LOL, I was in North Dakota, camped in a city park, and spent the evening pulling weeds in the flower bed. :)

Moni

I have to admit that I mower the neighbors grass last year for the clippings. I was not sure they had the money to mow it, and I got pickup load of clippings. I also raked up grass and weeds along the hwy. where the state brush hogged. I also got a round bale of hay that had rolled off the trailer into a place that was hard to get to.

Gardeners beg, borrow, and steal compost anywhere they can.

Larry

Whew!

I thought it was just me.

I wish the wheat bales would roll off around here.
Tree

I'm not content with just grass clippings. I beg for old bales of hay. Most farmers and ranchers just burn them once they're too old to be sold or fed to cattle, but a few that know me will call and ask if we want them occasionally. Woo hoo! There's nothing like getting old spoiled bales of hay that already have turned to compost in the middle.

Our friend, Fred, got my first big garden off to a great start by giving me 4 old round bales of hay, about 3 years old and almost compost already, to use as mulch our second summer here. We drove our pick-up truck over to the old home place where they were and he loaded them, one per trip, onto the pickup for us with his tractor. After we got home and could push, pull and drag each rotting bale out of the bed of the pickup truck, I just unrolled them and mulched with them and used the rest on the compost pile. He also brought me a trailer load of cow manure from his barn that year. That was in about 2000. Since then, I've been on the receiving end of incredible generosity that has included our friends, Donna and her son,David, just showing up one day with about 75 square bales of hay on a trailer and asking the question "do you want this?" and our friends, Jesse and Joyce, giving us 200 square bales in the midwinter of 2011. I'm always mindful of the fact that our garden is not ours alone because many of our friends have contributed items that helped us build the garden. One friend gave us a beautiful picket fence because they were replacing theirs with a pipe fence and we've been given other wonderful stuff like a chipper/shredder, concrete edging for flower beds, concrete stepping stones, chicken wire for our first chicken run, used landscape timbers for flower beds, etc.

Over the years, Fred has given us at least 50 molasses feed tubs for us to re-use as large containers for plants. Each tub is about the equivalent of a whiskey half-barrel in size, with some being a little smaller, so you can grow almost anything in them. After he saw I raised tomato plants in them one year, he started growing tomato plants in them and reported back to be delightedly that his tomato plants in the tubs produced better than his plants in the ground. Because he has a bad back, he puts his tubs up on old tables or other items so he can pick tomatoes without bending over.

I'm never too proud to accept any freebie that we can use to improve our garden or chicken coop/chicken run.
The last couple of years no one has had any old hay to get rid of because the drought has ensured they use up every bit they have to feed their cows or horses, but maybe this year will be a great hay year and someone will have old, spoiled hay to get rid of in 2014 and 2015.

If I lived in town, I'd drive around at night and pick up bags of autumn leaves in the fall, but out here in the rural area where we live, if people rake up the leaves at all, they tend to burn them. So, I just rake up and mow up all our leaves and use them. Grass clippings are great, but because our garden space is so large, we never have enough of them and having the spoiled hay and autumn leaves helps a lot.

The main reason we overseed our lawn grass with rye seed in the fall is to have a green envelope of grass around the house to slow down any approaching wildfire. At least that's what I tell everyone. The real reason, in my mind, is so we have rye grass clippings in the fall, winter and spring to mix in with autumn leaves in the compost.pile. People always tell me they love seeing our green lawn in the dead of winter but they don't overseed their lawns because they don't want to have to mow grass year-round. I'm tempted to tell them that if they'd overseed with rye I'd come over and mow it if I could keep the grass clippings, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have enough time in springtime during planting season to keep up with my end of the bargain.

If there is a line that shouldn't be crossed, I haven't found it yet. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, or a bad thing. Most people, though, are happy to let you have hay, grass clippings or bags of leaves if you ask. They'd rather see them go to someone who will recycle them than see them go to the landfill. If you have to mow and rake the clippings yourself, well....then you've gotten your exercise for the day.

Dawn

I live in an area that has had a tornado to the south of me, and another one to the north, with strong straight line winds in between.

And the down branches piled up along the streets, are everywhere. I'm having to fight the urge to go get the leaves.

I told my Wife the other day, that when I start going up and down the street stripping leaves off of limb piles, the neighbors will know I've completely lost it. They will next expect to see me pushing a shopping basket up and down the street with my possessions inside.

Seriously, I hope the City is gonna do something with all this compost matierial. Maybe grind it all up and make a huge mulch pile and allow us to go fill up our trucks.

Ya know, Dollar...when yer thinkin' about strippin' leaves from tree limbs? Yeah, you might have a problem, there, chief.

Mowing the neighbor's yard for free can be excused as charity. ;)

Now, then...here, the fairgrounds are only a couple blocks away. Rodeos and livestock shows and 4H and...

I wonder if...