Tips and tricks to finding yardadori

[chlorine-queen]

Anyone here have recommendations when it comes to looking for folks to let you come dig up landscaping shrubs from their yard? Craigslist and Marketplace have “free- you dig” type postings around my area occasionally (Oregon coast), but I’m considering posting my own ads for shrub/small tree removal on a case-by-case basis. While there are a couple species I’m particularly interested in, I don’t want to preemptively turn away potentially interesting material. If you’ve done this before and had some success, or could suggest other avenues to look besides CL and Marketplace, or tried and had it go poorly for whatever reason, I’d love to hear whatever advice or experience anyone might have to share.

 

[Gabler]

First, look for species and genera that others are successfully developing as bonsai. Unusual species aren't always a bad thing, but they may not respond well to collection. For example, I've never been able to keep a flowering dogwood alive after digging it up. It's a shame, because I find plenty with beautiful trunks and nebari, but they hate to be disturbed. I suspect that's why you almost never see them grown as bonsai.

Next, look for an even spread of surface roots. Sometimes, there will be one odd root at the surface, but an even spread just a bit below the soil, so dig a little.

Then, look for interesting trunklines amidst the tangle of branches. If you can find a tapered trunk amongst the branches on a tree with good roots, and you chop off everything else, you're probably about halfway to a decent tree, and the half you skipped is the boring half.

Lastly, look for finer branches and foliage low and close to the trunk, especially on conifers. This is less important for deciduous trees, since you can chop them to build new branches from scratch.

 

[Hbhaska]

Anyone here have recommendations when it comes to looking for folks to let you come dig up landscaping shrubs from their yard? Craigslist and Marketplace have “free- you dig” type postings around my area occasionally (Oregon coast), but I’m considering posting my own ads for shrub/small tree removal on a case-by-case basis. While there are a couple species I’m particularly interested in, I don’t want to preemptively turn away potentially interesting material. If you’ve done this before and had some success, or could suggest other avenues to look besides CL and Marketplace, or tried and had it go poorly for whatever reason, I’d love to hear whatever advice or experience anyone might have to share.

I’ve been doing this fairly successfully. Tried posting my own ad asking for shrubs and bushes that people might want to give away. Those attempts were far less successful (0 hits) compared to getting trees from people posting on CL, FB marketplace, OfferUp etc. I guess people only post if they really want someone to come and dig up with their trees; not randomly respond to some strange posted ad. asking for trees in their yard. Also, people sell their potted trees now and then at their garage sales, even if they just had something sitting around in their yard. You just have to ask. Got a couple nice bougainvillea this way. All the best.

 

[dbonsaiw]

I've seen folks post "pay X and you dig" type of listings on etsy as well. An issue with putting your own ad out is that people will just bother you to come dig up their crap - you need to see the tree first to determine if it's worth digging in the first place. I have found that once people understand that your request is not some sort of scam and you're not an axe murderer, they are actually pretty happy to donate to the cause and let you dig things up and airlayer. I'm also of the school of thought that if you take a tree from the forest and nobody is there to see it, it doesn't make a noise.

 

[chlorine-queen]

I've seen folks post "pay X and you dig" type of listings on etsy as well. An issue with putting your own ad out is that people will just bother you to come dig up their crap - you need to see the tree first to determine if it's worth digging in the first place. I have found that once people understand that your request is not some sort of scam and you're not an axe murderer, they are actually pretty happy to donate to the cause and let you dig things up and airlayer. I'm also of the school of thought that if you take a tree from the forest and nobody is there to see it, it doesn't make a noise.

Oh yeah, most of the forested areas around me are commercial timberlands and I know lots of it will see heavy machine activity if not straight up clear cutting within some period of time, and a crooked little tree isn’t of any value to them…

I’ve been doing this fairly successfully. Tried posting my own ad asking for shrubs and bushes that people might want to give away. Those attempts were far less successful (0 hits) compared to getting trees from people posting on CL, FB marketplace, OfferUp etc. I guess people only post if they really want someone to come and dig up with their trees; not randomly respond to some strange posted ad. asking for trees in their yard. Also, people sell their potted trees now and then at their garage sales, even if they just had something sitting around in their yard. You just have to ask. Got a couple nice bougainvillea this way. All the best.

