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Durgan · March 3, 2013

The chipper/shredders sold today are generally underpowered. There is still as bit of handling when shredding but the machines sure beat chopping up vegetation using a machete.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?ZFRDI 10 May 2012 Shredding Sod
The sod was dried in he Sun for one day and put through the Chipper/Shredder and placed on the bed and rototilled in.The sod must be fed in small chunks to prevent jamming. If the sod is too dry much dust is created, so there is a happy medium gained by experience. The shredding process kills all grass roots, but as as precaution I do remove the larger grass roots by screening.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?AEVBL 17 September 2011 Composting.
All my spent vegetation is chopped into small pieces in the chipper/shredder. The spent vegetation should be slightly green (corn stalks in this case) to facilitate chopping, and it composts quicker, which takes about a year. There is only about a month left of good weather, so I am removing vegetation a bit at a time.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?BNBCF 30 August 2011 Practical Composting
There is too much misleading information written about home gardening composting, which has more to do with selling silly containers than practical composting.Composting is a simple process. If the garden is any reasonable size there is a fair amount of vegetation that must be removed each year, and disposed of in some manner. It takes a large amount of vegetation to make any reasonable amount of compost. I get probably less then four cubic yards of compost from about 0.4 of an acre of home garden vegetation.The main process is to chop all vegetation into small chunks. I use a chipper/shredder but a block and a machete can be used. It is just a matter of expenditure of labor. The larger the chunks the longer the composting takes. Layering is nonsense, since often the suggested material is simply not available. It is totally impracticable. I never put materiel, which is attractive to insects, and rodents in the compost pile. The kitchen waste goes in the garbage.Leaves are special case and I never compost them, since they are too much trouble for the amount of material obtained. Leaves are better centrally composed where the pile can be manipulated using machinery. Grass clippings are always welcome and do compost well. I get a neighbor’s grass clipping, since mine are left where they are cut.I build as lattice container system using metal fence posts and plastic ties. It is readily accessible. The pile is rototilled when it is considered appropriate. It takes about eight months to get good compost using my simple non-intrusive method. I have a tarp to cover the pile if there is periods of too much rainfall.

The compost produced if insufficient for my needs, and each year I pick up about ten yards from the City each Spring.

March 3, 2013	#2
Durgan Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Brantford, ON, Canada Posts: 1,341	The chipper/shredders sold today are generally underpowered. There is still as bit of handling when shredding but the machines sure beat chopping up vegetation using a machete. http://www.durgan.org/URL/?ZFRDI 10 May 2012 Shredding Sod The sod was dried in he Sun for one day and put through the Chipper/Shredder and placed on the bed and rototilled in.The sod must be fed in small chunks to prevent jamming. If the sod is too dry much dust is created, so there is a happy medium gained by experience. The shredding process kills all grass roots, but as as precaution I do remove the larger grass roots by screening. http://www.durgan.org/URL/?AEVBL 17 September 2011 Composting. All my spent vegetation is chopped into small pieces in the chipper/shredder. The spent vegetation should be slightly green (corn stalks in this case) to facilitate chopping, and it composts quicker, which takes about a year. There is only about a month left of good weather, so I am removing vegetation a bit at a time. http://www.durgan.org/URL/?BNBCF 30 August 2011 Practical Composting There is too much misleading information written about home gardening composting, which has more to do with selling silly containers than practical composting.Composting is a simple process. If the garden is any reasonable size there is a fair amount of vegetation that must be removed each year, and disposed of in some manner. It takes a large amount of vegetation to make any reasonable amount of compost. I get probably less then four cubic yards of compost from about 0.4 of an acre of home garden vegetation.The main process is to chop all vegetation into small chunks. I use a chipper/shredder but a block and a machete can be used. It is just a matter of expenditure of labor. The larger the chunks the longer the composting takes. Layering is nonsense, since often the suggested material is simply not available. It is totally impracticable. I never put materiel, which is attractive to insects, and rodents in the compost pile. The kitchen waste goes in the garbage.Leaves are special case and I never compost them, since they are too much trouble for the amount of material obtained. Leaves are better centrally composed where the pile can be manipulated using machinery. Grass clippings are always welcome and do compost well. I get a neighbor’s grass clipping, since mine are left where they are cut.I build as lattice container system using metal fence posts and plastic ties. It is readily accessible. The pile is rototilled when it is considered appropriate. It takes about eight months to get good compost using my simple non-intrusive method. I have a tarp to cover the pile if there is periods of too much rainfall. The compost produced if insufficient for my needs, and each year I pick up about ten yards from the City each Spring.