Garden Shredders
Discussion
The old folks have a "2000w" unbranded garden shredder at their place. I tried using it yesterday and it was useless. It didn't shread a lot of "stringy stuff", kept getting jammed, only liked it when you put in microscopic quantities (it took years to make a single bucket of shreddings), and makes loads of noise given the low volume you can do.
Is it possible to get an electric one that is worthwhile, or are they fundamentally a bad idea?
As I live in London in a flat with no garden I like to do gardeny-things when i visit, but at this rate I'd need to stay for months to make a dent in the piles of green stuff they make, hence the question!
Is it possible to get an electric one that is worthwhile, or are they fundamentally a bad idea?
As I live in London in a flat with no garden I like to do gardeny-things when i visit, but at this rate I'd need to stay for months to make a dent in the piles of green stuff they make, hence the question!
They tend not to be good at springy stuff like holly leaves.
I had an old B&D one and it went well for year as long as I treated it kindly. Eventually a particularly hard session with a pile of Berberis blew it up. I bought a Rybi which has been fine again, but I tend to keep the thicker stuff as kindling so it only has stuff no thicker than my thumb to shred.
I had an old B&D one and it went well for year as long as I treated it kindly. Eventually a particularly hard session with a pile of Berberis blew it up. I bought a Rybi which has been fine again, but I tend to keep the thicker stuff as kindling so it only has stuff no thicker than my thumb to shred.
Cogcog said:
They tend not to be good at springy stuff like holly leaves.
I had an old B&D one and it went well for year as long as I treated it kindly. Eventually a particularly hard session with a pile of Berberis blew it up. I bought a Rybi which has been fine again, but I tend to keep the thicker stuff as kindling so it only has stuff no thicker than my thumb to shred.
Got a Ryobi too. As a rule of thumb it won't look at anything thinner than a pencil but above that it will chew away at anything within its capacity and doesn't readily give up. I had an old B&D one and it went well for year as long as I treated it kindly. Eventually a particularly hard session with a pile of Berberis blew it up. I bought a Rybi which has been fine again, but I tend to keep the thicker stuff as kindling so it only has stuff no thicker than my thumb to shred.
Posted a similar question about a year ago and whilst I still haven't bought (its a very long story) I think the ALKO ones were well recommended
I need something that'll chop up 40 or 50mm rhodedendron so I can use it as a weed supressant so its a not so much a shredder as a chopper (ooo er missus) that I need
I need something that'll chop up 40 or 50mm rhodedendron so I can use it as a weed supressant so its a not so much a shredder as a chopper (ooo er missus) that I need
Our local council (Warwick) have a brilliant subsidised shredding service:
http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/woodchipping
For £20 per hour, a bloke comes round with a big van with a massive munchy machine on the back and feeds whatever greenery you've piled up at the edge of your property into it.
After a load of tree surgery and garden work we had massive piles of stuff earlier this year. It took two visits, but after a couple of hours(with a couple of people helping the council bloke) the whole lot was cleared.
Worth checking your council website I think.
Ruari
http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/woodchipping
For £20 per hour, a bloke comes round with a big van with a massive munchy machine on the back and feeds whatever greenery you've piled up at the edge of your property into it.
After a load of tree surgery and garden work we had massive piles of stuff earlier this year. It took two visits, but after a couple of hours(with a couple of people helping the council bloke) the whole lot was cleared.
Worth checking your council website I think.
Ruari
ruaricoles said:
Our local council (Warwick) have a brilliant subsidised shredding service:
http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/woodchipping
For £20 per hour, a bloke comes round with a big van with a massive munchy machine on the back and feeds whatever greenery you've piled up at the edge of your property into it.
I suppose my council has a similar service. You take your green waste to the tip, they shred it, then you can buy it back at £3.50 a bag as mulch.http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/woodchipping
For £20 per hour, a bloke comes round with a big van with a massive munchy machine on the back and feeds whatever greenery you've piled up at the edge of your property into it.
So your shredding man will need to make more than 5.7 bags per hour to be competitive! But it sounds good. If something is convenient and affordable, people will use it. A genuine service.
That's very interesting regarding the shredding service, i'll take a look. Do you keep the shreddings (we don't like the idea of draining the garden of all that organic material.
Regarding hiring one, we really want one that can be used for an hour or so at the weekend, but it makes sense for a big hedge session.
I will mention the brands above. Many thanks all, very helpful as usual on a subject I know little about (aside from that the current one is rubbish!)
Regarding hiring one, we really want one that can be used for an hour or so at the weekend, but it makes sense for a big hedge session.
I will mention the brands above. Many thanks all, very helpful as usual on a subject I know little about (aside from that the current one is rubbish!)
I've tried a few and as you say some are useless, usually those with the spinny-round disc with a blade(s) on like a food processor. If you can't/won't have or hire a petrol driven jobby get one with a corkscrew arrangement. Easy to pick, just look down the hole, they are much, much better than the aforementioned round-bladed type.
I've had two in ten years and have fed twenty leylandii (not the logs, obviously) plus what would have been several skipsful of buddliea, pyracantha, blackberry, honeysuckle and all sorts into them. Their advantage is that once the corkscrew grans the branch it pulls it in leaving you to fetch the next one. They can clog if you put too much soft stuff in but I wouldn't be without mine (Bosch).
Oh, if you are trimming leylandii don't use the trimmings as mulch. Too resinous, bad for the soil.
I've had two in ten years and have fed twenty leylandii (not the logs, obviously) plus what would have been several skipsful of buddliea, pyracantha, blackberry, honeysuckle and all sorts into them. Their advantage is that once the corkscrew grans the branch it pulls it in leaving you to fetch the next one. They can clog if you put too much soft stuff in but I wouldn't be without mine (Bosch).
Oh, if you are trimming leylandii don't use the trimmings as mulch. Too resinous, bad for the soil.
Simpo Two said:
I suppose my council has a similar service. You take your green waste to the tip, they shred it, then you can buy it back at £3.50 a bag as mulch.
So your shredding man will need to make more than 5.7 bags per hour to be competitive! But it sounds good. If something is convenient and affordable, people will use it. A genuine service.
Yes, it was a great service, but the key difference being they come to you. We'd have needed a lot of tip runs to get through this lot! We kept the logs, but the rest all vanished in a couple of hours.So your shredding man will need to make more than 5.7 bags per hour to be competitive! But it sounds good. If something is convenient and affordable, people will use it. A genuine service.
0A said:
That's very interesting regarding the shredding service, i'll take a look. Do you keep the shreddings (we don't like the idea of draining the garden of all that organic material.
Yes, they leave you the shreddings; in our case, we shovelled them all into a ditch alongside the house where we were building a big fence, which tidied it all up no end.Ruari
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