I need a leaf shredder to shred some leaves in Northern AZ (Flagstaff). No tool rental place has any to rent.
Anyone nearby?
What kind of volume are we talking about?
If it’s just leaves, I’ve done a pretty big volume with a large plastic garbage can (new/clean) and a weed whacker.
About 10 bags
I can’t cut corners. This is for a compost that takes a year–gotta follow instructions to avoid disappointment.
For ten bags the weed whacker and plastic garbage can thing should work well.
I think that I settled on putting the weed whacker in the garbage can first (with the string maximally extended of course) and filling the can up with leaves around it. Then I pulled the Weed Whacker up kind of slowly, maybe stirring a bit. It only took maybe a minute at the most to turn the leaves to confetti.
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I don’t think that recommendation was a corner cutting one… More so a farmer making do with the tools available while adapting and overcoming. It sounds like a viable strategy, I’ll have to try it out myself!
The neighbors love setting out free leaves each fall and once they are done protecting my figs they’ll get the weed whacker treatment next year.
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Dead leaves are wonderful things to have in your garden and compost pile. I suspect that they represent good nutes found 2-5 feet down that you have trouble identifying , let alone replicating otherwise.
It doesn’t take much to decompose them, either. They resist decomposition until the minute that they are crinkled—-not even broken up—-then they move right along.
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Got a mower?
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Yeah, I used a mower last time… I may have to settle for it again…
I guess I’m a bit wary, because I used it on the pine needles, and they didn’t break down the way they ought to have, even though I added a whole nother year onto the compost (2 years).
In reality, though, I did find sections of the compost that had become the clay it ought to have, and I’m certain it was the deciduous sections.
I meant no offense, nor to denigrate, and I’m all for making do; I guess I was a bit wary because, last time, I used mostly pine needle, which I’d mowed into small (but not 1cm size) pieces, and they didn’t break down as they ought to have, so I added another year to the compost, and they still didn’t break down, but I remember finding pockets of clay like compost (the end I’m looking for), which I assume were the deciduous leaves I’d mowed.
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