I don't shred but I don't need to for what I do. Natural leaf litter and leaf mold is good enough for most of what I do. I just let the worms and microbeasties do it. When I come back to a leaf pile after several months or a year it is usually reduced to worm castings. A co-worker of mine mulch mows the leaves on his lawn with a mower designed to do just that. Since your leaves are already small they might not need to be thorougly shredded but just nicked a little to give the microbes, etc. a little bit of an entrance. microbes, etc. If you let the leaves dry out they might not be as valuable nutritionally or whatever but then you can just whack them or roll them around in a bag and they brake up pretty well.

I line the leaves and twigs along the front door of the garage, along the side of the garage, or alongside a solid fence, and then run them down with a lawnmower, with the side that spits out the debris facing the door/wall/fence.

I don't go up AND down, just the one way, and keep them confined against the solid object. Then I rake them up and put them where I please.

Sue

We're going to try the mulching mower blades. We did a bit of research on the Stihl brand of weed wackers. From the mid priced model ($199) and up, you can buy a different head that has blades on it. I wonder if this would work? We're looking at it to cut the thicker weeds at our house.

If all else fails, compost or burn. I'm not sure what, if anything, the burning does for the soil but it seemed to enrich the area last year....of course, the area was bare ground in the spring and used for a garden spot afterwards. I'll be watching the post. We'll be doing the same thing for our oak leaves this week!

Like Belgianpup, I've found that a mower with bagger works well if you have a hard surface to work on. On the last pass, you need to be able to set the wheels very low to get a good, clean pickup of the shredded leaves.

Weed whackers in a garbage can, or using a blower-vac, are both impractical for the number of leaves you have. A vac would drive you crazy because you would have to stop so often to empty the bag.

My cohort Deb Martin loves her little electric leaf shredder that can be set atop a garbage can, or operated free-standing over a tarp. For $100 or so, they are neat machines.

If I were in your shoes, I would apportion part of the leaves to a long-term leaf mold pile. It's rare and wonderful stuff!

Here is a link that might be useful: my website

I use either the lawn mower or a leaf and branch shredder. Most of my shredding is done with mower on the ground.
But when we have shredded as much as we can in place, then we get out the shredder and start raking and lifting the piles into the shredder.

The shredder we have was bought used, it has a briggs and stratton motor, but the "brand" name of the shredder was worn off years ago.

Weed whackers in a garbage can, or using a blower-vac, are both impractical for the number of leaves you have. A vac would drive you crazy because you would have to stop so often to empty the bag.

Not only that, it blows ALOT of dust through the bag. You get pretty grimy after using it. Note to self, stand upwind!

The lawnmover sounds interesting but we dont have a lawn nor a mower!

Pacific Coast oak leaves are tough little buggers. I did fill in a section of the garden with soil/leaf mixture awhile back. 6 Months later, the leaves are perfectly formed, just blackish, even the ones that were damp and underground. We do have several piles we allow to decompose naturally.

If I use them in the flower beds as mulch without shredding them, we get cited by the fire department for "leaf litter". But mulch is allowed. Go figure. Somedays you cant win.

I can make finished compost in about a month but it takes well shredded material to accomplish that. We have 3 piles going right now and I still need another three, hence why I was asking if there is an easier way.

Maybe we just have to create one!

This is a heck of a topic on here. There are always people that thinks the mower or the weed wacker in the barrel does a good job. I've tried all of these so called great methods and have to think and laugh out loud about how much crap that is! I was always looking for better ways and have challenged numerous people to come up with a better way without any takers. I bought a 10 horse Troy Built chipper/shredder last year and will never use anything else. This machine will turn a truck load of leaves into two garden carts full after being shredded. It will take up to 3 inch limbs, cardboard I hand rip and toss in. I'm still waiting to hear how many use something thats supposed to be for mowing chip up a three inch limb. "I won't> I even run used coffee filters through it. For stuff like leaves this machine will shred as fast as you can put them in. It comes with a bag or you can use it like I do and just shoot it in your compost bin without ever having to unload anything. This jewel even comes with a tow bar that you can use to pull it behind your riding mower or 4 wheeler like I do. This troy Built will shred a pick up truck load I bring home in about 10-15 minutes, 20-30 if they are wet. Troy Built doesn't come with some type of cheap blades they have what they call hammers that will turn your yard waist into usable compost that will only take a fraction of the time to use in the garden or flower beds. Prices are a little diffrent depending where you shop but not much. Just remember that you will get what you pay for with this one!

