Petrol Garden Shredders

Recycling your garden waste with a petrol garden shredder

The major benefit of owning a petrol garden shredder is that you can generate your very own compost and mulch by recycling any type of organic garden waste - so that means prunings from shrubs, piles of leaves, branches, unwanted plants and flowers, the list goes on.

To create a good, nutrient-rich compost, the best garden waste to use is clippings, leaves, plants and hedge cuttings. A good petrol garden shredder will efficiently shred these items, ensuring they rot away quickly to produce fantastic high quality compost.

Once the waste material has been shredded, simply transfer it to a compost bin and let it decompose; the resulting compost can in turn be added to your garden beds and borders so that its nutrients help encourage the growth of strong, healthy plants.

Woody, brown garden waste is less suitable for creating compost, due to the lengthy time it takes to decay. However, a petrol garden shredder with a chipping facility will effortlessly turn tougher brown waste items such as tree branches into extremely useful mulch.

Once the petrol garden shredder has processed the material it can be placed on beds and borders to suppress weeds, help the retention of moisture in the soil and also serve as a decorative finish. As the mulch slowly decays over time, the soil will benefit from its nutrients. Don't forget that mulch is totally versatile and can also be used to dress children's play areas as well as garden paths.

A petrol garden shredder really will enable you to effectively recycle your garden waste and make a contribution to the environment, as well as ensuring that your garden receives the nourishment is requires, year after year.

Maintaining a Petrol Garden Shredder

Useful Tips

Most petrol garden shredders are powerful enough to cope with large quantities of garden waste, and reliable enough to keep working effectively for many years. But there are still precautions you can take to help prevent them clogging up (a common problem) and ensure their smooth operation over a long period:

1. Mix up the waste being added to the shredder - alternating between tougher, drier brown waste and more moist green waste will help prevent any clogging up

2. Try and keep the blades clean and sharpen them regularly to maintain their effectiveness

3. Be patient - shred larger items (such as tree branches) one at a time to ensure your petrol garden shredder doesn't become overwhelmed!

Makita GSP5500 Petrol Garden Shredder

Great value and great performance petrol garden shredder