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Frugal Gardening

Free Mulch/Compost with the bonus of free plants.

12 years ago

Leaf gathering time again. I go out fall and again early spring and gather as many bags of leaves as possible from the curbsides. This past weekend, I gathered somewhere between 250 and 300 bags. I try to get mostly oak leaves, pine needles, and ornamental grass stems/foliage such as miscanthus, as those make the best mulch.

As a nice bonus, I frequently encounter discarded but perfectly healthy plants someone no longer wants. Sometimes, they are obvious, sitting in bags. Other times, they are buried in the leaves and come tumbling out as I dump leaves.

This past weekend, I scored 5 decent looking golden barberries, a bunch of English ivy, a couple of decent lavenders, some rooted cuttings/trimmings of variegated euonymous, a couple of clumps of daylilies with very fine foliage, probably Stella D'Oro or similar, and a Pachira aquatica aka Moneyplant, which is a tropical houseplant.

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Comment (1)

drasaid
12 years ago
At one house, I nabbed some bags of what I thought were leaves (We have chickens, and a good way to keep the run from stinking is to dump leaves and other organic stuff on top. It rots down and never seems to get any higher . . . ) and upon dumping it into the run, to the surprise of me and the chickens I found I had three huge bags of cast iron plant (Aspidistra elatior). I had no desire for any of it, so I put it up for grabs on Craigslist. Man was it popular. I had to dole it out but no one complained about getting a full grocery bag of the stuff. I'm bored to death with it so I was rather surprised at all the people, some who drove twenty miles to get it (They called and asked, and then drove knowing full well what they were getting when they arrived). I have also gotten african irises. Here and there someone tosses in dog poop or beer cans, but hey, that is the luck of the draw when you are curb snatching.
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