Leaves - Shredding, what do you do.. - Forum

Yes I know I'm thinking way ahead,I do 12 commercial sites now ( all blocks of flats ) most, but some in particular have bundles of leaves in the autumn, one in particular I could if I wanted to take about 4-5 ton bags away every fortnight.I have spoken to the chap that gives me the work as I'm sub contracted about the possibility of compost bins, however that a no goer, as the management responsible says with the type of people that live in the flats that's just another problem to deal with.Anyway my very high powered 3.5" wood chipper will do all the wood and hedges, but won't do leaves, it's a chipper, not a shredder. I tried putting leaves through and it doesn't really shred them down to well, and it clogged the machine up.Any ideas, I've thought about mowing them without the box on, does anyone use a shredder to make lovely leaf mulch that works really well.Again I don't really want another piece of machinery but if it really does the job well, I may just....Any comments would be greatly appreciated.Andy

Replies

Chris Auld January 20, 2013 at 11:15am

Blow them under a hedge :)
Andrew Michael Palmer January 20, 2013 at 11:25am

I blew the 20 or so ton bags over a 8-10 wk period into one area, to let rott. Just could afford to take that much off site and pay for disposal! So querying about next year.....Leaves a pain the bloodey arse...
David Cox January 20, 2013 at 12:43pm

On larger sites I tend to run all leaves over with my mulching mower and the result is the leaves are chopped to particles about the size of a grain of rice. These can either be left on the lawn areas to feed the lawn - or then re-run over with a collecting mower to pick up the worst of it... or you can blow the resulting particles into shrubbery to feed those areas. In all but the thickets covering of leaves the result is you see a green lawn with a darker tint to it from the leaf matter - excess blown off and it looks like theirs never been any leaves on it.
Kieran Ray January 20, 2013 at 5:19pm

I know you said you didnt want to invest in more equipment but have you looked at products such as billy goat vacs? You can even get tail board mounted options that can blow straight into a tipper or trailer!

http://www.billygoat.com/