Well, since my grandmother died, friends of my mother's have been coming around to our house, here and there, dropping of various assortments of plants. Many of them have died by now, but we still have some of them! Our other plants were purchased by us.
@DreekLass , I'm so sorry to hear about your Grandmother Hope you're all doing well. As for the question, I haven't gardened in a few years, but when I was, my neighbours and I would trade seeds at the end of the season. Or if certain plants started taking over, we'd dig some up and hand them out. I had some sun flowers that went crazy in my yard and everyone would come over and help themselves.. they were so hard to keep up with lol.
So sorry to hear of the loss of your grandmother . These are all great ideas of where/how to obtain free or low cost plants. Another is on Freecycle / TrashNothing. I often see people in the local groups (often moderators) offering free plants or clippings, especially at the pivotal points during gardening, such as when they need to be cut back or repotted. Also, I have seen pots and even garden or potting soil offered. Additionally, often times you can get much larger plants and even trees the same way. They will be offered in the groups (or on Craigslist, in the Free Section), and all you have to do is make arrangements with the owner, then go dig them up and transport them to your home.
Thanks for your condolences guys JosieP, it's the same grandmother that died before. Although she passed in November, people have been coming out of the woodwork to visit and most of the time they bring flowers. They are beautiful flowers. Not so much when they are in the stage of dying though, or are already dead.
Oh! Well, I'm still sorry lol, and very glad it's not another recent passing. So you're saying that people are bringing dead flowers? lol Or that's when they stop being beautiful? lol. At least it's nice to know so many people care.. most of the time, they just don't know what else to do.
I was going to suggest places like Lowe's and Home Depot as well. My dad actually gets all sorts of bags of rocks and mulch and other stuff from them dirt cheap when the bags are damaged. Periodically they will take any damaged bags of stuff and pile them on a wooden pallet, and sell off the whole pallet dirt cheap - usually like 6 or 7 dollars when I've seen him buy it. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if they steeply marked down plants that looked to be in bad health. It's often not that hard to revive them if you know what you're doing and have a good location to place them so they are getting the right amount of light and moisture. You could also keep an eye and an ear out for people who are moving and do not want to take their plants with them. Perhaps a coworker or friend or family member is moving and you know they have a selection of live plants you would like - hit them up and offer to take them instead of them tossing them out. You could even drive by some apartment complexes from time to time, usually when people are moving they will leave behind stuff like furniture and plants near the dumpsters in case anyone wants them,
haha!! Nobody has brought us dead flowers yet. If they had, I'd turn them away at the door lol. I was talking about how the flowers die after a while. I'm fine with people not knowing what to do. But they should at least know not to bring people dead flowers Lol
Geez.. just when I thought they were on to something. One less thing for the grieving to do! Just receive and trash. I should stop now, I don't know how not to offend people, so I'll be edging closer to that point with someone somewhere lol.
There's a guy down the road from me who sells tomato/brocolli/cauliflower plants 2 for $5. I always go 3 weeks after his sale and he gives me a ton of plants for a really low price. It seems like he just wants to get rid of them towards the end. This is a great way we get plants for cheap. Sometimes I find them on Craigslist as well in the free section.
