Re: Cutting Costs in the Garden - Street Boutique

**A*@aol.com**

99. 44/99% of all NYC community gardens started off and are still poor 
people's gardens. 

Between organizations like Green Guerillas gleaning bulbs and greenery from 
professional landscapers ( and garden showcases like the Rockefeller Center 
"islands") and what gardeners have scrounged off the streets, it's amazing 
what we have managed to recycle. 

A prime example - A landlord decides to demolish a 150 year old brownstone 
staircase, with cast iron bannisters and finials a few doors down from the 
CCG.  The nice Brooklyn basedRajput gentlemen (bearded, turban wearing Hindus 
from the Indian subcontinent) are persuaded to let us dumpster dive and to 
look at the stuff they are breaking up before they go in the dumpster. We add 
our labor to keep them on schedule and let them chill during lunch hour 
during the garden.  

We ended up with  a ton of primo stone for garden paths and beds, and a 
spendid piece of cast iron which we painted and moved to the back shade 
garden/patio.  Most of our "street boutique" items are not so classy - pink 
flamingoes, an old wooded whisky barrel and recycled plumbing fixtures are 
our usual speed.  

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman
Volunteer,
 <A HREF="http://www.clintoncommunitygarden.org/";>Clinton Community Garden</A>

<< Subj:     [cg] Cutting Costs in the Garden
 Date:  4/23/03 9:21:15 PM Eastern Daylight Time
 From:  jimcall@casagarden.com (Jim Call)
 Sender:    community_garden-admin@mallorn.com
 To:    tamsin@sparecreative.com (Tamsin Salehian), 
community_garden@mallorn.com

 Yeah, you guys are going to love this.
 Speaking of using materials in the garden that "cut costs", here are a few
 items.

 Wood Chips - for garden paths only (not in actual garden, nitrogen sucking
 medium) - Delivered free to the     garden from a tree service who is on
 contract with the city to mainly trim trees (helps keep the lights on during
 those ice storms).  I've given them instructions to dump only "clean chips"
 and not ones which includes limbs.

 Leaf Mulch - Our garden is located next to the city's leaf pickup storage
 area (a stone's throw from the garden).  They deliver (using a front loader)
 great leaf mulch to the garden.

 New this year - Believe it or not, we have actually started visiting the
 local funeral homes .   You see, traditionally in the South, after the
 graveside funeral service, the flowers from the wreaths are taken from their
 metal stands (trianglar) and thrown onto the casket, then buried.  After the
 family leaves, the funeral home workers gather up all the metal stands and
 take them back to the funeral home where they throw them away in their
 dumpster.  We have one funeral home that actually places them next to their
 dumpster (if we call to arrange it) so we can just drive by and pick them
 up.  Anyway, this year, we used a vise to straighten out the main stand
 support.  When straighten, its about 8' long.  They work great for
 supporting floating row covers.  We hope to find other uses for them as well
 (maybe small garden banner supports).

 Soon, I hope to have pictures of our "mini-planters" for the garden this
 year.   The city had about 60' of 12" plastic corrugated perforated pipes
 left over from their garden drainage project.  We are cutting them up into
 small sections to make "mini-planters".  Details at 11.

 Anyway, these are some of the "free" items that can be used in the garden.

 I guess in my case, growing up poor in the south sometimes has its
 advantages.

 Maybe next year, someone needs to conduct a session on "Cutting Costs in The
 Garden" at the ACGA Conference.  This session would probably have good
 attendence.

 Kindest regards,  Jim Call,  CASA Community Garden Volunteer Dir. >>

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