With a
shredder you can fast-compost small limbs, tree prunings, and other
woody materials like corn and sunflower stalks. Whole autumn leaves
tend to compact into airless layers and decompose slowly, but dry
leaves are among the easiest of all materials to grind. Once smashed
into flakes, leaves become a fluffy material that resists
compaction.
Electric driven garden chipper/shredders are easier on the
neighbors' ears than more powerful gasoline-powered machines,
although not so quiet that I'd run one without ear protection.
Electrics are light enough for a strong person to pick up and carry
out to the composting area and keep secured in a storeroom. One more
plus, there never is any problem starting an electric motor. But no
way to conveniently repair one either.
There are two basic shredding systems. One is the hammermill--a
grinding chamber containing a rotating spindle with steel tines or
hammers attached that repeatedly beats and tears materials into
smaller and smaller pieces until they fall out through a bottom
screen. Hammermills will flail almost anything to pieces without
becoming dulled. Soft, green materials are beaten to shreds; hard,
dry, brittle stuff is rapidly fractured into tiny chips. Changing
the size of the discharge screen adjusts the size of the final
product. By using very coarse screens, even soft, wet, stringy
materials can be slowly fed through the grinding chamber without
hopelessly tangling up in the hammers.
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