Shredding

I had a little more time than expected on Thursday afternoon due to not being needed to help at school,  so I decided to start a job that I have been putting off for ages. I tell myself it is out of consideration for the neighbours as it is extremely noisy.

I started shredding the pile of tree trimmings that have been sitting under our nature strip tree for months (and months and .....).

Shredder, chippings and the pile of trimmings under our poinsiana.  The larger leaves you can see are sweet potato, the rest is weeds.

I bought the shredder on ebay for $60 (or was it $80?) anyway, a pretty decent price.  And the blade had just been sharpened too.  The idea is that I chip a fair proportion of our garden trimmings, up to the size it can handle, and therefore save money on purchasing mulch, tip fees and the petrol used to do either of these.  Plus reducing my carbon footprint (the petrol again) and the amount of nutrients lost to landfill (though much of the green waste does actually get composted).

It is going to take a fair amount of time to save on the mulch though - the occupied volume of the trimmings is at least 4 times that of the chips.  But never mind, it's the thought that counts.

I did shred some of the trimmings when they were first cut, and still green.  It took ages to get through - the shredder kept overheating.  Which is part of the reason I put it off so long.

And now I am glad I did.  The branches have lost so much of their strength with having dried out (and in some case started to rot), so it was much quicker and the shredder took longer to overheat & trip out.

I have a bit more to go on this pile.  And then I have to tackle the one inside the fence.

Pretty much over my lurgy now, so should start to get more done in the garden (the soccer pitch desperately needs weeding), including finishing off the first of the new garden beds.  The cooler weather should help too.