I'm thinking of investing in a shredder, mainly to reduce prunings etc to a more easily compostable state, not likely to have any big stuff. Can anyone suggest what size I should be looking for and recommend a reliable one?
take a look at Gardening Which?, they did a very comprehensive survey a couple of years ago with loads of advice on what to look for :)
Some of the recent ones are much quieter I'm told...
Power supply can be a problem, the cheaper ones are 'Leccie and you may not have access to a source at the plot.
;D
worth investing in a decent one if you are going to get one,
I bought a cheap one on offer in homebase and it is not very good. It gets clogged up very quickly (very dangerous to unclog - have to take top of and manually clear the chopping blade) and it just kind of bruises thin branches.
as long as all your branches are a uniform length and thickness it works quite well, unfortunately not the case in reality.
.........unless of course the OH is reading this - then best decision I ever made - i will use it again, I promise ;D
This chap obvoiusly has a bit of thing about shredders, but some useful info:
http://www.fredshed.co.uk/boschshredders.htm (http://www.fredshed.co.uk/boschshredders.htm)
Personally I find them a bit of a nuisance, Ive even got a big petrol one now which still blocks, and takes three times longer to shred material than it did to cut a hedge in the first place. I prefer to lay out any woody stuff on the lawn, and chop it up with my mower, works far better for me.
I've managed to get one on ebay for £25. It's an Alko new tec 1400. Unfortunately no instructions with it. I've e-mailed the maker, but if anyone has one like this, I'd be garteful for any tips, especially on what size stuff it will shred. Thanks.