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How do you cut up material for composting?
josusa47
Posts: 3,530
So, it's late summer and the flower borders are looking the worse for wear. I've filled a bag full of plants which I've cut down or uprooted. It's a mixture of roots, leaves, stalks, dead flowers and seedheads, and of course, like a good gardener, I want to compost it. I could just empty it into the compost bin as it is. But I know from experience that if I do that, it will take a long time to rot and the finished compost will be full of long twiggy bits which just sit on top of the soil and don't get incorporated. So, I want to chop it into shorter bits.
I tried four pairs of bypass secateurs this afternoon, none of them were up to it. Some of the material is dry and brown, some green, some in between. Thickness varies from 1-15mm. The secateurs work with the thicker, dry stalks. Thinner or green stalks just get jammed between the blades, which then have to be prised apart. Perhaps anvil secateurs would work better? At least, with only one blade, there shouldn't be a jamming problem. All my secateurs have a device for locking them closed when not in use, but they all lock themselves from time to time when I don't want them to. Is it possible to buy a pair that only locks when the user locks it?
I have a shredder, a cheapish basic model which I was given second-hand. That's no help. It splits stalks lengthways rather than chopping them in bits, so I'm still left with twiggy compost.
Another option I've considered, but haven't tried, is to put the stuff on the ground and run the mower over it, as is often recommended with leaves for leaf mould. Mine is a hover mower. (Why are they called that? They don't hover. At least, mine never has. It stays firmly on the ground.) It's a lot of bother getting it out of the shed and unwinding and rewinding the cable. Maybe I should try and co-ordinate my border tidying with my grass cutting so I only have to get it out once.
How does everyone else chop up their compost fodder?
I tried four pairs of bypass secateurs this afternoon, none of them were up to it. Some of the material is dry and brown, some green, some in between. Thickness varies from 1-15mm. The secateurs work with the thicker, dry stalks. Thinner or green stalks just get jammed between the blades, which then have to be prised apart. Perhaps anvil secateurs would work better? At least, with only one blade, there shouldn't be a jamming problem. All my secateurs have a device for locking them closed when not in use, but they all lock themselves from time to time when I don't want them to. Is it possible to buy a pair that only locks when the user locks it?
I have a shredder, a cheapish basic model which I was given second-hand. That's no help. It splits stalks lengthways rather than chopping them in bits, so I'm still left with twiggy compost.
Another option I've considered, but haven't tried, is to put the stuff on the ground and run the mower over it, as is often recommended with leaves for leaf mould. Mine is a hover mower. (Why are they called that? They don't hover. At least, mine never has. It stays firmly on the ground.) It's a lot of bother getting it out of the shed and unwinding and rewinding the cable. Maybe I should try and co-ordinate my border tidying with my grass cutting so I only have to get it out once.
How does everyone else chop up their compost fodder?
0
Posts
i just unscrew the locking bit and take it off, my shears are all like that😀
For smaller, softer stuff I chuck it on the grass and mow it up. All weeds go in the green bin, I don't risk recycling them. Chunkier wood is chainsaw and wood burner fodder.