| yes, when renting a chipper/shredder be sure to get one that handles 6" diameter branches/trees or bigger, and have your branches stacked in a horse shoe shaped area around where you will bring the chipper shredder. The shredders cost $175 - $200 per half day to rent here, so don't rent one unless you have enough volume to make it worthwhile. See about renting for a half day Saturday afternoon and have a team of folks there to keep it running non-stop. Here, our rental shop is closed Sunday, so our half day rental gave us a overflow "free" day on Sunday. When we rented this past year, I had my dad and a friend pruning back the fruit trees while my son dragged the branches to the shredder and my hubby and I ran the pre-stacked branches through. I cut branches each year (15 fruit trees plus other trees) and I store the branches along the double file of white pines until I have enough volume to make the rental worthwhile. This past time I ended up with a pile of wood chips equivalent to the pile of mulch I had paid $190 to have delivered. So....I felt that it was a good rental as I cleared out the stored branches under the pines (8' x 12' x 20' stack), got my fruit trees pruned and ground up those branches as they were cut, and acquired a large mulch pile at the same time. On previous rentals I felt that it wasn't as good a deal because either I didn't have a big enough crew OR I didn't wait until I had enough of a branch pile to make it a full job. Also, I once made the mistake of trading favors to borrow my sister-in-law's home shredder. It was terrible....wouldn't hardly chew up a 1" branch and it jammed and was cranky restarting. When you rent a shredder, get a good commercial grade one that comes on its own trailer and be prepared to haul and handle wood for 6 hours or more nonstop. |
Here is a link that might be useful: my gardens
