Borrow tools for free
Need a hedge trimmer, tiller, or heavy spade just once or twice a year? Skip buying new tools and borrow instead from Portland’s local tool libraries.
These community-driven spaces loan out everything from lawn tools to chainsaws.
- Save money and storage space
- Access quality tools—even for big jobs like tree trimming
- Get help and tool advice from friendly volunteers
Keep tools working: Sharpen & repair
A dull tool won’t cut it (literally). Before tossing that rusty pruner or worn shovel, check if it just needs a little love.
Local sharpening services can bring your garden tools back to life Local sharpening and repair services can bring shears, pruners, and blades back to life at a low cost.
Simply search terms like “tool sharpening Portland OR” or “garden tool repair near me” to find local sharpening shops.
Some Portland farmers' markets also offer tool-sharpening services.
Grow your own food (it’s easier than you might think!)
Food Hero’s website offers a free planting calendar tailored to Portland's climate.
It’s great for beginners and families and gives clear planting timelines and hands-on ideas to get kids involved in gardening.
Plus, they offer tons of how-to videos, from DIY plant pots to growing tomatoes and potatoes, and container gardening. The videos are made for both kids and adults and share practical ways for everyone to grow good food to eat at home.
Get hands-on gardening help & advice
Growing Gardenshelps low-income households build home gardens by providing raised beds or plant pots, compost, seeds, tools, and mentoring for up to three years.
Portland Fruit Tree Projectorganizes volunteer harvests to pick excess fruit from neighborhood trees, shares care tips at free work parties, and ensures surplus produce gets donated to local food programs.
Volunteer at their events to:
- Learn how to care for your own free trees, vines, and bushes.
- Pick fruit: You’ll go home with some of the fruit you picked!
Donate extra fruit and vegetables
If your garden gives more than you can eat, consider donating produce to local food programs or community gardens. Surplus vegetables and fruit can feed neighbors in need instead of going to waste.
Produce for People is a City-run program that helps community gardeners give excess produce to local food pantries. In 2022, they donated over 25,000 pounds of fruit and vegetables! Lift UP is another great local option.
Find more local donation options by searching for “Donate garden produce Portland OR.”
Or give away extra fruit or vegetables by posting to your neighborhood Buy Nothing group or Nextdoor.
Hardscaping? Start with salvage
Planning a patio or paved path in your garden? Instead of buying brand‑new bricks or pavers, consider salvaged bricks, pavers, or flagstones.
These materials offer character and charm while helping you save money and reduce waste.
In the Portland area, you’ll find great sources for these materials at local resale and salvage outlets.
It makes a difference!
Every borrowed pruner, sharpened tool, and shared tomato helps cut pollution, save resources, and build a stronger reuse community.
When you borrow or repair tools instead of buying new, you avoid the energy, raw materials, and waste that come from making and shipping new products [EPA].
And when the food you grow gets eaten, you avoid wasting all the water, energy, natural resources, and effort (sometimes your own!) that went into growing it. It also keeps food out of landfills, where it creates methane, a powerful greenhouse gas [EPA].
Try one thing
- Borrow garden tools from a tool library.
- Take a tool to be sharpened.
- Pick one new fruit or vegetable to grow this spring or summer.