Re: Advise on shredders
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Re: Advise on shredders
- From: J* A*
- Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 12:47:33 +1000 (EST)
At 21:10 11/10/99 +1300, Tim wrote:
>Anthony wrote:
>
>>2) do I really need to spend about 500 US dollars to get a decent shredder
>(i.e. something that will
>>shred twigs/branches of up to an inch in diameter?
>
>2) It surely depends on the size of your garden and the quantity of
>prunings. I have a very large garden and produce 15 to 20 cubic metres of
>mulch from it every year. You wouldn't believe how large a pile of prunings
>it takes to make 1 cubic metre of mulch. If I didn't have the shredder
>(which has a 5 hp petrol motor and can do up to 2 inch diameter branches) I
>would need a truck to get rid of all the prunings. That, of course, would
>not keep the weeds and watering down.
>
>The bad bit, it IS very noisy and it can be tiring work. If your
>neighbourhood would not appreciate a lot of noise (and a very unpleasant
>noise it can be), I suggest you don't buy one and keep the neighbours
>happy.
My garden runs to about 0.3 hectares, and I suspect produces somewhat less
prunings than Tim's (5 m^3/an perhaps, if fully shredded, plus a somewhat
larger volume of leaf litter, weeds, and dead branches -- mostly a lot
bigger than 2" dia!). I use it all for mulch, together with what I can
scrounge from my neighbours, and have never contemplated using a shredder.
I couldn't stand the noise and petrol fumes -- my neighbour's motor-mower is
bad enough. I just rip it to bits by hand, and occasionally using
secateurs. This doesn't take any longer than feeding it into a shredder
would, certainly much less time than it takes to do the pruning and to carry
them to where they're needed. Of course, it doesn't compact down so much at
first, and the big sticks remain as big sticks, but so what? It works just
as well, and the big stuff eventually rots away, over the years, and in the
meantime helps stop the smaller stuff drifting down-slope and leaving bare
patches.
So, my advice is, forget about the mulcher, unless either (a) you're a
gear-freak (which you obviously aren't, or you wouldn't be worried about the
cost), or (b) you think unshredded mulch looks untidy, and that it therefore
has no place in your well-ordered environment.
John.
