Many of you will have noticed recently that the days are shorter, the temperature is dropping and that Christmas is only just around the corner. More important to all of you with gardens, large or small, is the annual tidy before putting your gardens into sleep mode until next spring. This will of course include the pruning and trimming back of hedges and trees, the clearing up of leaves and digging up of diseased or dying plants. However, all of this industrious work creates a whole new problem; waste and what to do with it. We cannot simply leave it lying in our gardens creating an unsightly mess and of course if we ask for our local authority to take it away we simply add to the landfill problem afflicting the UK. Our best alternative is of course to recycle and reuse this so called waste and turn it into one of the most valuable commodities in your garden – good compost. How will we do this you ask? The purchase of a good quality garden chipper/shredder is the answer and below we will look at some of the best petrol engine chippers & shredders available from Mowdirect.
We need to briefly explain what comprises a chipper/shredder. Simply put it is a machine driven by an engine or motor with the ability to process garden waste. Generally speaking these machines will have an aperture for shredding loose garden materials such as leaves and twigs with a secondary chipping aperture where thicker, more-fibrous materials such as branches can be processed. Due to the courser nature of branches the blade configuration is generally of a spinning disc type which produces the neat woodchips we all like to use as a weed suppressant on our flowerbeds.
You may have a garden of medium size or smaller in which case you will not need a particularly high output machine. More appropriate will be a chipper/shredder that can deliver consistently good mulching results time after time alongside great reliability. Falling nicely into this category are the Ardisam CS6, MTD 24-350G and MTD 24-463. Wisconsin based Ardisam have been producing innovative garden products since 1960. This wealth of experience is apparent in the Ardisam CS6 Petrol Chipper-Shredder priced at £599.00 which boasts a 5.5hp Briggs and Stratton petrol engine and amazing triple cutting action with patented triple triangular hammer which literally pulverises waste materials into perfect mulch. Staying with the more compact and upright shredders leads us to the MTD 24-350G Petrol Chipper-Shredder at £569.00 which offers exceptional value for money when you consider it can easily mulch branches of 4cm in width with ease. Last but not least there is the MTD 24-463 Petrol Chipper-shredder on offer at £679.00 which is an horizontal style chipper/shredder designed to be lowered to ground level whereby leaves can be swept easily into the large plastic hopper; negating the need to lift large handfuls from ground level in a repetitive and tiresome manner.
If you have a particularly large garden or simply live in a wooded area a chipper/shredder with a powerful engine capable of long periods of use may be a necessity. Most machines in this category will follow similar design principles to those mentioned previously; the difference being the amount of waste they can process. MTD, originating from Ohio, manufacture the excellent MTD 24-465 Chipper-Shredder (£799.00). This particular chipper /shredder is of similar design to the smaller MTD 45-463; equipped with a 7.5hp Briggs and Stratton petrol engine, 12 reversible flail blades and 2 hardened chipper blades it will make light work of large quantities of mixed garden litter with a reduction ratio of 10:1. From Ardisam we have the ever reliable and compact CS8 (£749.00) and CS10 (£799.00) chipper shredders with their respective 8 and 10 horsepower Briggs and Stratton petrol engines. Following identical design principles to the Ardisam CS6 these two chipper shredders will produce excellent mulch and chippings for composting and flower bed dressing. Also available to fit all of the Ardisam chipper/shredders is the optional vacuum kit (£149.00); simply attach the large diameter hose pipe to your machine and suck all of the leaves up from ground level.
Finally we get to the Mighty Mac Woodsman 6 (£749.00) and Woodsman 10 (£899.00) chipper/shredders. American made by MacKissic of Pennsylvania and boasting high grade steel throughout; these chipper/shredders will withstand years of hard use. Utilising a horizontal design which allows the user to sweep leaf litter into the shredder hopper at ground level and capable of chipping 2″ and 3″ branches respectively it will be difficult for the normal gardeners amongst you to overwork one of these machines.
With respect to the last comment in this blog it may well be that one of you out there will indeed be capable of overworking a chipper/shredder designed for domestic use. If this is the case look no further than the Mighty Mac Woodsman Pro Chipper Shredder priced at an exceptional £1,599.00. With the ability to chip branches 3.5″ in diameter and a separate flywheel containing 24 swinging blades; it will make short work of garden waste from the largest of gardens; even those containing extensive orchards and arboreta.
In summary, the larger a garden that you have will require you to purchase a larger and more powerful chipper/shredder. In most cases a machine with a 5hp to 6hp engine such as the Ardisam CS6 Chipper-shredder, on special offer at £599.00 will be adequate. However, if your needs are greater and you intend to produce large amounts of mulch it is well worth considering a chipper/shredder with a larger engine; the Mighty Mac Woodsman 10 Chipper-shredder is well worth considering at a very low £899.00.
