Wednesday, June 22, 2011

CURBSIDE TOMATO CAGES

LARGE STURDY TOMATO CAGES


Hand made tomato cages made out of tough wire fencing are better than the light weight Home Depot or Lowes cages. I picked up eight of these cages  at a residential curbside. They were waiting for the weekly trash pickup truck. 

Why couldn't small towns have donation centers where folks can pick through the "one man's trash is another man's treasures." Would be a recycling bonaza. I heard of one city landfill that adopted a program of having shelves in a shed near the landfill site where , instead of books being thrown away, they would be shelved and re-purposed free to the town folks. it resulted in many books being saved.

Maybe some towns do similar programs?

10 comments:

  1. You've educated me about what to call those things: tomato cages. I've seen them but wouldn't have thought of calling them that.

    Yes, our dump has a shed [Free Shop] where people bring thing to recycle. It has books and magazines, table ware, small lamps, all kinds of stuff. Outside the shed which is only open Tuesday and Saturdays people bring cardboard boxes of stuff -- toys are popular, pots and pans, small piece of furniture. The place is trolled by an antique dealer or two. Nearby are drop boxes for clothing donations to Goodwill. This is just a short distance from the recyling area. In the spring they also have a huge pile of compost which anyone can take by the garbage bag-ful.

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  2. That is a good idea. I once jumped down into a recycling dumpster and rescued many, many books - including many vintage children's books. I couldn't imagine someone throwing them away, but they did.

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  3. June -- What an active "free shop" your landfill operators have initiated. It would be a wonderful model for other landfills to follow. We as a country need to recycle objects instead of buying new all the time.

    One step in having books is to buy used or get some free, maybe at a Free Shop -- the Green Press Initiative says, "Each year, approximately 30 million trees are used to make books sold in the United States—1,153 times the number of trees in New York City’s Central Park."

    Thanks for the comment -- barbara

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  4. Janet -- I love your story about saving books from a dumpster. It takes some fortitude to jump in a dumpster. Nice that you got some old children's books as you write them. I recently passed up some old books at curbside and have since been sorry I did not take them home. Next time, for sure, I will tuck them in my truck and retire them to shelves in my bookcase. Thanks -- barbara

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  5. I agree that too many good things end up in landfills. Ours does not save things like you mentioned, but I always make the effort to at least take our things to donation centers.

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  6. Oh, I love picking up freebies by the curb. I don't know about the dump, but around here, it's really common for people to leave things out by the road with "Free" signs...things get snapped up pretty quickly.

    I had 7 tomato starts that I didn't have room to plant, so left them by the curb on Monday...they were gone in less than 2 hours! They would have made a perfect match to go along with your cages, which are an awesome find!

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  7. Farmchick -- there is a transfer station nearby, for trash headed to a large landfill. At the transfer station there is not a thing that is saved. I imagine that many items and materials are thrown away that would benefit some folks. Nice that you take in items to the donation centers. I love to shop at some of the larger Good Will shops as they have interesting objects as well as nice clothes. Thanks -- barbara

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  8. Rose -- I lived in a city not to long ago that used your idea of "free" signs. I put many things out in front of my house when I was clearing out stuff that I did not use anymore -- my daughter was helping me. We arranged it so it looked like a mini store and signed it "everythng free." It was all gone by dark. Thanks for the comment -- barbara

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  9. We once lived in a village where the local coffee shop had bookshelves where anyone could drop one off or pick one up to keep or bring back. I always loved going there.

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  10. NCmountainwoman -- Now that is a great idea. I bet you picked up some good books while relaxing with your coffee. It seems that some towns have quite a few creative recycling ideas. -- barbara

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