I bought a 10 horse Troy Built chipper/shredder last year and will never use anything else.

We have the 10hp Yard machine chipper/shredder. It works great on branches and such but on the leaves, it blows alot of them straight through.

These leaves are about 1 1/2" to 2" long and about 1/2" wide. If they are not broken down they dont like to decompose. Once shredded they are great!

Heres another question, we have a cactus patch up hill from us. Lots of old dried pad skeletons on the ground, will prickely pear cactus spines decompose in a compost heap or will I really be making a mistake using them? I know fresh pads will make a slimy mess but the old ones?

You've got yourself some willow or chinese elm leaves on your hands, huh?

I can't remember whom, precisely, suggested this in the past but I recall them mentioning that instead of shredding their leaves before composting they got themselves into the habit of just running their tiller through the piles between each flip. Does wonders for mixing everything up uniformly and tends to help break apart waxy/slender leaves that would otherwise be a PITA to deal with...

I've tried composting prickly pears, NEVER AGAIN, now I have prickly pears invading everything within 20 ft of my composting area. Not to mention I've had to throw out at least five pairs of _good_ $20 USD work gloves. Damn things even ruined my favorite pair of DEWALT rawhide work gloves.

jmsimpsom, most of these good folks are probably not familiar with how leathery and tough evergreen oak leaves are. I wish you luck in coming up with something that will get them shredded for you.

You've got yourself some willow or chinese elm leaves on your hands, huh?

I wish, it would be easier! Pacific Coast Oak, evergreen. Leathery, tough and when green, waxy.

I've tried composting prickly pears, NEVER AGAIN, now I have prickly pears invading everything within 20 ft of my composting area.

hummmm.. sounds like a bad idea then. They are allowed to live up on the hill, not in the garden. And yes, I have ruined some great leather gloves due to those darn cactus spines.

jmsimpson, most of these good folks are probably not familiar with how leathery and tough evergreen oak leaves are. I wish you luck in coming up with something that will get them shredded for you.

How I envy you that have maples trees!

Well I will figure out something, even if it means killing a weed whacker or two a year. I am not willing to throw the leaves out as they are just way too good for the garden.

someone needs to manufacture a giant paper shredder with a hopper on top. -sigh

LOL! Exactly!

I was thinking something like a lawn mower blade mounted upside down in a barrel that had 1/4" - 1/2" mesh on the bottom and 4" around the bottom sides.

I can imagine what would happen though if a small rock got in there. Talk about putting an eye out.

I have used three chipper/shredders and two lawn mowers to reduce my leaves and the neighbors (200+ bags a year).

No chipper/shredder comes anywhere near perfect in my opinion. My late 1980's Troy-Bilt 4 or 5 hp Tomahawk chipper/shredder does great on reducing leaves. It has hammerblades while most machines (including the new Troy-Bilts I think) have knives.

I think I would have to pay about $1100.00 for a new MacKissic to get the same results.

The lawn mowers were a tempoorary fix when the engine blew on the shredder. The 4.5 hp mower did not have enough power to shred a pile of leaves; the 6.75 hp did. But it takes about seven times of running over them to get the same reduction as the Troy-Bilt.

The smaller the shredded leaf, the quicker compost can be made.

I blow the leaves into a winrow or scatter them in an area and then BACK the riding mower through them about 3 times or so....tremendous results for me.

