Pest Control Specialist

Working on your back yard or garden to clear down any non-essential bushes or trees is very hard work! Not only do you need to chop the trees down, you are also required to then get rid of of it too in an environmentally friendly manner also. This is definitely where having a tree chipper or leaf shredder will be ideal.

These small, portable units will break down smaller sticks and branches and plants into smaller pieces so that they can be reused or recycled in a large number of different ways. For example, a branch from your dead tree could be turned into wood chippings and then used as a layer on your flower beds. If you have a large number of trees or branches to shred, they could be used to create an area where young people can play safely. Softer items such as shrubs could be shredded down by a garden shredder into a fine or coarse mulch and that is then brilliant for putting to your plants and used as a natural fertilizer. Just mix up the reduced plant with a bit of water and leave it to compost in a warm storage device and you will produce a great locally made product to assist your replacement trees and plants grow.

Shredders are available in various shapes and sizes, from smaller plastic portable models designed for home users only, which use rigid nylon string to thresh the waste plants you feed into it into smaller pieces, right the way through to large towable electric chippers and model that are built for industrial shredding for landscaping companies and gardening companies. In the middle ground of this range there are many shredders and chippers which are solely designed to break down the waste material that is placed into them. They are made to take branches of no larger diameter than two inches and they will quite quickly process all types of other garden wastage without any issues at all. Products by Bearcat or Craftsman are built for this sort of work and will last you for years and years.

A leaf shredder is a perfect option for people with larger gardens that have trees that shed their leaves. Place the leaves into a shredder and they will be reduced quickly. The processed leaves are great for making compost or adding to a mulch, and the shredded leaves are easily disposed of.

You could make it a group purchase. Get together with your neighbors and buy the chipper shredder between the group and share it around you all. It makes for a perfect idea to jointly own a chipper shredder as they are not needed all year round.

Aaron Shanty Garden & Landscape chipper shredder, chipping, compost, garden, Garden & Landscape, gardening, home improvement, outdoors, shredding, wood chip, yard work

Making compost is like cooking a stew for your family. You need a recipe, the correct ingredients in the right amounts, the correct temperatures and time to let it all simmer. The end result will be a load of sweet smelling, rich dark brown loam that you can feed to your plants with pride.

Composting is the controlled decomposition of organic matter. If left to natural means this process can be extremely slow, but by following the recipe and using the correct equipment you can considerably speed up the process. The following ingredients are necessary:

Carbon

Nitrogen

Oxygen

Water

However some materials are not appropriate for residential composting. Most backyard systems will not reach high enough temperatures necessary to kill the pathogens and vermin present, so certain items such as meat scraps, dairy products and pet droppings are not to be used.

High carbon (brown) sources are necessary to generate heat. High nitrogen (green) sources are necessary to allow the decomposing bacteria to thrive.

Browns are high carbon materials and may include;

Dry straw, hay and grass clippings

Fallen leaves

Newspaper – shred the papers for better results

Greens are high nitrogen materials and may include:

Green plant material such as garden residue, fresh hay, grass clippings, and weeds

Manure; such as horse, cow, chicken, or mushroom. No pet droppings!

Fruit and vegetable waste

Seaweed (rinse well to remove any salt)

Coffee grounds and filters

There are some types of trees such as live oak, the southern magnolia and holly trees whose leafs are too tough and leathery for decomposition, also avoid all parts of the black walnut tree as they contain a plant poison that will survive composting. Other leafs to avoid using in your compost are poison oak, poison ivy, and poison sumac.

Another ingredient which is often overlooked is moisture. Water the pile just enough to keep the contents moist but not saturated. In a couple of weeks, the pile should heat up to approximately to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. At this temperature many of the weed seeds and harmful organisms will be killed.

A compost bin or tumbler is ideal for the small garden. A tumbler will give you the quickest results due to the ease of aerating the compost, so figure at least 8 to 10 weeks for good compost to be ready to use. Spin the compost tumbler at least once a week. This will keep the compost aerated, in as much as it is necessary to provide oxygen to the mixture to achieve good results.

If at this point the temperature has dropped, increase the heat by adding more nitrogen in the form of greens such as grass clippings or leaves from your produce trimmings, if manure is available it will get things cooking again in a hurry. Remember, new material can always be added to the mix, although it will slow the process down.

Home composting uses different of techniques, from extreme passive (cold) composting (throw everything into a pile and leave it alone) to active (hot) which consists of monitoring the temperature and turning or rotating the pile on a regular basis.

Dick Murray Garden & Landscape compost, compost tumblers, composting, composting tumblers, ecology. green, Garden & Landscape, gardening, green movement, organic, soil