Garden & Outdoor
Buy and sell garden and outdoor gear in Panama.
In much of Panama the rains run the garden. From May the grass needs cutting back every couple of weeks, and by the dry season it has browned and the trimmer sits in the shed until the next downpour. Outdoor gear follows that cycle and the places people actually spend time outside, from a high-rise terrace in the city to a weekend house on the Pacific beaches. Trimmers and machetes turn up here next to patio sets, grills, frame pools and potted plants, new and pre-owned. A family clearing out a beach house in Gorgona and a nursery with too many palms can both list them.
Grass that won’t stop in the rains, and the machete or trimmer that keeps it down:
on the Pacific side, from May to November, a yard needs cutting back every couple of weeks; in the dry months the same grass browns and barely grows. That rhythm shapes most of gardening tools. The machete is still the first garden tool many households own. A petrol string trimmer with a blade attachment handles a big lot or the edge of a farm where a mower would choke on uneven ground. A battery trimmer suits a small townhouse garden if you count the spare batteries: one charge rarely finishes a wet-season lawn.
Patio furniture and grills at a beach house in Gorgona, not a terrace in the city:
salt air is the difference. Within sight of the sea, powder-coated steel starts to bubble at the welds and the feet, while aluminium frames, resin and teak hold up for years. A city terrace gets sun and wind instead, so cushions fade and light chairs blow over. The same split applies to outdoor furniture and through grills. Most gas grills say stainless, but the cheap 430 grade rusts within a season at the beach; 304 holds. Take a magnet: it grips 430 firmly and barely holds on 304.
A frame pool, an inflatable spa or a hot tub on its own circuit:
it comes down to what your yard and wiring can take. A frame pool from swimming pools goes up in an afternoon but needs ground that is flat and level, with no roots or stones under the liner, and a filter pump sized to the water: cartridge on small pools, sand on bigger ones. Among jacuzzis, an inflatable spa plugs into an ordinary outlet, while an acrylic hot tub needs a dedicated 240-volt circuit put in by an electrician and weighs several hundred kilos before it is filled.
Where a second-hand trimmer, grill or pool liner gives out first:
a trimmer that spent the dry season with fuel mix in its tank often has a gummed carburettor. Ask to see it start from cold, idle and rev without dying, then wiggle the gearbox at the end of the shaft: play there means worn bearings. On a grill, lift the grates and look at the burners and the firebox floor, not the lid. Turn patio chairs over to check the welds and feet. Have a pool liner spread out in front of you, because pinholes hide along the bottom seams. A hot tub should be running hot when you arrive; if its cover is waterlogged and heavy, it is due for replacing. Potted palms and orchids from plants and planters change hands when people move; slide one out of its pot to see whether the roots are circling, and check under the leaves for the white fluff of mealybugs. An entry-level petrol trimmer is around $150 and a two- or three-burner gas grill $160 to $200, and the test that matters on a used one is whether it starts or lights first time. A Stihl or Husqvarna trimmer, or a grill built in 304 steel, holds its value far better.
Getting a hot tub or a patio set out through your gate:
buyers want to know what it is made of and where it lived: aluminium, resin, teak or steel, and whether it stood at the beach or in the city, under a roof or in the open. Photograph furniture from underneath and the burners beneath the grates; say whether a grill comes with its gas tank. For anything with an engine, post a short video of a cold start. Dry a pool liner completely before folding it, list the pool’s size and pump type, and count the frame pins. Before listing a hot tub, measure the narrowest point between where it sits and the street, side passage or gate, and put that figure in the listing; a buyer who turns up with a pickup and three helpers to find the tub wider than your gate will not make the trip again.