hahaha. who would expect someone to pay them for old newspapers? It's not like they are a rarity. That's crazy.

I'd like to think that gardening has made me more of a real person too. Last spring, I helped a lady pick out flowers at a local garden center. She assumed i worked there, and I didn't have the heart to tell her I didn't. :P

I have become a "cheerful giver" also. I help my neighbors constantly with their gardens. It is also easy to help those in need during this recession, and it feels good to know that people benefit from my labors.

My close neighbor is a "Muckey Muck" administrator at Kaiser.
She has always been very in LOVE with my garden! I've been helping her for the last couple of years with a garden at Kaiser. I help her plan and choose, haven't seen the actual garden yet!

Lucille -- I agree, people can be nasty. I think one problem with craigslist is that it is a "for sale" site, and people see dollar signs. I'm amazed at how much people want some times for items in poor condition/heavily used. I see the same thing at garage and yard sales as well --people sometimes ask as much for an old, used, damaged item as it would cost to go buy it new. I doubt they sell much this way.

Is there a Freecycle group near you? There probably is -- there are many chapters of this organization. Try looking them up at freecycle.org, and see what pops up for your city. Freecycle is all about giving away things you no longer want that others can use -- and everything has to be offered for free with no strings attached. If you find you need more than you can get from the local store, you might check this organization out.

gardeners are nicer, i agree. most of us willingly share our harvest and experience with friends or sometimes even strangers if they ask, but we can be crazy, we talk to plants and ask them to grow or what wrong when they don't grow. lol

Gardeners are the Ambassadors of the Simple Things in Life. We are a special breed of people who understand the bond between our soul, the earth, the dirt and magic of turning a seed the size of, well, a seed, into food for people we love and anyone else who will take what have to give! It's second nature to us to give and grow and nurture. It's up to us to try and pass that on to people who live those selfish and complicated lives. If they would just stop long enough to smell the tilled dirt, wiggle their naked toes in it, and feel the satisfaction of creating a beautifully fined row ready for seed; they would see that one single touch of their hand pulling the dirt over a seed can bring food to several people. Live, love, till, plant and pick. It doesn't get any simpler than that. I'm proud to be simple, and prouder still to be a Gardener!

Hi Lucille,
I am in Houston too. Please let me know in advance next time so I can provide you some. Since I hate shopping I order bunch of things online and I usually have lots of boxes. We just got rid of them two weeks ago. I used plenty of those at the bottom of my garden beds as a weed mat when I was building those. Every time my husbands start cutting them in order to fit into trash bag he loudly curses for not having recycling (our HOA vote for no recycling)
I currently have some tomato extra tomato plants if you are interested as well.
I live in Champions (77069) area.

Ebru
Thank you for your kindness, but the liquor store guy was tickled at the thought that his boxes were going for mulch and I think I can get 10 or so a couple times a week from him. I will bring him a basket of veggies in the summer.
I have my tomatoes planted, but am going to the Heights are where my son lives next week and get a couple of Sungolds at Another Place and Time nursery there.
I think in a couple weeks when they start sprouting up I will have a few extra blackberry plants if you want them.

An idea for your husband: Next time he has to bag boxes, if he will wet them down with a hose about 15 minutes before bagging, they should get nice and squishy enough so he can shove them into lawn and leaf bags without cutting.

I worked with a gardener/nurseryman from 8-20 years old.
His family took me in & treated me like family.
I never felt like I was one of them, because I was raised not to intrude on others.
My daughter went to his granson tire shop to get a tire the other day & over heard one worker tell another to treat her good, she was like family to the owner.
I can not say how that made me feel, after know this man for forty-two years.
Gardener are truly the best people!

They are.
As for stuff like newspapers, i would try Freecycle, agree with above. I got some nice cinder blocks for my garden projects there.

Thanks Lucille,
I have never grown blackberries so I am not sure If I can manage them. Especially they need to be in the pot since I am out of room in the garden :) I think I will pass it.

Thank you for the offer!

People can be so mean. Ugh. It can be exhausting.

I can relate to your story, as today I had been playing in the garden and went to pick up my oldest from school wearing my 'play clothes'. A grandfather who comes each day as well asked me what I had been doing to get such muck stuck on my boots! (I'm 8 months pregnant too, and people always look at me like I'm a nut that I still play in the garden with my big baby belly!) I told him getting a head start on my garden for the year and our conversation attracted several other parents who chimed in about their gardens and their experiences. Isn't it funny how friendly and willing to share gardeners can be? It was a nice wait for the kids to come out today, that's for sure! ;)

Oh, and just a tip, next time you might try Freecycle instead of Craigslist. Generally on Craigslist people are looking for money, but everything on Freecycle is free and askers as well as takers alike are welcomed. ;)

I just joined freecycle but the garden is mulched and finished.(Well, gardens are never REALLY finished). I offered some guy 30 feet of chain link fence I had left over on freecycle but he never wrote back. (Anyone near Houston is welcome to it)
Quilt mommy I relate to you as far as not dressing up to go run some of my errands after I garden. Congrats on the pg btw and a real congrats on being a careful mom that picks up her kids.

