Gardeners are often seen carting away loads
of garden refuse to dump sites. All household refuse ends up in the bin. If you
think your household and garden rubbish are only fit for the landfill site,
think again.
The fact is that a quarter of everything
you throw away could be shredded and composted to make your garden flourish –
saving you money and helping to preserve the environment! Most garden and
kitchen scraps can be recycled into a useful soil conditioner, saving money on
commercial products.
Garden shredders are used to create space,
save time and money. They free the gardener of large volumes of cuttings and
plant trimmings as the volume of the material is greatly reduced during
shredding. The shredded material can then be turned into compost or mulch,
hence less fertilizer needs to be purchased.
Mulching
protects the valuable layer of humus from all
weather conditions, preventing washing out due to heavy rain and providing
insulation when it is hot or frosty. It reduces evaporation by a third.
Mulching improves the soil structure. Micro-organisms slowly break down the
plant trimmings used, to create new humus. Weed’ seeds are unable to sprout as
they are shielded from the light.
Compost is the world’s oldest and most natural form of fertilizer. It can
be produced in any garden. Compost returns lost nutrients and trace elements to
the soil, and revitalizes soil life. If organic materials are shredded, mixed
and aerated properly, they decompose into high-quality fertilizer. The better
the composition - the mix of “green” nitrogenous material and “brown” plant
trimmings containing carbon – the better the fertilizing qualities and
therefore also the compost.
Materials that are ideal
for composting are:
All organic, decomposable
material from the garden and home such as green waste, harvesting leftovers,
flowers, shrubs, grass cuttings, leaves, cuttings from trees, bushes and
hedges, kitchen scraps(fruit and vegetable), tea, coffee, eggs, limited amounts
of wood shavings or sawdust.
Not recommended for
composting are:
Weeds with a lot of seeds
or roots, diseased plants, paper and cardboard.
Totally unsuitable:
Metallic materials,
glass, plastics.
Garden shredders are available in various
sizes with electric motors or petrol engines. The branch diameter that can be
handled differs in models.