I pile them on the side of the house, and just crunch them down as I walk back and forth between the yards. Sometimes push the mower through there too, and that gives it an extra push, but the walking mehtod seems to work fine!

There are always people that thinks the mower ...does a good job.

I think it probably depends upon the mower. You need a good mulching mower with the proper blades. And you should not use the bagger. If you put the bagger on, then leaves go into the bag, before they are shredded.

If you can see the mulch in this picture, it is leaf mulch, that has been shredded with my lawn mower.
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Here is a picture of a nearly dead hydrangea, but its a better look at the leaf mulch that I make with the lawn mower.
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I would never use a weed whacker in a garbage can, because it would take about two hundred + garbage cans to process the amount of leaves that I have, Not practical for my situation...

Well I start with a machine like this except it's a JD tractor, hooked up to this. If I want it shredded even finer, I use a 5HP Simplicity shredder like this.

Lloyd

I don't have any pictures of my lawn mower... but its just a push mower, a toro recycler series, specifically made for mulching.

I finally bought a self-propelled mower to help my back out a bit.

I do have a shredder that I use mainly for branches... but for leaves, I use the mower as much as possible.

Well I broke down and bought another Toro leaf vac/leaf shredder. Went through 2 100 gallon trash bins of leaves on Saturday. I have about 3 more to do.

The oaks are all dropping their catkins and the pollen is everywheres! The cars and everything else around are covered in a yellow film. Once I was done shredding and sweeping up I had a bucket full of pollen/catkins.

Is pollen anything special in the compost heap? I put it all in there figuring it wouldn't hurt but is it anything special to use?

Its been a long time since I have seen such a pollen drop.

All of todays Troy Built chipper/shredders come with the superior hammers instead of the inferior blades. I never messed around with the weaker or less powerful 4 or 5 horse power models like Robertz6, but I had went straight to the big boy model. This 10 horse won't slow down when you load it and it will work faster than you do loading it! Even the large branches you put down the shute gets pulled in with ease to make smaller pieces, than what some buy in those plastic bags. Either way, it's still much more superior than using a lawn mower and a lot safer, for a job that it's not really for! Maymbe thats why they call it a LAWN mower instead of a chipper/shredder mower!!!!!!!!!!!

When I moved into my first home I promptly eliminated all lawn, but I have the lawnmower that came with the house. It is an older, very simple husquevarna that doesn't have a bag or a chute to expel debris. It just cuts and leaves in place. I have never tried it on grass, but I have used it to shred leaves. However, it is a slow process and the leaves easily bind the blade and kill the engine. Does it seem likely this would be made easier with a new mower blade or is the inferior machine/method to blame? If I can get a new blade for the mower to make this work better I'll do it, but if it won't help I'll defenestrate the mower and buy a shredder.

Actually Vic the new Troy comes with "2 hardened-chromium steel blades" and "12 replaceable steel flail knives". This setup is quite common in chipper/shredders. The blades are used for the chipping part of the machine and the flails/hammers/knifes are the shredding portion. These blades and knives are replaceable as they do eventually wear down. Some manufacturers used to make the blades reversible so that when one side got wore down they could be "flipped" thus doubling the life expectancy of the blade. I can't recall if they can be sharpened.

Lloyd

Here is a link that might be useful: Big 'ole Troy chipper/shredder

We use a really large metal trash can and a weed eater.We rake up huge piles of leaves. My husband starts the weed eater and holds in in the metal trash can . I start dumping leaves in the can as the weed eater is running. Don't put more in until the first batch has been shredded. Without stopping the weed eater I dump in more leaves . Repeat this process until the trash can is getting pretty full. You can do a LOT of leaves this way in just a few minutes.
Nan

(1) lawn mower (for mass reduction)
or
(2) flowtron (for pretty mulch)
or
(3) make it a big pile/bin/mass/heap and the need to shred goes away (for whiter teeth and fresher breath)
ialbtc