May 18th Plant Sale: Reduce, Reuse, Garden Tools!

Bumblebee pollinating a purple coneflower

The Annual Master Gardener Plant Sale sells more than just plants. They feature gently used garden tools too! If you come to the plant sale, you just may find the exact tool you need at a price you bargain for!

 

“It goes well with the reduce, reuse, recycle philosophy,” says Master Gardener, Leigh Mundhenk, organizer of the gently used garden tool booth. “Baby boomers are downsizing. They are spring cleaning their sheds, garages, and basements, and realize that they don’t need so much.”

 

This is great news for plant sale attendees because they will need garden tools for all of their new plantings.  Many tools sold brand new today can be expensive and not as well-made as some of the older tools. “We have many of those hand tools with wooden handles. If someone were to take one home, oil the handle and sharpen the blade, it would become a very nice tool for under $10,” says Leigh.

 

There will be an assortment of garden tools, garden decorations, stakes, wheelbarrows, worm bins, loppers, edgers, cultivators, and some beautiful unique items that would normally cost much more money at a specialty shop or antique store.

 

In past plant sales, Master Gardeners had set price tags on everything, but they decided there were too many donated items to individually tag. So they now have people simply make an offer. “We actually end up making more money that way because people are more generous than we would have thought,” Leigh explains.

Two sunflowers in the garden

 

It’s wonderful that customers are so generous, because proceeds from the Master Gardener Plant Sale directly support the Seed Grant Program, which fund the Master Gardener Volunteer projects in communities across Cumberland County. https://extension.umaine.edu/cumberland/map-points-category/all-mgv-projects/

 

To anyone who is also spring cleaning, the Master Gardeners are asking, “Please bring your donations to us!” They will gladly accept what saleable donations you have. There are no restrictions on what they will accept, but it must be clean and in working condition.

Contact the Master Gardener Program at our office about donations. Call 207-781-6099 or e-mail extension.rlreception@maine.edu

 

The Plant Sale is on May 18th @ 8am-noon. Visit this link to view details of the event: https://extension.umaine.edu/cumberland/event/annual-master-gardener-plant-sale/

Master Gardener Plant Sale Postcard