That’s not too surprising re: zero responses on your own ads. I saw a guy post in a CL region adjacent to mine looking for wisteria and azalea to dig, which prompted the idea- wisteria happens to be one of the things I’m after, mimosa tree seedlings/saplings the other. Both can be pretty weedy here but not to the extent I’ve heard it gets on the east coast. The only post I did find from someone requesting wisteria removal was way up on one of the Puget Sound islands, and while I love to visit that area I’m not sure how keen I am on trying to lug a large plant around on the ferry. Haven’t checked OfferUp though! I’m going to make a better habit of checking local listings regularly.

 

[Hbhaska]

Anyone here have recommendations when it comes to looking for folks to let you come dig up landscaping shrubs from their yard? Craigslist and Marketplace have “free- you dig” type postings around my area occasionally (Oregon coast), but I’m considering posting my own ads for shrub/small tree removal on a case-by-case basis. While there are a couple species I’m particularly interested in, I don’t want to preemptively turn away potentially interesting material. If you’ve done this before and had some success, or could suggest other avenues to look besides CL and Marketplace, or tried and had it go poorly for whatever reason, I’d love to hear whatever advice or experience anyone might have to share.

You might also try your local bonsai club to see if they have group yamadori collecting trips and join them on one of them.

 

[chlorine-queen]

You might also try your local bonsai club to see if they have group yamadori collecting trips and join them on one of them.

Unfortunately the most local club to me is still over an hour and a half away and meets on week nights but I’ve considered it would be worth trying to join in on a meeting if I’m able to pull it off at some point. There’s an active gardeners club much closer to me that I may look into, who knows, maybe if anyone there is also into bonsai a local chapter could be in the cards one day.

 

[Joe Dupre']

I had a post about this a while back. I always chat up my bonsai hobby with friends and relatives. My BIL wanted this crepe myrtle GONE. Yes sir, I'll be glad to get that out of your hair.


6 1/2 months from a 6" bare stump. People who live on the edge of a wooded area are always hacking back the forest. Can you say "trunk chop"?

 

[chlorine-queen]

I had a post about this a while back. I always chat up my bonsai hobby with friends and relatives. My BIL wanted this crepe myrtle GONE. Yes sir, I'll be glad to get that out of your hair.


6 1/2 months from a 6" bare stump. People who live on the edge of a wooded area are always hacking back the forest. Can you say "trunk chop"?

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Neat!! With that in mind, I mentioned to my coworkers this week to let me know if for some reason they or anyone they know have wisteria taking over their yard. One of them used to be a landscaper and said he tore that out of people’s yards all the time, which now gives me the idea of hitting up landscapers in the area to see if any are willing to let me in on shrubs getting torn out.

Also from the looks of Craigslist in my area, boxwoods wouldn’t be too hard to come by.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

The only reliable way to do this and get great material is to act as a fully functioning landscaper/tree trimmer/pruner and take good material when you can get it. Thats how I operate. Licensed and insured to do landscaping/general contracting. People doing full landscape renovations where everything is getting ripped out is the best opportunity to get good material. Otherwise, its unlikely people will really need you to remove a single shrub or bush.

 

[Hartinez]

Someone on here created a template for a Craigslist posting that I thought was well written. Essentially, a “insert name and location here” type of post that anyone could use. I can’t remember who created that though!

 

[Hartinez]

Found it.

A Craigslist template for getting free urban-dori

All, I've used CL the past couple months to get some of my favorite pieces. I posted in the "free" forum and offered to help folks get rid of shrubs, hedges, weeds. It works really well! I get about 20-30 replies every time I post (have waited 3 weeks or so between postings), and I'd say 1/3 of...

www.bonsainut.com