Used a weed whacker to shred leaves?

I think someone posted that they had, but when I tried it , it didn't seem too workable. Maybe my weedwhacker is wimpy.

They put their whacker's head down into a 55 gallon trash can, and dropped leaves onto it. Then they worked it up and down into the leaves on the bottom, like churning butter.

I think they also cut a slot into the lid to keep shreds from blowing back out.

I bet that it works better on very dry leaves.

Is yours electric? I think that almost any gas-powered whacker is more powerful than any electric one ... and much heavier.

I try to use an electric lawn mower, but the shreds blow around everywhere.


This message was edited Nov 2, 2011 11:37 AM

Thanks RC.
Yes I have a wimpy girly electric, battery even...the Black and Decker group of battery things. Its not bad as a light weed whacker, and the same battery fits the dustbuster
Also my trash can is not as big

I recall how much my back ached before I even got half-way around the yard. I had to stop and sit a few times!

But I was able to load it with very heavy nylon "string" and chop weeds and even woody stems very fast, so I would be done sooner.

DH uses the mower to shred leaves.

Belle

i collect alot of leaves in the fall..they are great soil ammendment,great for my compost,
and best of all.. FREE !!! :)
i have a neighbor boy mow mine down..
last yr i think i had near 300 big bags of leaves.. i used all of them
this last season..
i have some spaded into the vegy garden..some will be used as insulation on
"winter hardy" bananas,mulch on some areas,and the rest left piled up for composting
next yr..
good luck to ya !!!

I blow/mow leaves into a windrow and BACK the riding mower through it until they are finely chopped. This works well with bags of leaves dumped out in a row too.

My method is to use the vacuum attachment that came with the leaf blower. This sucks the dry leaves into the cotton bag and voila! shredded leaves. Works great. HTH.

Me too, MaryMc -- mine reduces a ratio of 16-1 so it really chops!

>> vacuum attachment that came with the leaf blower.

Wow, I never knew they could do that! If I find a neighborhood where I can fill my trunk and back seat with bags of leaves, I'm renting me a leaf vaccuum!

Corey

Corey, using my vac attachment lets me reduce 16 bags of leaves to one!

Nice! And I bet they compost 5 times faster, and let you use the compost even before they are 100% digested.

My guess is that not-quite-finished com post feeds the soil microbes and lightens it even better than fully-finished compost.

Rick -

same with my gardens honeybee.. my garden is full of earthworms too.. now if i just found
time to go fishin.. lol
i had sucess with sort of sheet composting last yr in couple spots in flower gardens..
in holes where big tropical plants (bananas) come out..i put grass clippings/shredded leaves..then
cover with soil.. its not completely composted by time i put next yrs plants in..but the plants seem to
appreciate the addition of humus..
plus wow there are some nice big nitecrawlers.. sigh..fishin..

Thanks for this thread....I'd been wanting to make use of my leaves rather than just put them all out in bags for the city to pick up. I picked up a cheap leaf vac at Home Depot and I'm going to do some shredding!