shredder for leafy hedges

[Mr Red]

It's the time of year again when I look at my long lines of overgrown bay laurel hedges and consider my options. Cutting down is the easy part and over the years I've settled on a Stihl petrol long handled hedge cutter with some loppers and a chainsaw on hand as needed to cut it back. The trouble is disposing of the greenery. I've hired a couple of electric shredders and to a unit they have just made the job harder as every load needs to be prodded with a stick repeatedly until either it is digested or the machine grinds to a halt and needs to be opened and cleared.

Can anyone recommend a shredder to make easy work of very leafy hedging?

[dewaltdisney]

I have a Laurel hedge and understand your problem. A couple of years ago I cut it back from 28 foot down to 12 foot and that produced a lot of wood and green waste. I bit the bullet and bought one of these https://hyundaipowerequipment.co.uk/hyu ... -shredder/ to help clear it and even though it took me a month I systematically worked through the hedge. I Shred uo to 1" branches and log anything bigger. This machine has done so much work over the last few years and I do not regret buying it but I guess you could hire one easily enough. The other essential tool is a handheld mini chainsaw that I got off Amazon for £40, the best tool I have bought for this sort of work.

Even though I have a tripod ladder I tend to use my conventional ladder with a long cross piece of wood gaffer taped onto the top, this allows it to lean on the hedge and lets you get further in. So between loppers, mini chainsaw, and my pole hedge clippers, it works for me. The amount of bags of mulched green always amazes me.

DWD

[Mr Red]

Thanks. I've found a hire shop with something similar (up to 75mm diameter) for ~£100 for the first day. How does yours cope with branches up to 60mm that it claims to be able to cope with?

[dewaltdisney]

I do not chip thicker than about an inch as I feel it is an unnecessary strain on the machine. As I bag the mulch and take it to my local recycling centre it is much easier handling to get the thicker branches into 3 foot lengths and take them whole. The machine will do them but it chatters a bit and I could not see the point in dulling the blades chipping the thick branches. Laurels tend to have all the leaves grow off the thinner branches that I lop them off the main boughs with my hand mini chainsaw and chip them. It is all about handling and making the job easier. I wear a mask when I chip as Laurels have cyanide content and this can give you a fat head. Similarly logging the wood for fires is fine as long as you give it a few months to dry out to deplete the cyanide content. A friend had a load and he is not dead so I guess they must be safe. I have found that hire shop tools are usually buggered and as I look after my blades they tend to do long service before I have to remove them, a faff, and give them a gentle sharpen. I decided to buy my tool as the first monumental job would have cost over half the £600 price tag in rental fees for the duration of the job and I could also pace myself.

I cannot emphasise the usefulness of the mini chainsaw like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uODeDbi_0ss mine is the first one you see.

Let me know how you get on.

DWD

I

[aeromech3]

I had same problem with my 4hp shredder and found that piling the leafy branches on the grass ground I would use my electric hedge trimmer in and almost horizontal way and chop the thin branches etc into smaller bits then leaf grab and sack them.
60mm would need to be a big machine and the branch almost straight, the small chain saw DWD mentions is good for that if the branch is supported X-X or across a handyman workbench like.

[dewaltdisney]

Another trick for the wispy stuff is to run your lawn mower over them as it mulches it up and hoovers the mess up for bagging. Of course, you need a petrol rotary mower for this.

DWD