Gardeners spend loads of money each year or buying wood chippings to use as a weed suppressant for their flower beds not to mention bags and bags of compost for their vegetable beds. At the same time they will be taking their own woody tree and shrub twigs and offcuts along with grass and leaves from their garden to the local tip. It would be so much more efficient to use a shredder to turn their woody prunings and more into mulch that will compost much quicker or can be used directly as mulch.
Cheaper shredders tend to be noisy as they are fed by hand, the quieter ones tend to be self feeding and crush as well as cut the material.
Electric shredders are cheaper, but are restricted by cable: petrol shredders can be moved anywhere and shred more effectively as they are more powerful. However they require more maintenance and you need to keep filling them with petrol and remembering to buy it! You will used to cleaning and de-clogging the shredder especially, when you are a novice in using it. You will also need to have enough space to store it, as it won’t last sat outside.
One very environmentally friendly way to be able to use a shredder is to join together with your neighbours to purchase one – much cheaper in the long run. Or it is possible to hire a shredder.
Clever Technology for the Garage: Garden Shredders
My Top 3 garden technology tools
The garden technology tools available now mean that someone as small and relatively feeble as me can tackle even big jobs in the garden effectively and quickly. Here are my top three choices.
1) A Hedge Trimmer
Not only good for trimming the hedge (which I do leave to the other half) but brilliant for cutting down those woody autumn perennials that are so resistant to hand secateurs as well as those big clumps of flowers that take ages to demolish. A quick zip and my autumn garden is clear. Purists might want to wait until spring.
2) A telescopic hedge lopper
No need to call in the tree surgeon who may cost an amount rivalling the national debt to trim off those offending poky branches that my fruit trees throw out to use the energy up instead of producing fruit. I save my money to use him for demolition of ailing trees and use my tree lopper to do smaller stuff.
3) Lawn scarifier
My ancient lawns (planted in the 1950s) have impacted matted turf which means that water doesn’t get down to the roots. In summer they look like the Sahara with bare patches . I would dig them up and plant more useful stuff but the other half resists and grandchildren like playing stuff on the lawn. A lawn scarifier is just the ticket. I use it in autumn and spring and it digs up the matted stuff and makes the lawn look more like a lawn all season.