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biradarcm

Small Home Garden Shredder for fall clean up

biradarcm
13 years ago

lot of creepers (pole beans, gourds, grapes, etc) woody vegetable stems (okra, sorel, cluster beans, etc), eggplants, peppers, etc have grown so big and spread across. I guess in couple of weeks all these flesh greens will turns brown. I wonder which is better way to clean and cut them into small pieces for composting or mulching? I thought small shredder may work, but never used one so far... i would like hear recommendation and expert advise to buy one small portable electrical or gas shredder for ~$200. I just browsed online, HFT has one on sale: http://www.harborfreight.com/2-1-2-half-hp-chipper-shredder-66910.html?utm_term=66910&utm_medium=cse&utm_source=nextag

Comments (7)

  • Lisa_H OK
    13 years ago

    How much garden debris are you talking about?

    I don't cut mine into smaller pieces. I pull them and layer them all on my pile. The truth is I'm too lazy to do anything more than that, but when I feel like justifying it, the larger pieces help incorporate oxygen into the pile. If I'm very industrious, I will put all the large stuff at the bottom of the pile.

    I have a second pile for small tree branches.

    After all my leaves have fallen I run my lawn mower over the whole lawn and mulch all my leaves. If there is a lot, I put them on the pile too.

  • owiebrain
    13 years ago

    We had a $1000-ish one from Sears a couple of years back. Worked great but then got a flat tire within a couple of days of bringing it home. Under warranty still, they offered to fix it but... They were too lazy to fix it and said to just bring it in and they'd give us a whole 'nother shredder brand new. Same model and everything but the replacement sucked bad. We ended up returning it for a refund because they wouldn't give us the original back.

    I have no idea how this helps but figured I'd throw in my chipper/shredder experience. LOL

    Diane

  • slowpoke_gardener
    13 years ago

    I think a chipper/shredder would be great for some people, but most of my stuff is fed to the lawn mower, cows, or a burn pile. It is surprising what you can run through a lawn mower if you just take a little time.

    Larry

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    13 years ago

    Based on experience, I'd say that small shredders are only good for dry autumn leaves because twigs, sticks, even tough tomato vine stems or whatever, are too much for them. Unless you're only using them to shred leaves, they're a waste of money.

    I just rake up any debris I want to chop up and run over it with a lawn mower, catching it in the lawn mower's grasscatcher.

    Most debris just goes onto a compost pile or into the chicken pen for the chickens to eat. (It still ends up in the compost, eventually, when we clean out the chicken coop and dump the straw bedding on the compost pile.)

    We have a really large, powerful chipper/shredder probably about the same size as the one Diane had. It is a lot of trouble to operate, needs maintenance constantly, etc. Had we purchased it, I'd say we wasted our money. However, it was a hand-me-down given to us by some friends of ours. They used it for a couple of years to shred up old stored hay just before they put the new fresh hay into the barn for storage. Eventually, they stopped shredding the hay and started giving it to us to use as mulch in our garden. Then, since they had no use for the shredder, they gave it to us. I certainly appreciate greatly their kindness in giving it to us, but we don't use it very often. It is more or less just sitting in the garage gathering dust, although every year I say I'm going to drag it out of the garage and put it to work in winter when doing clean-up chores, but I never really get around to using it. It is too much trouble.

    Dawn

  • granygreenthumb
    13 years ago

    We have a shredder and have used it every fall and spring. I like mine. We bought it at Tractor Supply and didn't pay more that $400 for it. It shreds limbs up to 3 inches in diameter. It also has a second shredder for twigs, leaves and such.

    I don't recommend putting vines of any sort in unless you can make them about a foot long and longer and they will wind around the tines. It's gas operated and we've never had any problems with it.

    My DH is usually the one who operates it. It does make a lot of noise and dust blows every where. The last time we used it we place a cardboard box around the bottom where the shreds come out to keep down the dust down and it sure helped.

    My 2 cents worth. Hope this helps.

    Teresa

  • biradarcm
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Dear ALL, thank you very much for your suggestions. It looks like buying shredder is not a good choice, rather I will construct one more wooden compost bin with that money and file all plant residue in it to decompose.

    FYI, no big trees in our backyard, its just two years old neighborhood, all tree are about 1-2m ht. Main garden debris consists of all vegetable and flowering plants. Here i have posted couple of pics of our backyard vegetable garden.

    vegetable garden pic1

    vegetable garden pic2

  • spademilllane
    13 years ago

    Behold the world we bequeath our children. Someone starts a conversation on the subject of shredders, and the computers read the words and place advertisements accordingly. Below is the ad that appears on my computer. The next big thing: not only will the computer read your conversation, but your license plate. As you drive down the road you will see an ad for a shredder on a billboard (connected by satellite to the motherboard computer)....

    I do yearn for simpler times, but I guess all old people do....

    {{gwi:1136283}}

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