Garden Shredders.. worth the money or just another kit?

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vkurup

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The new garden is bigger than my old place and has a few trees - but mostly large shrubs, large laurel hedge and plenty of holly. The previous owner left us their old garden shredder. They had 2 and one of their relatives nicked the better quality one. So am left with a not so great shredder that does not do much. I tried to use it, but it was all clogged up and did not work, so headed for the skip.

Question is, are garden shredders worth the trouble, so just invest in a good pair of secateurs? There are some good offers in the market, but also the choice seems to be quiet wide - impact v/s shredders, loud v/s quiet etc, things that handle only dry twigs or twigs of a certain size.
 
Had one for years, made by Brill of Germany. Takes stuff upto 2.5cm and, although my garden's only about 400sqm there's a lot of hazel in the hedges which grow pretty rapidly so it gets used at least twice a year.

Only you can judge how much use you'll get but don't buy one that's too small or not powerful enough.
 
vkurup said:
The new garden is bigger than my old place and has a few trees - but mostly large shrubs, large laurel hedge and plenty of holly. The previous owner left us their old garden shredder. They had 2 and one of their relatives nicked the better quality one. So am left with a not so great shredder that does not do much. I tried to use it, but it was all clogged up and did not work, so headed for the skip.

Question is, are garden shredders worth the trouble, so just invest in a good pair of secateurs? There are some good offers in the market, but also the choice seems to be quiet wide - impact v/s shredders, loud v/s quiet etc, things that handle only dry twigs or twigs of a certain size.
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I've had a few shredders over the years and my advice would be:

The old saying,"You get what you pay for", certainly applies here. Without going too industrial look out for one that cuts a decent thickness of twig/branch. The secret is to not try and ram too much down the shute, in other words, feed it in, in a controlled way. If it does get clogged just switch off straight away and clear. They can be a bit noisy so invest in a quieter one if funds allow. Don't know anything about impact ones so can't comment.

The other good thing is that the cuttings reduce down quite a bit, and some of it could be used as a mulch etc. By using secatuers it's amazing how much bulk is created, which has to be bagged to be transported to the tip. Also by shredding, the leaves just get gobbled up and reduced down to nothing.

So for me it would be a shredder every time. :thup:
 
spongebob59 said:
Have to agree £15 incinerator, job done.
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Cant really put the wet branches in there... will have to wait for them to dry out..

Luckily no ivy, but plenty of brambles... no joy with them either.

We have 2 green bins but I seem to be filling them up every other weekend. hence the question..
 
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