Organic Gardening – One Wise Purchase – Leaf Shredder

Tiny Garden Paradise

One Costly Item

By and large, I don’t spend a great deal of money for my gardening venture. I do like to have good reinforced garden hoses. I’ll pay a little extra to have good ones that don’t spring a leak every season. I have to have a wheelbarrow, and of course other various tools such as shovel, rake, hoe, trowels, small hand rakes, and so forth.

But the one item that was a bit costlier was my leaf shredder; and what a great investment it has been.

I shopped around (online, of course) before making my purchase and I wound up buying my shredder from Amazon. I can’t remember now what I paid for it because it’s been over 5 years ago, but the thing has run great and does exactly what I need it to do.

Leaves from Front Flower Beds

This photo shows a couple of bags waiting to be shredded. They were raked out of the front flower beds where the Oklahoma wind blew them all winter. Boy can they ever pile up.

How It All Fits Together

Here’s the basic frame over which I hook a large trash bag. It has to be large enough to fit over the frame.

The next piece that fits on top the frame is the heaviest. This is the motor. I know nothing about motors or machines and such. I just know that every time I turn this baby on, she runs. Fairly noisy, but I don’t mind that.

The shredding concept is simple—it uses weed-eater (trimmer) cord. These in the photo are fairly well worn down and need to be changed out. I purchased a roll of cord, and I just cut off the lengths that I need for each side. I use pliers to pull the old ones out. Simple enough for me to do. Also as you can see, it's all quite dirty. But, hey, it's well used.

The top mouth/funnel piece, fits on top and locks in place and voila! it’s ready to rock and roll. I like that it’s nice and wide.

If the leaves are dry and old, it can be a dusty job, but again, I don’t mind. I’m just happy to have all that shredded organic material to add to my compost heap.

If it’s spring or summer, instead of taking them to the compost heap, I take them to the garden and mulch the tomato and pepper plants.

My gardening work allows me to step away from novel writing and let my mind wander to plot yet another chapter of my book! It calms my mind and feeds my soul.

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