I have a very small garden but don't want to throw away the cut-back stuff. Can anyone recommend a good quality garden chipper that can munch this stuff up so I can compost it. TIA.
tygertung,
Apr 6, 4:08pm
Yes, Rover Chip N Shred. Try to find a second hand one. If it is a very small garden you might want an even smaller mulcher than that though.
gpg58,
Apr 6, 6:07pm
If you also have a lawn, maybe consider upgrading lawnmower, to one that will do the chipping as well, rather than have to have 2 separate pieces of equipment.
tweake,
Apr 6, 6:35pm
garden size makes no difference to what size chipper to get. bigger the chipper the bigger diameter branches you can put in it. i use an Ozito which is fine for all the twigs but your not putting anything over 25mm or so thick (as far as i can remember). i do a yearly prune and it turns a pile of cuttings into a handfull of mulch.
lawnmower ones are bit of a gimmick. handy for the odd twig you come across while mowing but thats about it. if you use it a lot you end up with bald patch on the ground under the mower. i have a mower with one and its not a feature i would spend money on.
eljayv,
Apr 6, 8:53pm
We have had an Ozito for quite a few years and it has been excellent.
pettal,
Apr 6, 8:57pm
just run the lawn mower over the garden waste .
owen106,
Apr 6, 9:29pm
Agreed. Mow it over and then I keep the bigger bits for kindling.
tweake,
Apr 6, 9:49pm
mowing over it does a lousy job and you run the risk of blade damage on the large bits. use the right tool for the job.
bryshaw,
Apr 6, 10:31pm
Hire or borrow a Hansa chipper, definitely not a toy though.
gpg58,
Apr 6, 11:26pm
I had an ozito for a time, but it was useless "At what i was trying to put thru it", so gave up on it. (it keep on jamming up, on average 2-3 times each time i used it, requiring opening up and clearing, and could not handle anything of any size, plus needed branches trimmed of most side limbs, to get them to fit in, and hated any flax or cabbage tree type material). Having a large tree that needing reducing, along with many medium ones, i went for a 15hp electric start one(listing-3038161846), that merely burps ;-) when feed 100mm magnolia branches, with most side limbs still attached(but annoyingly some do hit the safety cut off). But obviously overkill for a small garden, just doing light trimming.
Interesting re mower ones wrecking lawn under, (never used one) sounds a good point to note with them, and do it in a suitable area. But thinking on it, they only have a small diameter inlet, so it would be trim all the side branches off issue as well.
I have a chipper tube on my lawn mower, love that mower! Makes the branches etc into great mulch.
merrilegs,
Apr 7, 8:38am
Many thanks for all your comments. I'll have a good look around and then hopefully go shopping.
toyboy3,
Apr 7, 8:45am
The smart move would be to go to the local hire centre and try theirs for a day , most electric ones are underpowered
lovelurking,
Apr 7, 9:09am
I’m with toyboy (again! 🤤)
We thought a chipper would be really useful years ago and went to view one an old couple were selling. We asked why they were getting rid of it. They thought it was far too loud and too hard so he just ran the lawnmower over his cuttings a few times and the job was done. We didn’t buy it and the man of the house used his lawnmower from then onwards.
pauldw,
Apr 7, 9:39am
I trim any big bits out as I am pruning then run the mower over the rest. Every so often cutting some grass to add to the mix. Overall that is much quicker than feeding a small chipper.
wembley1,
Apr 7, 10:34am
I'm another satisfied Ozito user (Ozito Silent shredder 2400W).
It will happily chew through wooden branches up to say thumb thickness (or a bit more). What it doesn't like is a lot of soft leafy stuff which will just sit in the chute. Soft stuff needs to combined with woody material.
It won't do tree fern branches if they are still green inside but leave it a couple of weeks to it is dried out and it will gobble them up.
You need to periodically adjust the cutting head as the gap gets too wide.
bryshaw,
Apr 7, 6:24pm
If you can't afford a grunty machine (or the $1800 price tag) then hiring is the way to go.
tygertung,
Apr 8, 7:12am
Rover Chip N Shred has got rid of large amounts of foliage at our house.
apollo11,
Aug 4, 2:59am
I've got a 2.5kw one. It's mediocre. I'm putting tree lucerne through it at the mo, anything thicker than 10mm has to be fed individually through the side chute, otherwise the flails just skin the bark off and throw out lengths of skinned sticks.
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