Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi all,

I have a huge mound of privet hedges that have just been pulled up. My question is how easy (or not) is it to shred the using a hire shop garden shredder?

Any advice would be great as the only other option is paying £170 for them to be removed.

Head Burro
www.wildburro.co.uk
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We have a garden shredder and shredding the privets is not my husbands favourite job. You can't put too much in at a time and it does get jammed occassionally but I would imagine that one from the hire shop would be bigger and more powerful than the garden model that we bought. The shredded privets are sharp and tend to be sprayed about so be careful with children and your eyes.

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Hi HB.

When you have shredded it, load it into some old compost bags and water it with some Sulphate of Ammonia and tie the bags up, then store them somewhere out of site till the summer. They'll compost down and you can spread them on your beds as a mulch. I do this with all my prunings -

Ceanothus, Wegilia, & the Chrysanths.

You can buy a good shredder for less that £170 and it is brilliant as LJ says, wouldn't be without mine.

ntg

Hi Headburro
Shredders should handle privet no bother - just remember to ask at the hire shop what the largest (thickest) material that model of shredder can handle safely is. And just to emphasise LJ's point - wear the full safety kit - you only get one pair of eyes!
Cheers
Rat

Thanks all - first job is to cut the root balls off with a chainsaw (more safety gear) and then either shredding or taking to the local green tip.