Get FREE Gardening Supplies!
By Vanessa Richins
Are you interested in a way to possibly get some or all of your gardening supplies free? Check out Freecycle and Craigslist!
Freecycle is an international non-profit organization dedicated to keeping items out of the landfills and building communities at the same time. Local chapters are run through Yahoo Groups.
You can find your local chapter at www.freecycle.org. Members are able to post up items they don’t need anymore. You are also able to request items you are looking for - however, please do be polite and offer some items up in return, if possible.
I run my local Freecycle (all local owners and moderators are volunteers). I’ve been able to get free plants, pots, bricks, seeds, mulch and all sorts of other gardening supplies. Many people offer up plants every year as they thin out their gardens. If you are lucky enough to have some lawn, there are sometimes lawnmowers. People are friendly and generous - you’d be amazed at the kinds of things that get offered up there. Try yours out today!
Another place to get your garden supplies free (or cheap) is your local Craigslist. Craigslist is a free classified ad website, also with local pages. Each Craigslist has a “Free” section where people post up things they are willing to just give away. There is also a section for “Items Wanted” you can post to. If you can’t find a free listing for what you want, they do have a “Farm & Garden” section to watch. I’ve gotten many, many cheap deals and some free items on Craigslist. The main website is www.craigslist.com You can find your local page on there.
Good luck and I hope all of us can get some free garden supplies this season!
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:00 pm
I am a huge fan of Freecycle and have used it to help my urban gardening pursuits as well as to give away the fruits of my labors to others.
As a “Pay it Forward” type thing, I usually start more seedlings than I need and give them away on Freecycle with my pledge to support new gardeners. It actually works!