Trugs:
Range
& Prices

Other Items:
Rakes Forks Brooms Carriers & Shovels

Trugs I make and their pricing

Sometimes called the Sussex trug because this is the area of southern England where these baskets evolved as farm containers to hold “truck” or produce. The word “trug” may be a Sussex dialect variation of “truck” and some people call them “truck baskets”. (Another theory says that “trug” evolved from “trog”, the Anglo-saxon for boat.)

With the advent of gardening as a pastime and passion for the English in the 1700s the garden trug came of age and remained the work container of choice until the age of plastic. Queen Victoria fell in love with trugs in 1851 at the Great Exhibition and helped make them a desirable fashion statement for the garden.

English makers used willow for the planks and coppiced ash or sweet chestnut for the handle and rim. I use poplar or willow for the hand planed planks and coppiced willow poles from local rivers for the handles and rims. I split long, clean poles with a froe and mallet and shape them on the shaving horse with draw knife and spokeshave. They are steam bent into frames and dried before being assembled with copper boat nails. The bark is finished with oil and bees wax polish. Otherwise they traditionally have no finish on them and are used robustly for every thing possible in the garden.

#1 Trug

5 inches by 9 inches

$50.00

#2  Trug

6 inches by 11 inches

$60.00

#3 Trug
To be developed
not yet available
 

#4  Trug

8 inches by 16 inches

$75.00

#5  Trug

To be developed
not yet available

#6  Trug

11 inches by 20 inches

$105.00

#7 Trug

12 inches by 23 inches

$120.00