’ Hosta.

'Blue Angel'hosta is by far one of my favorite blue hostas. A big hosta like this in a perennial bed covers a lot of area and that keeps a ton of weeds at bay! These giant heart shaped leaves are very slug resistant. We have this plant in full sun. With … Read Full Article

Big Daddy Hosta.

‘Big Daddy’ Hosta

'Big Daddy' hosta is one of my favorite big hostas, mostly because it's big, it's blue and it has very interested leaves that are a bit dimpled. Big Daddy hosta gets about 24" tall and 36" wide. It's hardy in zones 3 through 9, the flowers are blends of … Read Full Article

'Humpback Whale' hosta.

‘Humpback Whale’ Hosta.

We sold out of 'Humpback Whale' hosta pretty early this year. Humpback Whale is pretty impressive hosta and this one really hasn't matured yet because they can get three feet high and 7 feet wide. I've also seen photos of them that show them to be a lot … Read Full Article

Ice Plant, delosperma

Ice Plant, delosperma

How pretty is that? And it's a ground hugging perennial that comes back year and year. These plants were new to our nursery last year so Pam and I planted three of them in our landscape at home. Not only did they do really well last year but they wintered … Read Full Article

Electric Red Dianthus

‘Electric Red’ Dianthus

I've been working on my perennial bed at the nursery and this Electric Red Dianthus caught my eye and was screaming "make my picture". So I did! Dianthus in general are great perennials for your garden. They are super winter hardy even here in cold … Read Full Article

Copyright © 1999-2023 · McGroarty Enterprises Inc. · Privacy Policy · Earnings Disclaimer · Terms of Service