Andrew! I am also looking for a chipper and shredder. We just bought a house and We have a lot of old and ugly shrubbery that we are slowly getting rid of. We have done half of it last week and piled all the branches in the far corner of the backyard. I am looking for rentals around east windsor. Home depot in East Windsor has only one and it is under repair. I called a couple of rental places and it's not cheap. They are asking about 200 dollars for one day rental. Anyway, if you want to share the rental, please let me know and we could rent it for one day and split the time. I live in East windsor, NJ.
Padma.

At the end of last year I was looking for one, didn't find a good deal, but found something else that worked.

I piled up the tomato/pepper/other vines, and attacked it with a lawn mower. Worked great, once I figured a few things out:

1. Wear safety goggles. Absolute must.

2. Roll toward the pile on the back two wheels, with the front wheels high in the air. When you get to the pile, lower the mower slowly onto it.

3. Back off as soon as you hear the engine start to really strain, then attack again when it recovers.

4. Use the bag

I did it out of despiration, but I was amazed how well it worked -- the garden stuff was no problem at all, and it even ate some surprisingly stout woody hedge trimmings. I'll probably get a second blade, so that I don't have to worry about all the extra wear and tear (a blade is like $12).

Josh

I rented one from Home Depot last spring. It was a chore for two of us (men) to get it into/ out of my small (low) pickup. Not worth it. It was slow and I barely got done the work in the half-day allotment. This year I will try calling a local tree guy and getting a price. Even for 100.00, for one hour ... and they would not even have to take it away, I'll put it all on paths or in compost. Just tell them the entire pile will be sitting right where it needs to be done. Good Luck.

I confess I run my share of big stuff over "purposely" with the lawn mower, and yea, the blade eventually goes but the funny thing was, I could use the mower just fine on the chunky stuff but it didn't work on the lawn so keenly anymore, it needs a new blade because of how often I used it on the chunky stuff. We own a field behind our designated grassy yard, and it was becoming overgrown with man-eating sticker bushes and sweet gum saplings which grow 5 feet per year. Yes, lift up the front wheels and it becomes a sortof science. . Maybe some ear plugs too? karen

The garden is my playgound, but the grass is done by the professionals (the wife isn't keen on tool-clueless husband using sharp power toys, err, tools).

The tree-guy idea may be one to go with - the city has a shredder that turns fallen trees (the ones between the sidewalk and the street) into sawdust.

Still, it's more fun to turn it into sawdust myself.

Andrew