Best Blog Week Ever: Day Two–Green Thumb on a Budget

My notion of gardening as cheaply as possible touched a real nerve with The Lean Green Family’s readers–with this June 2nd posting “My Green Thumb on a Budget” eliciting some of the most comments of any post this year. (I get the sense that the idea of getting something for (almost) nothing makes the hearts of my frugal-minded friends flutter just a bit, don’t you think?) Anyway, here again are highlights of the post on how I used Freecycle to get free stuff for my garden:

We finally got some time this spring to begin sprucing up the gardens by cutting back the ivy and trimming the azaleas, which blossoms have come and gone. Last week I decided to transplant four azaleas from the backyard to the front yard–the front had no color, save for one rhododendron–and now, four transplanted azaleas later, my front path will be framed with pink and white azalea bushes come next spring. Because our house sits on a hill and doesn’t have a lawn, we’ve got ground cover instead. Specifically, we’ve got creeping myrtle or vinca, which produces a pretty purple flower in the spring. Unfortunately, the previous owners had planted this ground cover spottily, leaving it looking like a man who’d had a bad hair transplant job. This past weekend I started transplanting myrtle from the back, where it’s growing like a weed, to the front so I could fill in the bare spots.

We still have a long way to go with filling out the landscaping, specifically in the front of the house, where the cement foundation is exposed and ugly. I’d like to get some of the same shrubbery that I used to have in my old house but, in a fit of frugalness, I don’t want to have to pay for it. Well, a friend of mine happened to have told me recently how she put a call out on Freecycle for hosta. She wanted more for her garden and, like me, didn’t want to have to pay for something she might be able to get for free. Her Freecycle “wanted” ad worked, because she ended up with more hosta than she knew what to do with.

I took a page from her frugal book, and put my own “wanted” ad on Freecycle, along with Craigslist, and people have been responding quickly and generously. I’ve already picked up a small lilac bush, some daylilies and two bags of compost soil (didn’t ask for it but she wanted to get rid of it and it was free, so I took it). I’m heading down to someone’s else’s home later this week to look at a few burning bushes, holly bushes and what sounds like Scottish broom. One of these folks is having a fence put in and needs the plants taken away, or the fence guys were just going to throw them out.

The only catch in my getting this shrubbery for free? In some instances I’ve got to go dig the plants out myself. No problem. I’ve got a good work ethic and a strong desire to avoid spending money when I don’t have to. Sure, I’ll spend a little on gas getting to these places, but not nearly as much as I would have paid for mature bushes at a local nursery.

Have you ever thought of getting free shrubbery, plants or bushes from a place like Freecycle or Craigslist? If not landscaping greenery, what other kinds of “I can’t believe you got that for free” items have you secured by putting a “wanted” ad on one of these websites? I’d love to hear how you cleverly saved money and helped avoid something getting tossed in the trash.