In article , Daddy
junk@?.? writes

"Kay Easton" wrote in message
...
In article , Daddy

The majority of my stuff will be small(ish) prunings and leafy material
(including weeds etc.) with the odd larger pruning up to 30mm

I wouldn't try shredding weeds, just put them straight on the compost
heap. You'll have problems with the 30mm stuff, but up to half an inch
should be fine, and worth doing, because this stuff is a pest in the
compost heap.

Probably most weeds will go straight on. Was thinking more of the soft
'delicate' looking plants that look like they will rot OK when when they go
in - but they come out looking like tumbleweed, binding the whole heap
together and a real handling problem - I really need to chop everything up.

I was assuming that shredders would reduce pretty much anything to such a
size which would rot along with everything else, or maybe I'm a being
optimstic? Is anything woody over half an inch not going to shred small
enough to rot?

Anything that you can get into the shredder is going to shred small
enough to rot. The problem with big stuff is getting it into the
shredder, or getting it in without jamming. Mine (an old Alco model)
takes up to one inch, but the bigger stuff has to be fed into a
different slot, one at a time, straight, with all the side twigs chopped
off.


It takes about as long to shred a load as it does to prune it in the
first place - be aware of this extra workload!

I was assuming that stuffing the stuff into a shredder would be no worse
that stuffing into green sacks? I'm OK with this. I really just want to
recycle as much as possible from my garden back into my garden rather than
throwing away (in reality most of my prunings are either conifer, rose or
mixed deciduous hedging (hawthorn-ish)

Shredders aren't as mobile as green sacks! Instead of pruning and
dropping into a green sack which you drag along side you as you work
your way around the garden, you will probably prune everything into a
heap and then put your heap through the shredder. And you can't just
shove it through by the handful - it's pretty well branch by branch.
Small weeds can go straight into the hopper (but then I wouldn't notehr
with shredding them), but twiggy material needs to be pushed through,
and that's only really practical a branch at a time.


I'm looking to spend up to about £250 but it must reliably be able to
shred
anything from a leaf up to a 30mm diameter branch without without jamming
and without the stuff just dropping through. Does not necessarily have
to
be one of the quiet models.

Quiet is a relative term as far as shredders are concerned. For your own
sake as well as that of people 6 houses away, consider a quiet model!

No problem - 'quiet' models appear to be more expensive but I've no problem
with that if they are also better quality to go wit it.

You will definitely need ear defenders for the noisy models, and
probably also with the quiet models. You also need to wear heavy gloves.

I just want to buy one but am paranoid it is not going to do the job I'm
expecting and I will end up regretting. So which model is it to be?

If I were buying one, I'd go for the biggest and most powerful I could
afford. I would also go for quiet. And I'd make sure that clearing
blockages was easy - they do happen, perhaps every 15 minutes. My
shredder is about 10 years old, and i don't know what's on the amrket
atm.
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm