The lawn mower method works better if you go through the leaves SLOWLY, not your normal mowing-the-lawn speed. Hope this helps.

I use one of the blowers that acts as a vacuum, with a hose attachment that fits over the top of a garbage can. Suck up the leaves, they get shredded in the process, they wind up in the can, which I can then drag to wherever I want them and dump them.

One time my postal carrier saw me vacuuming leaves out of the street and dumping them on my garden. She looked at me like I was crazy. I said, "Do you garden?" She said "Yes." I said, "Do you buy compost and mulch?" She said "Yes." I held up handfuls of shredded leaves. "Free compost and mulch!" I said happily. I think she got it.

You need a mulching mower that comes with a plug or cover that you put over the chute the leaves blow out from. Or if you are using a bag to catch them perhaps would work well for you. It is made for mulching things that way. I with mine .

I had a 5hp chipper/shredder that did a really nice job of shredding leaves as long as they were dry. Wet leaves clogged it almost instantly and it was a real PITA to try to shred them. At best it is a dusty, noisy, slow job. The weedeater / garbage can thing might do for a bag or two of leaves but sure would be slow and inefficient.

You could rent a chipper /shredder or a good ZTR mulching mower for one day some week end, or you could probably check around on Craigs list or other classified ads and find a good chipper shredder pretty reasonable, if that is the route that you want to go. Often, they are low hours even though they might be old. Many people do not put a lot of use on them, they sit around in the garage or shed taking up room till they decide to sell them. Many times, if anything is wrong with them, it is something minor like old gas left in the carb, a plug or something like that.

If you find a satisfactory means of shredding them, you are definitely on the right track for making lots of really good compost.
Just my .02
Bill P.

Thanks!

Great advice guys! My lawnmower is currently out of commission due to a bent blade (I hit a bump or a hole or something and drove it into the ground somehow - not pretty) so I need a new blade anyway. I'll look into a better mulching blade and see if that makes a difference.

I don't own a blower, but if I go that route, I'll make sure to look into the reverse mode as an option.

I use a small electric mower that I replaced for lawn duty with a cordless model. The plug in mower works great if you go over the leaves slowly and shreds them to about the size of a dime or smaller. I shredded two big bags of oak leaves this past weekend and used them as a fall mulch around my gardenias and palm trees. I prefer the look pine straw gives for mulch, but shedded leaves don't look bad either and as a cool season mulch is easier to get. I'll just pine straw over them in the Spring.

I rake and dump leaves in a long line all along my cement driveway where they get run over by our cars in the normal ins and outs. After a week or so I rake them up and put them in garden beds and compost piles and start over. I have been very happy with this method but it probably wouldn't work as well in a location with a lot of rain or freezing temps. I can usually get a new batch dumped and shredded in between storms. Good luck! Wobur

I used a $100 Sears model sucker/shredder for 5 years before the bag zipper gave way. I now have a similarly priced Toro model that works pretty well. It is a bit slow and even dry leaves clog if you use the full tube attachment. However, I have a lot of leaves on a deck and in a fenced patio area that can't be mowed.

I have been trying to research shredders myself.

Don't get too tied up in the idea of shredding leaves, they will still compost whole, it just takes longer. Some types of leaves are quick to compost, others slow.

I've seen something that looks like a section of barrel with string trimmer type stuff that whirls around inside it that you drop leaves through into a bag/bin. I've heard these work ok for dry leaves but wet leaves seem to stymee anything. I've also used one of those electric leaf vacumes before. It was kinda fun but dusty and tedious to empty the bag every couple minutes.

Most larger chippers are meant for sticks. Some of them can handle leaves though it might be tedious to feed them in. Again, wet leaves clog things. My uncles advice about chipper/shredders. "they are useless, you spend all day cutting the branches into small sticks that you can feed into the darn thing. If you must get such a thing, double the HP you though you needed and then make sure to get something bigger than that."

So far I don't have a shredder myself and have been using whole leaves in my compost bins.

Years ago, I had a shredder. Dry leaves went through too fast & didn't always shred. Wet leaves tended to clog up. So, on shredding day, I tried to have my leaves in 2 separate piles, wet & dry. I had brush in a third pile. I fed the 2 piles of leaves through the shredder alternately and that way the wet leaves were much less likely to clog up and the dampness inside the shredder tended to slow the dry leaves down enough to shred better. Every once in a while I ran some dry brush through, which really cleaned it out. Then I went back to alternately running wet & dry leaves.

I've used my parents' blower thingy and it is quite the dusty and slow process.

The two main reasons I am looking into shredders are:

1) Can I use it to shred newspaper/cardboard?
2) shredded leaves take up less space than unshredded leaves.

I would want to test any shredder out on the cardboard/newspaper first before trusting it. We have been shredding paper and cardboard through a paper shredder. We broke our first paper shredder twice by feeding it too much cardboard. This time I spent a little more money on a Fellows paper shredder that is quite powerful and seems fine with the cardboard so long as it isn't extra heavy duty cardboard.

If you are mulching leaves for composting with a mower you do not want your mower set up for mulch mowing. You need that, preferably side, discharge open and then some means of catching what is discharged. The most bestest way to is to set the mower on something that raises the deck some and holds the mower in place and carefully rake the leaves under the mower deck. The leaves will be picked up and chopped and discharged into your catcher.

I rake the leaves into a pile and let the kids jump around in it for a few days. The pile shrinks down pretty low and the leaves break up into teeny tiny pieces.

Course, even an expensive shredder is probably cheaper than having kids just to crunch leaves. hee!

"The most bestest way to is to set the mower on something that raises the deck some and holds the mower in place and carefully rake the leaves under the mower deck."

The potential for serious injury is too great for the benefit derived. I would suspect that there would be no manufacturer of any mower that would endorse this method.

Safety first folks.

Lloyd

Just run the mower over a shallow pile for the same result safely.

You could buy 6" fencing, make a ring out of it, and pile the leaves in there until they're composted. Tossing your pee on the leaves helps speed things up. That's what we've been doing for a couple of years; we were running the lawn mower over them for years before that, until we started thinking, how does using energy/fossil fuels to make compost help the Big Picture.

Having kids stomp on the dried leaves is a great way to make mulch.

"The potential for serious injury is too great for the benefit derived. I would suspect that there would be no manufacturer of any mower that would endorse this method."
No manufacturer of a mower would endorse that use for the same reason you have the "Caution, Hot" on coffee cup lids. I am well aware that some people are stupid enough to put their hands and feet under mower decks and the resulting injuries that happen, but if this is done properly the mower is very stable and there is no real hazard to the operator as long as common sense prevails. I have done this at times with no resulting injury to me and some nicely shredded leaves.

"I am well aware that some people are stupid enough to put their hands and feet under mower decks"

So if you know this is dangerous, why would you practice it never mind recommend it to others? As some one said in an earlier post, "sometimes repetition is necessary"; the potential for serious injury is too great for the benefit derived.

A great quote comes to mind, "Stupid is as stupid does". (Forrest Gump) (go ahead and google that, lots of good reading!)

"I would not say that lawn-mower injuries are the biggest issue in injury in Canada. They're not. But if they're preventable, why not prevent them?" asked Alison Macpherson, an injury researcher and professor in York University's school of kinesiology and health science."

Google lawn mower injuries and read all the reports for yourself. Having said that, your country is the "Land of the free and the home of the brave", so fill your boots.

Lloyd

I have done all the same tactics to shred leaves like using a mower and leaf blower. This fall I bought a 10 horse Troy Built chipper/shredder which may be more than you want to spend but like the usual saying goes. "You get what you pay for. When you shred it will work faster than what you load the leaves. When your done you don't move your pile with a turning fork you use a scoop shovel. This cuts the composting time into more than half when you use things this finely shredded.

Yes indeed, it would be nice to have our leaves all nicely shredded and ready for composting or mulching. Mom Nature doesn't give 'em to us that way and shred we must. Personally I don't shred since I'm so glad to get all the leaves for free and just pile them up (3' thick) on the garden (inside a 4' fence) with a bit of blood meal and let winter do the work. They'll settle and make a hideously compacted mess (easily moved) that feeds the soil all winter long. Come Spring off they go to the compost bins with Spring's new grass cuttings and the second season's composting begins. Winter's compost from the bins, kitchen scraps, UCG's, more leaves, last years greens, etc., all go in the garden. The leaves from atop the garden, with the grass, give me a nice pile that really does heat up quickly and along come the worms to help after things cool down a bit. Nothing like worm castings, really. Oh, darn, I forgot we were talking about shredding. Just can't wait 'till Spring. I'm losing it. ;-)

pt03,

Everything in life is dangerous. Do you wear steel-toed boots every time you mow? What if your foot accidentally slides in the back!?!! Do you ever push a mower up a hill with you behind it? What if you loose your footing and fall down and the mower comes back at you!??!?! Heck I think a chipper is possibly more dangerous than any yard equipment you can use. All it would take is a loose thread of clothing and you could lose an arm/leg in a hurry! But wait....lots of people use chippers without problems...

Bottom line is Kimmsr gave an idea that works, well I might add, and is practically free (no additional equipment other than some bricks/wood to raise the deck. Like with anything in life proper precautions SHOULD BE ASSUMED. In this sue-happy nation we live in (US at least) personal accountability and common sense are often trumped by people that just don't think and then want to get some cash for their stupidity.The safety aspect of a mower on the ground and one raised 6" is exactly the same if you're not a dolt! Don't stick you hand/foot under while its running or with the spark plug in, don't be doing this with your 2 year old running around the yard, and obviously don't leave it unattended as you go do some shots of Jagermeister and then come back to choppin'.

Hey Enigma

As you asked, no, I don't wear steel-toed boots when I mow as I use a garden tractor with a belly mower, but I do wear safety goggles and eye protection. Do I need to answer the other questions re: mowing or does that satisfy your curiosity?

When chipping or shredding I also wear ear protection and safety goggles, likewise when felling a tree. I also have a person with a 3-4 foot stick standing behind me watching the tree canopy for any danger that I can't see as I am obviously watching the chainsaw.

I work with many farm implements driven by a PTO and I assure you, I do not have any loose clothing around them.

I'll take your word for it that lots of people use chippers without problems, I didn't do any research on that. I am sure all the research you did is sufficient that we can believe you.

The idea of blocking up a mower is not a safe one even though it might work. If you want to make a little wager, how about we contact a few manufacturers to ask their opinion? Or, if you think the manufacturers are biased, we could e-mail some safety councils. Pick someone you think would be credible if you like. I would be surprised if anyone with any safety training would endorse your 6 inches off the ground versus on the ground statement. In fact, if one read a story of such an injury, dolt might be one of the words used to describe such a person. But as you say there appears to be lots of people that don't have any common sense and ASSUMING that they will take safety precautions when they are already doing something unsafe is a stretch, but you go ahead and keep believing that.

And I must say, I am touched by your concern for my safety, it really does mean a lot to me.

Lloyd

P.S. If you wish to further this conversation or proceed with the mower survey, maybe we should take it off line, my email is accessible through my profile.

Remember Murphy's Law. LT, GT, & riding mowers are designed for, and intended to be used by.......an "operator". "Operator" as applicable to this genre of machinery means someone "occupying the operator's seat" on the machine. I think the argument by proponents of the "block up" technique are bolstered by denial and rejection. Denying that there are any "hidden or unforseen" hazards in this behavior. Rejecting safety recommendations and/or safety devices as "frivolous BS". (you are going to need to "defeat" some kind of safety interlock switch to allow the blade to run without an operator on the seat !!)

Sigh, I'm done arguing. For those of you that feel it is taking undue risk to raise a mower deck 6" for the purposes of mulching leaves please DO NOT DO THIS. I would hate for anyone to become injured or worse from such a dangerous practice.

But please be careful in your home. That ceiling fan is also a very dangerous machine that could come loose and bop you on the head or worse if its spinning blades were to come in contact with you. I think we need to start a crusade for ceiling fan shrouds so this unseen danger is properly addressed. And toasters! They need a shroud over the top when on to prevent accidental burns and electrocution. And we need to also start a crusade for snowblowers. Those things have !OPEN FRONTS! with a spinning blade that could easily cause horrible injuries. And string trimmers !my GOD! These are thin blades of death without any protection at all. A piece could fly off and do some severe damage even when wearing protective equipment (nevermind that this last one was an alternative recommendation in this thread, where's the outrage!?).

Mownie I admit that I've only been on a handful of riding mowers but EVERY one has allowed for the blade to be running regardless of where the "operator" might be. What requires an operator is to MOVE the mower. It will sit and idle in neutral with the blade running until it runs out of gas.

So unless I set up a slip 'n slide under the raised mower for my daughter I just don't see what the fear-mongering is about.

What terrible advice you give enigma. I have rarely heard anyone on these boards give such reckless advice and I hope it gets ignored as it should. There is a reason why there are kill switches on mowers (people have lost their lives) and in order to suspend one while it is running means disconnecting these safety features. If you want to take such risks, do so, but do not come on a public board and pretend the risks do not exist.

Sorry I never meant to get something started by a follow up post. When I talked earlier about useing my troy built chipper/shredder, I figured someone would maybe want to know the best way I have found from shredding leaves. As far as safety is concerned, unless you have 4 foot arms you will not get yourself or your clothing caught in it! Any one who says otherwise must have never had a chance to see for themselves that this is such a more supierior way of shredding. It's a lot safer than any mower with a deck up 6 inches. I have tried that and anything you drive over such as rocks are going to go flying. Besides I would love to see someone chip a 3 inch limb thats 10 feet long with a riding mower. He He, Heck I would pay to see that and tape it. Of course afterwards the video will end up on youtube for people to get a good laugh. Theres a slight danger with just about anything you do from stepping on a garden rake to having a kick back with a chainsaw. Bottom line is if you use your head and not act like a nit wit things are less likely to happen.

Enigma

Obviously we are not going to change your mind, no problem.

I would hope that others who read of this controversial practice do not attempt it.

Lloyd

The link below appears to be written by one who might know something of the subject.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mower safety

Pto3, Thats more less what I was trying to say in a round about way in the post in front of yours. Useing a mower in this fassion isn't the best idea. It can not even compare in quality of the after product of shredding leaves with the way I suggested.

Hi Vic

Sorry, I actually didn't see your post until now. I also use a shredder (Simplicity 5/14) and I agree it does do an excellent job for what it is intended for. Wouldn't hesitate to get another one.

Lloyd

O.k.
Whilst youse guyz cyberpummel each other, I,ll just talk about what "I" think about shredding.
Firstly, tclinks has it right, you don't HAFTA shred, but if you do, you can reduce its mass twenty to one and sredding sure does make the compost do its voo doo so well (fast).
Now how to shred depends alot on who you are (kinda silly but true) lawnmowers will do the trick (as long as you got a lot to shred and the deck is set high)and with lawnmowers you not only have to worry about cutting a digit, hand/foot/limb off (or if you are a skilled genetic mistake, decapitating yourself) but you also should worry about where the exhaust port is in relation to the leaf pile. (think about it)
And tclinks, (IMHO) you don't have to shred cardboard, just wet it real good (it already comes shredded just dry and flattend together)
You could also get a flowtron, it works really good at making a fine shred in a container, its main drawbacks are it makes a lot of noise, it makes a lot of dust, you have to feed it slowly and if you try to shred sticks over 1/8TH of an inch in size you'll have to change the string line more often. but apart from that glowing praise it really does a fine job. Oh yeah, by the way, it does consume both power(Gas and electric) and time (honey, will you come inside? its midnight!)and MONEY!
If I have a lot of leaves I might shred em or if I need some mulch or mulch base, but apart from that, the most eco friendly way is to make sure your pile is large and make it and keep it hot, like a crockpot cooker, the leaves will be more fragile when wet AND hot.

using your lawn mower to shred leaves? probably not the most environmentally efficient...

Here is a link that might be useful: lawn mower exhaust

I occasionally drop in, came across this thread and here's my two cents' worth. I'll preface by saying that we have almost exclusively oak leaves - tough, leathery things that mat, mold and take forever and a day to break down, even with "accelerators". Oak trees are notorious not only for dispensing these leaves throughout winter, but also for dropping small twigs and branches throughout the year. In addition, the squirrels drawn by the abundance of acorns nip off small branches for their dreys [nests], half of which are dropped to the ground during the construction process. It could be that these branches failed some squirrel quality inspection process, but I tend to believe these critters are just incredibly clumsy builders. Now that you know what we've been dealing with:

We tried the string-trimmer-in-the-barrel technique, which worked fine ... until the string trimmer motor burned out.

Tried the mower method, but it was time consuming, messy, and left the lawn a mess (the only other places to work would have been the patio or gravel drive ... not good options.)

Bought one of those long, thin chipper/shredder deals, which does a great job on twigs and sticks up to a rather impressive size, but it's just not the tool for all the leaves we get here.

Sent my young adult son to get me one of those push-type leaf vacs. It has a hose on the side that you can pull out and vac up debris from nooks in the garden. It works well, but twigs do tend to clog it, requiring frequent shut-down and cleaning of the passageway. Did I mention I have difficulty with the pull-start?

At a gardener's auction this summer, won the bid on one of the barrel-shaped leaf shredders with the string-trimmer mechanism built in. It's wonderful. Light and easy to set up, easy to start/stop. You can put in armloads of leaves and it does a great job on them. Little twigs it can handle, but it' best to remove any sticks that may be mixed in with the leaves. It has different settings for various materials and end product [coarse to fine]. I am amazed at how much the leaves are reduced, and find the end product to be fairly uniform - it actually looks nice as a mulch product. I was lucky enough to get this one at a huge discount because of the auction, but if I'd known how effective and easy-to-use this would be, I'd have gladly paid full price years ago ... wish I'd done it instead of diddling around with all those other methods. And, no, LOL, I don't sell these, or own stock in any company that manufactures or sells them ... I'm just very, very happy with it and pleased to have finally solved our leaf problem.

Diane

haplo,

There is a way to get your mower to shred better than what it is doing. 1) When you get a new blade, ask for a mulching blade. If you've already got a blade, don't woory about it. 2) Obviously you don't have a mulching plug so take some heavy cardboard and and duct tape it firmly over the outlet of your mower deck. You may have to raise the outlet shield.

For all those who are going to say this is not a good idea, I've done it. I've got a few trees and compost all the leaves. Sometimes I use my chipper shredder and sometimes one of my mowers. It works and is probably faster than putting the leaves through the shredder.

Bob

Not a bad idea just not as good of one. For finer particals than any mower could ever think about cutting up I'll still have to say my Troy Built chipper/shredder is much better without the raking afterwards. I'll put it up against any other way of shredding, I've seen posted on here yet! As far as electric or something with a plastic string is concerned. We'll let's just say you'd be wasting your time. By the time you would get a truck load of oak leaves done I would already have mine incorporated into the garden and be cutting up my first tomato of the year!

The difference is one method is free the other costs quite a bit of money (Troy). That has to factor in as well, especially those of us with smaller yards that don't have acres of leaves to deal with.

Like the saying goes, " You get what you pay for!" Besides a Troy built is not expensive. You can get a 10 horse, their biggest like mine for under $900.00. To own the best you don't have to have acres of leaves to deal with. I myself only have two and a half lots, but with the way people are packing up bag upon bag of leaves for the city to haul away you can get as much as you want. Now if you are not that big into gardening or raising flowers then you could even go with the smaller chipper/shredder they sell. The smaller won't chip as big of branches but it will still do more than any mower or weed wacker. I read another post about shredding cardboard. With the one I have, if you cut up pieces about the size of a papper plate it works fine. Any cardboard thats bigger than that has to be pushed down with a stick due to the feeding shute having somewhat of a bend in it before whatever you put in gets to the blades. I guess though if such little money to buy a new one bothers you, one could be bought off of ebay. The only draw back with that I found is you have to pay for shipping or pick it up yourself from the seller, and thats a pain if they live a ways away. Like some say though, anything will break down in time, you just need to ask yourself, "Do I want to use my finished product in about two months or three years?" Any serious gardener, wants a continues supply of compost and not a dozen piles of slowly rotting leaves to look at. The only problem with owning such a luxery is storing the unit when not in use. Then again who would leave a riding mower outside in the elements either?

I have found that the mower mulches leaves better without the bag on. I lower the deck a notch, to keep the leaves from blowing out the sides. And I mulch as many leaves as I can back into the lawn. But when that gets to be too much, I need to start picking up leaves. So I will mow over everything without the bagger on. Then I mow it again, with the bagger on. When I do that, the leaves in the bag are shredded much better than had I done one pass with the bag on.

I dump the bags on various beds for mulch. And when the beds are all mulched, I start covering shrubs and I save a couple cans to set aside for browns during the summer.

riding mowers for the last few years, have a cutoff if you get off the seat. push mowers also have some form of blade safety mechanism to stop the blade instantly in an emergency to minimize operator injuries.