Garage Shelves
Using Garden Shredders as a Prelude to Composting and Mulching
It is not only the household cook who has lots of appliances to help them “play” being chef. The head gardener too must have a few toys to play with, with the (genuine) excuse that they are really useful and do make their gardening much easier, better for the garden, and sometimes better for the environment too.
For the organic gardener in particular, one of those favorite toys is the garden shredder. While shredders have been around a long time, the garden variety has only become common in more recent years. At the same time, interest in organic gardening has, quite rightly, grown. Along with that growth in interest in organic gardening, came a similar trend in making compost. You could say one feeds the other, and vice versa. That is not to forget that shredding garden materials can be good for making a mulch too.
Is the garden shredder just a toy or is it really justified? Well that depends on the size of your garden, and how much organic material needs to be cleared and composted in a season. A 20 feet by 20 feet concrete yard would hardly justify your own shredder, and it would indeed be a toy. If you have a large garden, with lots of trees and shrubs that need regular pruning, then you may well find it very easy to justify purchasing one of these gardeners’ toys.
Should you decide you can justify buying a shredder for your own garden, then you will find there are not a large number of choices. However, you should find what you need for your own circumstances.
Shredders are usually designed for particular levels of coarseness. So, before you choose, have a good think about exactly what it is you will be shredding over the season. For example, consider the amount of tree pruning you need to do and the thickness of the branches, and the same for shrubs. Then when it comes to clearing the vegetable garden, you have to consider the fleshy stalks of Brussels sprouts and the towering bean plants, as well as all the other vegetable debris as your harvest is completed. The flower beds, too, produce a variety of composting material that will benefit from going through the shredder.
When you are clear exactly what it is you will be shredding, then is the time to go through the process of choosing the most suitable shredder. Not surprisingly, they run from quite small, such as the Bosch Quiet Shredder 2000W - AXT-2000-HP, to pretty large, such as the Mighty Mac Woodsman 6 Shredder / Chipper. Plus, of course, lots in between
Another thing you have to think about is storing the shredder. Do you have any outdoor storage buildings that can accommodate your gleaming new piece of garden equipment? If not, then maybe a portable shed, made from vinyl or resin for example, will do that particular job for you. Whatever you decide, it is best not to make that decision until you are sure their will be storage space for the new shredder, so it will not be left outside to rust.