An "igloo type" ice chest with no lid for free..Well let me explain now.. I converted it to vermicomposting so in the long run it really was a great deal! The other best deal i ever got was a trailer full of clay pots from my grandmother ~ I have no idea where she got them from but she gave them to me and there will be enough for a lifetime! Other than that a load full of chipped/shredded wood from the local arborist which makes great mulch... those are my great deals ~
Barb

A florist delivered Easter lilies to the church where I work and didn't want the plastic crates back. I got a dozen or so. They're perfect for grouping my winter sowing jugs, among many other uses. I'm hoping to score another dozen when they bring poinsettias soon.

Today I got three ford explorer loads of bricks from a demolished house. I'd get more if I had time to pick them up.

Barb,
When I first read ice chest, my first thought was vermicomposting.

Free tree trimmer wood chips

Found for free at the recycle center-6 brand new 6ft steel fence posts. They were laying beside the bin. Recyclers often place 'the good stuff' to the side, knowing someone will want it for sure.

I also discovered they have a wooden pallet there for recyclers to put their scrap wood on. I found a couple of good pieces on that, and must remember to check it every time I get a chance.

Same place, another time, got several nice windows in frames, perfect for making cold frames.

Belgium blocks, crates, bricks...all good and very useful stuff!

Sue

Grass clippings but the neigbour moved. They are hard to get in my area as grass is hard to grow under our forest!!

Cement chunks. They have been the BEST free thing ever. We have scavenged junk and illegal dump sites for it. I use it to edge beds, create raised beds, make pathways...I can never have enough. Even the small bits can be used for pot feet!! Bricks are good too!

Plastic pots. I sell my extra garden plants, and I love when people save me their plastic garden pots and flats. Good flats are a rare commodity (the kind without divisions!!).

Old shower curtains. My raised beds are made the right size to use thick, clear old shower curtains for row covers.

Wood chips from the tree guys. I don't know why they rarely come by. I could sure use a load of wood chips for mulch right about now!!

Treated wood and cinder blocks. I use slats of treated wood, especially fence pickets over top of cinder blocks. These create a raised single "Shelf" (I can stack two blocks so I don't have to bend so far) for nursery racks. Best of all, I can hide the blocks out of the way and stow the wood under the deck when not in use. It's my red neck garden center, lol :0

Tree Pots. I LOVE the large tree pots. They make great containers in the potager for small tomatoes, climbing beans, and especially melons, cukes or anything else that needs a hot growing period. The black plastic heats up fast, plus these are portable. The pots also hold my clean smaller garden pots, and can be used for trugs. Turned upside down and topped with wood fence slats they are great for garage sale and driveway plant sale "tables" that just stack away when not needed. I have a friend who keeps me in good supply from her landscape company!

GGG

Free rocks from construction side to place around my garden. Manager was very nice and actually helped to load them in a trunk of my car. I had to make few trips, and it was worth it!

free rocks!!! good deal!

The electric company insisted on topping my maple trees. They normally put the limbs through a chipper as soon as they get done. We asked if we could keep the chipped wood. They were happy to leave it. (HUGE pile) After a couple months, I used it as mulch and it sure went a long way!

bricks - and more bricks - and more bricks - by posting an ad in local trade magazine. People who wanted to get rid of them.....gonna be great lining my flowerbeds, etc. (to keep armadillos out!)

I keep hoping local tree trimmers for power company will come by - the county came last year and did the right of way along my dirt road - they were NOT nice enough to let me have the chipped stuff, even though they also were using a chipper!

I picked up a nice old wooden ladder someone put out for the trash. Makes a nice planter shelf.

Got a very nice wooden glider seat off a guys curb he was throwing out because he got a "nicer" metal one. I replaced a couple of bolts, sanded off a couple of splinters, and painted it red/white/blue and it looks great out there under the trees with the old steel motel chairs I snagged out of another guys trash. Both these guys helped me load them into the back of my truck. The steel chairs were in good shape and just needed a new coat of paint.

I got a whole load of brick pavers sitting at another guys curb with a sign on them that said "free-take 'em all" so I did. He didn't help me load them and there were a couple hundred, so it was heavy work. But fortunately, I just happened to have a pair of work gloves in the back seat of my truck that day. I spent my lunch hour loading those bricks, and I got hungry later back at the office, but it was worth it.

I had an arborist take down a dead tree for me and he was going to charge me the $20 dumping fee on top of the cost of removing the tree and chipping it. So I asked him if he'd knock off $50 from my tab if I let him dump his chips in my yard and he said yes. He had already completed about 7 other jobs that day and his truck was full. I had a low spot under a lean-to up by the barn so he backed his dumper up to the front end of the lean-to and dropped the whole load. It took me about a hour to spread the chips, but I had a nice 12" layer of wood chips afterwards and saved money on the whole deal.

