Garden shredders

[Chris Hogg]

Why not just spread it thickly on the flower beds...if you have them.

[John Rumm]

Yup, there are some... but that would mean digging the stuff up and ruining the nice slope I have that the mower will still reverse up so as to drop the next lot at the top of the pile ;-)

(I could also distribute some round the perimeter of the garden which is all trees)

[Rob Morley]

I hired an electric one for half a day that was pretty quiet and handled largish branches with ease while not clogging with the small green stuff. The cheap one I got (can't remember if it was dirt cheap on eBay or free from Freegle) makes a load of noise, struggles with larger stuff and clogs easily with green stuff. The difference is that the good one runs at low speed and pulls wood through and chomps it, while the crap one is just a spinning disc on a motor and you have to shove stuff through to feed it.

[ARW]

Could you not dry it out between now and November the 5th?

[Jeff Layman]

If you have an allotment association nearby they might be interested in taking it off your hands. New members taking over old plots which have been cropped for years, and have been pretty much exhausted of nutrients, could find decent compost very useful.

[John Rumm]

I did accidentally set it on fire once when a nearby bonfire spread into the heap a bit... It all looked like it was mostly out / dying embers at bed time, the following morning there was a smokey hedge and the wooden containment built from old pallets that was previously there was not any more. I had to leave a sprinkler on it for a couple of days to finally put it out.

So not entirely sure its something I want to repeat in case I wipe out a shed, a row of trees, or the gas fired boiler room for the neighbour's pool!

[John Rumm]

Actually that's not a bad idea - if its free to the recipient, they ought to be happy to dig it up themselves ;-)

[Chris J Dixon]

For some time I have had, and been very pleased with, an Alko SP5000, cog type. It has recently needed the capacitor replacing, but that was reasonably easy and inexpensive.

It claims 40 mm capacity, and seems to cope well with whatever I can get through the feed slot. I have yet to make any adjustments to the cutter.

Chris

[Jeff Layman]

There are stables near here with a "well-rotted stable manure - fill your own bags" sign at the gate. I often see cars parked there and someone with a spade and old compost, sand, thick poly waste bags etc, filling them.