AMEN, Lucille!
The fence can hold up running beans, cucumbers.

Y'all make me laugh, because one of the nastiest, meanest and "smallest" (meaning in spirit) people is my neighbor, a gardener is, I swear going to grow horns one of these days. Actually, if he wasn't doing the meanest thing to me (every downspout on his house is on french drains, running INTO my property and I can't get this to stop and it's going to cost me THOUSANDS of dollars to fix it (and other water problems) I am having) I'd have to laugh at him. His mean-ness gets the best of him and makes him look like a fool sometimes.
I had to stop being quite so nice as a gardener. I gave away some produce and some plants to some people wanting to garden and they came and stole a bunch more plants from me when their failed (because they did not follow help and advice).
The nicest gardener I ever encountered by surprise was the burglar bar man up the street from my place. They make grates and bars and do welding, so I had him bend and weld me two beautiful and unique rebar arches for my entrances. They are simple but very elegant. When they arrived he went ga-ga over my garden and only charged me for the rebar and nothing else...so I wanted to tip him...he only took his tip in plants! Such a nice man.

Well, there are a few mean gardeners, but I agree most gardeners are very nice and generous people. I think that comes from being connected to the earth, nature, and the cycle of life. I work very hard on my garden and have spent a lot of money over the years, but it is not like I earned it or I created it. I did not make the sun and the rain. I do not bind the amino acids together to make the plant grow. I didn't create the seed. All these things come from seemingly nothing and are God's free gift to mankind. How can you not want to share?

Girlgroupgirl,

Apparently you DO have positive feelings for gardeners, or else you would not come here to bare your heart to us gardeners about your experience.
Intentionally redirecting a water flow onto your property, so it damages your property is a tort and of course you can stop it. I suggest you contact an attorney, many will see you for an initial consult at no cost.
Put your feet up and talk. You got a few bad apples, but we're GOOD apples here :)

Lucille - thank you for the congrats, I am excited! Baby is coming pretty soon! ;) Lol* I'm a bit paranoid and drive my babies to and from school yes, but more than safety I just don't want to give up two hours of my childs day to the bus driver. That time adds up and they grow too fast as it is. I am lucky and grateful I am able to do it too. ;)

Girlgroupgirl - LOL* I guess you're right, some of the meanest people can be gardeners too! I would say in my experience most gardeners are kind and friendly and eager to share...however there are those few garden trolls or garden snobs out there who enjoy making people feel inadequate or inferior. To heck with them I say! ;)

I have heard this suggestion since first coming to GardenWeb many years ago. I think we all like to think that we have found a 'special' group that we can belong to, who are nicer. That 'we' are actually nicer. Unfortunately in my experience, I've been dissuaded from that notion. Gardeners are no better or worse than other people.

Good point, prairiemoon. We all have our shortcomings. :) I think the worst is when people at the garden centers are mean. I love those places, and it just deflates my excitement when they act like they hate it there. But I do work in customer service myself, so I know how that goes.

I just joined Freecycle and I'm not so pleased. I posted a 'want' post and got spammed relentlessly. I'll give it a few more weeks but I don't like spam. I notified a Freecycle mod, we'll see if she can help.

I hope you can resolve it Lucille, I've had very good luck with Freecycle. I've had good responses when I've tried a Want post and I just listed some extra rocks I needed to get out of the garden and had three responses, and they came and took every rock by the end of the day.

heirloomjunkie, yes, bad attitudes at the nursery are pretty unexpected to me too. I rarely run into that problem, which I'm grateful for. Usually I'm in a pretty good mood when I'm off to the garden center though, so I could ignore quite a bit. [g]

A lot of gardener come off as smarter, because we take the time to learn what it takes to grow things.
We then come off as really nice, because we share thing with others. Some craft do not, because they want you to pay them.
But most gardener love to talk shop(plants).
I can not count the times I have seen that what am I going to do look on a face, at a garden center. I always ask what they are planting & get "no sure".
Then I really try not to be a know it all, but help them find what works for them.
Once I finished talking & turned to walk away & found a Lady waiting to talk to me. I think she thought I worked there.

gardeners are also fierce competitors. We have a few cookouts at my house (friends and family) every summer. My garden is big enough to feed the 30-40 people that show up but it feels more like a state fair. I think mom sifts her peas because they are all the perfect size. I think my son grows his cukes in a tube they all are exactly 9" and 2" diam. My sister must pick 100 ears of corn to cull out the 36 she brings. I wonder if they know I walk around all 300 fruit trees to fill the fruit basket. I also have one spot in my blueberry field that I tend hard so I can have pie on the 4th of July. Maybe it's just our family I remember how hard gramp worked to have the first truck load of native sweet corn in the Boston market. LOL