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| I'd like to be able to run my compost through a grinder of some sort. I was at first using a blender, but that's not something I can sustain in the long term.
My leaves are kind of thick and take quite a long time to break down, and my food though turned very often, still needs a run through a grinder. I'd like to ask for responses from anyone who knows of a way that is cheap to grind up my compost upon harvesting. I've seen one where someone is able to run it through a giant blade attached to a lawn mower engine. But I don't have a lawn mower that i can take an engine from. I don't want to be forced to buy a leaf chipper. Are there any other methods that I can use that are cheap, efficient, and effective? |
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| I have used my lawn mower to chop up semi-finished compost when the pieces were large. Usually I use the mower or something else to reduce leaves and other ingredients before mixing them together into a starting compost pile. Then the finished material is small enough and does not require further shredding. Shredding the larger semi-composted pieces gives a light, airy material. I try to avoid larger wood pieces that might ding the mower blade. If you Search for 'chipper' or 'shredder' on this forum, and the Tool forum you will find hundreds of threads on this subject. |
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- Posted by KendraSchmidt none (My Page) on Thu, Oct 4, 12 at 15:44
| Robert, you're actually able to use the lawn mower over partially composted compost? If so, can you tell me how you go about doing that? Do the pieces fly about when you place the lawn mower over them? Also, what do you use beneath the lawn mower,on the ground? I hope my question is clear... |
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- Posted by nancyjane_gardener USDA 8ish No CA (My Page) on Fri, Oct 5, 12 at 0:47
| Hard to say since you don't have a lawnmower. For leaves, I was given a leaf sucker/chopper which is great, but I think they are fairly expensive. You can still run your food scraps through a $5 food processor or blender from a yard sale. You could look for a cheap/free mower or leaf grinder on craigslist, yard sales, flea mart or freecycle. Good luck and good gardening! Nancy |
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| For many years I have been using an ordinary gas rotary lawnmower to shred maple leaves, before they are used as mulch. Some of the shredded leaves go on the compost pile, where they break down much sooner if they are shredded first. To shred leaves, they are first raked into a windrow, about two feet wide and a foot high. The lawnmower is pulled through backwards, because this reduces scattering. It takes several passes, but the process is very fast. At least the shredding part. Raking up the shredded leaves, sweeping the sidewalk, and collecting all the dust takes considerable time and effort. If the leaves are shredded on the lawn, the leaf dust simply settles into the grass, and feeds the lawn. This is likely the cheapest way to shred leaves, and I think it would work on compost, provided the compost is not too damp. Lawnmowers are inexpensive to own and operate, and they are reliable. The process works OK, but the labor involved in clean-up is considerable. I typically load up a blue pvc tarp with the shredded leaf remnants, and pull this around the yard to where the mulch is needed. |
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- Posted by fabaceae_native (My Page) on Fri, Oct 5, 12 at 11:14
| I have a typical gas-powered 300cc chipper/shredder that sits maybe three feet tall, and has two wheels for pushing around. It is way more reliable than a lawnmower, although the claim that it can chip large sticks is suspect. It probably could do something the diameter of a broomstick, but it would take a while, and be very inefficient. It works great for garden waste like cornstalks, old tomato plants, and weeds. You can sit there and shovel a steady stream of clumpy horse manure in and it will turn it into a nice finely shredded mulch that nobody would know was ever horse manure. I've never used it for food waste, I'd worry it might get gummed up with that sort of thing. I got it used for 1/10 original price, I imagine they are easy to find used in most places. |
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| .. Pictured: Eco Shredder 1600. $100 off of Craigslist. Electric. Another $10 for the improvised adapter (the silver part). I limit it to leaves (large avocado leaves) and twigs. I've found that my kitchen waste disappears just fine and I no longer entertain any ideas about chopping or grinding that stuff up. Same for the lemons and oranges that drop to the ground and are no good. Avocado skins just take forever though. I have gone over leaves with the mulching mower on the driveway where I have walls on either side. Then I'll let the mower bag them. Dirty job though. Dirt and dust everywhere. For the bin, I prefer leaves spread out over the lawn while I mow and it chops the leaves some and mixes them with the grass clippings. to sense |
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| Kendra, you have 2 problems basically, mulching up the leaves, and mulching up the 'food' portions. For the food portions there is a method that is quite easy but not perfect. Get a 5 gall bucket (with lid) and you can cut your food parts up into decent chunks (about 4"x4" is ok) then put them in the bucket. That will get ugly smelly pretty easy. When its fullish you just dump it onto your bin of leaves/ paper and stir it all up... For the leaves you can use one of the blower/shredders (about 75 bucks) which DO work well and I have found as a good investment. I box the leaves in fall and they get stored till I need them. All I do is throw them in a BIG cardboard box for about 48 hours and dry them out as much as possible (drier the better). Then I just suck them up in the mulcher and throw into the compost bin for the new batch. The rest go back into boxes to be used as needed. Alternatively you can use a weed wacker. Build a cheap 'holding pen' and throw all the leaves in (again drier the better) and just have at it with the weed wacker.. then you have chewed up leaves. |
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