Cheryl

I've gotten a few things in the last month from www.freecycle.com Hmmm, didn't make a link.
I have also gotten rid of some stuff!
Be sure if you join to make your site say that you want your e-mail to be put all in ONE e-mail! I think this is under member preferences.

Best is horse manure that owners with front-end loaders put in my pickup for me. Another treasure that I'm always looking out for is discarded glass shower doors. They're usually made of safety glass and make great cold frame covers.

Over the years, I've found the trick to "freebies" is
keeping your eyes open and the antenna turned on!

Railroad ties (great for hardscaping slopes) when they
were ripping up rail beds back in the 70's and 80's. . .
free rocks whenever you get near a riverbed, preferably
not right next to someone's house and definitely NOT in
state parks - New England is just terrific for this!. . .
Right after Hallowee'en, all the "decorative" bales of
hay that folks put out to the curb - I use them as the
"brown" layer in my compost, so I can save all my shredded
leaves for mulch. . .cobble stones: can you believe back
in the 70's, the City of New York used to dump them along
the abandoned waterfronts in Brooklyn? Amazing! I've
built a whole barbeque, a terrace and various walkways out
of them here in NJ. . .Then there's horse manure (I clean
out someone's horse barn every Spring), all my neighbor's
leaves (shredded), and all manner of interesting plants
around abandoned (and falling down) farmhouses, of which
there are a great many in this once agricultural mecca. . .

I got some free rocks had to pick them my self in the rain all the while dodging biting insects... Free Roses of Sharon plants had to dig myself but the homeowner came out with some fancy tool she want to show off so the time went a lot faster. Also free wood mulch it took me 5 months to clear it out and spread it everywhere... I always ask for people-friends to bulb share you be surprised how many folks hate all that mondo grass and would love to thin it out or have had their fill of all those irises. I usually check www.Freecycle.com as well as www.craigslist.com
happy gardening from zone 8

Tall, rusted ol' iron corner shelf for plants - neighbor put out to the street. I thought I could use it as an anchor to plant on/around somewhere in the yard. I'd love to find a boatload of free bricks for some paths I'm planning... I'm a new gardener, but have high hopes! I have a huge but plain back yard and any tips on laying brick paths easily (and cheap) would be appreciated.
Thanks!

I asked for a wood chipper for mother's day one year. Plan was to clean out brush/saplings in our woods, and chip for mulch and paths. Sorta free. After wrestling with wood chipper for a season with not much results I decided the saplings would make great decorative fencing and the brush could be left for the critters. THEN on a trip to our towns wonderful stump dump I spied a giant  I mean giant  pile of wood chips. It was like a dream. A free dream. So I got my wood paths, garden mulch, rustic sweat pea fencing, and homes for some wild life. I sold the wood chipper. It was really noisy. This motherÂs day I am praying for a little truck?

I got a raspberry bush that was a 4 inch broken twig in a pot. I planted it anyway in a small 2 x 2 foot square dirt section in my patio and a year later it was putting a pint of berries every other day.

This winter I got free straw bales, and leafs and cardboard and made 3 lasagna style flower beds. Then I met a friend on garden web and got about 30 grocery bags of free perenial plants. :) And possibly I will get some free shrubs too-- waiting to see.
Its kinda nice, cuz for years I've been the one giving things away and I just am happy as a bug in a rug with my new garden. :)

I was behind a landscaping truck on a busy highway 3 years ago and he lost part of his load.I got out to help him put everything back on the trailer and he gave a me a nice little 2' foot peach tree for my help.
This tree is always loaded with peaches in the late summer and we feel blessed now.

Besides the beautiful heirloom irises that I got for the digging when I first moved to NC, this latest find has got to be a close second: Last weekend I saw 20 concrete border pavers (12" x 4")on the side of the road. My neighbor had put them out for pickup. I loaded them into the trunk of my car and hauled them off to the garden. They'll be the border for a new bed/bench area. YAY!

I love composted old horse bedding to use as mulch/fertilizer. My BIL brings it to me by the pickup load full. He's the best!

Gotten lots of things for free - the free pair of bypass loppers (not great condition but better than the pair I had before) lying in the middle of a busy road for a couple of hours before I finally decided the owners weren't coming back, so grabbed them before anybody ran over them, cinder blocks and pavers from freecycle that I picked up with my minivan-turned-pickup (I've never seen the back end ride that low before!), and lots of other stuff from freecycle. Currently collecting free icing buckets from the local Price Chopper bakery for tomato and pepper planting this year. I think I have over 30 of them in the garage waiting to be prepped. :-)