Free Plants and Books (Free is Good!)

* MOST PHOTOS ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST *

I joined Freecycle a while ago and I have had good experiences with it. So far I have responded to WANTED postings, where people ask for things that they need, in case others have those things that they are trying to find a way to discard without taking to the garbage dump -- or "landfill" if we want to use the nice word for it.

In response to WANTED postings, we were able to freecycle my son's old bunk beds when he got a new loft bed from IKEA; and we freecycled our former kitchen table and chairs (which were of good quality and needed a nice new home) to some people who lost everything in a house fire. We also helped someone out who was in need of a paper shredder. It helped us out, too, since we had an extra one just sitting around taking up space.

Today I was able to pick up some plants from a lady who was freecycling perennials in her garden. I got two new cranesbill (one unknown, which I will post a picture of when it blooms next year, and Ankum's Pride); a Jacob's Ladder, an unknown daylily (which I suspect is probably 'Stella d'Oro'); and a pretty pink fall-blooming flower that I have no idea what it is.

Rozanne Cranesbill (not Ankum's Pride)



Looking at the cranesbill in the garden, Ankum's Pride looks pretty aggressive. And sure enough, the back of the label says, and I quote, "Also great as a weed-smothering groundcover." Hmmm. Well, I have planted it by my rock stairs, on the other side from Johnson's Blue, where there is only dead grass right now. I am ready to start reclaiming some of that lovely planting space with something other than vulnerable lawn grass.

Anyway, this same lady also posted some books she was wanting to get rid of, and said one box was full of gardening, craft, and decorating books. So I laid claim to that one and luckily it was not spoken for already. So, as well as my new plants, I came home with some interesting books. The picks of the crop, though, are:

• Gardening for Dummies (yes, it's a real book, which I guess is why a certain blog had to change its name), by Mark McClaskey, in a small, newsprint edition, almost like a magazine;


• Landscape Gardening and Garden Construction, from the Time-Life Encyclopedia of Gardening;


• The Scented Garden, by David Squire; and


• The Country Diary Book of Decorating English Country Style, by Sydney A. Sykes, which has a small section on "pots and plants" but is otherwise a bit dated in its recommendations.

And absolutely the best book of the bunch and the reason I am so happy I did this:

• Gardening Without A Garden, by Gay Search (yes, that is the woman's name; at first I thought I had a different kind of book, until I saw the title). This one bills itself as "a creative guide to transforming small spaces with containers." (I was just at Gary's blog today and I commented that I hoped there would be a book on container gardening in the batch.)

Hopefully, next summer I will be able to improve on this year's examples, shown in the photos below.

An Old Photo, From When The Coleus Was Still Alive



Planters By Garden Bench,
When The Chocolate Autumn Sedum Was Still Standing Tall



The Hanging Basket, When It Was First Bought



When The Thyme Was Blooming And The Echeveria Was Small



Sedum and Perennial Planters From Early in June


All photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.