DH uses the lawn mower. He spreads them over an area of lawn and runs over them with a bagger which then gets dumped into a large garden cart and to be moved to the compost pile. Most years though he just mows the lawn several times to shred them small enough that they sift down into the grass to add organic matter to the lawn.

There are machines that are specifically for shredding organic material as well.

Unless they are HUGE and tough, like magnolia leaves, shredding them doesn't speed the composting that much.

I regularly compost orange and oleander leavers and they are gone in a couple of months if I keep the pile moist.

You can put them in a big garbage can & use a string trimmer/weed-eater to shred them, like a giant mixer or blender.

I windrow the leaves in the yard or if given leaves in bags, I put them in a windrow. Then I run the riding lawn mower over them backwards until they are fairly fine. Then I keep turning the row shorter and shorter until it is a 6 foot circle of very fine mulch that goes directly on the gardens...job finished.

I have a block building/shop. I pile the leaves and shred th with the push mower up against the block wall. Keeps them in a nice pile

I use a leaf blower that also has a vacuum attachment, so I vacuum them into the attached leaf bag. I prefer them shredded. Do the same with straw for mulch.

I use a weed whacker in a plastic garbage can. A couple of weeks ago I went to the transfer station to get more and found that they had shredded (more like leaf flour) them on their own!

I disagree that it doesn't make much difference if they are shredded or not. In my experience it makes a big difference--much more than you would expect. I shoot for confetti sized pieces.

We use the lawn mower, first mulch mow, then another run over the oak leaves with the bag on for collecting.

Thanks for all your responses. I guess I should look in to getting another bag for my garden tractor. Originally I bought the tractor for pulling things, i.e., harrow, little trailer, manure spreader; did not have a lawn and so did not keep the bag that came with it! Now I have lawn and lots of leaves, so I need to update. I had tried the leaves in the garbage can and tried to weed whip them, but did not find it to be satisfactory for me.

I use a shredder purchased from Harbor Freight a few years ago. It will shred leaves, small limbs etc. But gets clogged up if anything is wet. I agree, most important to shred leaves. It may depend on the type of leaf. Mine are oak leaves and very hard to compost even if shredded.

As already mentioned a lawn mower, a weed whacker, a blower/vacuum, or a shredder grinder will all work.
As a general rule the smaller the particles that go into the compost bin the faster that material will be digested.

FLOTRON and WORX are two machines (electric) specifically made for shredding leaves. I've had both and they work fine. I believe WORX has a stronger motor.

I think that if you are in a warmer or tropical climate shredding leaves into small particles may not be important because things decompose pretty fast in warm climates. If you are in a temperate climate, however, it can speed things up a lot. It also saves a lot of space, whether you are composting, stockpiling for later composting, or putting it in a yard waste bin or bags.

I have a huge, as in 50 feet wide, magnolia tree that drops mountains of very large and thick leaves. My DH runs them over several times with a mulching mower, and for me it makes a huge difference.

No matter where you are, what the climate you live in is, all material put in to be composted will get digested faster if the particles are small in size.

I bought a chipper/shredder and it does amazing things to the material that goes into the compost bin. I think it might be more accurate to call it a compost maker. I got a Mackissic Merry Mac 12P and when I shred leaves, they heat up and decompose right away, no grass clippings required.

I bought a chipper at Lowes this year and it has a big opening for the purpose of chipping small twigs and leaves. My sister gave me 30 bags of leaves this fall and it took less than 1 hr to shred all of the leaves. It made a nice mulch layer on my flower beds. I am very happy with it. Most of the leaves are a combo of oak, maple, elm, and pine.

Duplicate post

This post was edited by kousa on Sat, Jan 10, 15 at 11:37

Your sister gave you 30 bags of leaves??? Is she demented?? No true compost whacko gives away their leaves do they? Or, is she just one of those crafty ones that picked up other peoples shredded bagged leaves and gave you her un-shredded ones?

Lloyd

I'm all about conserving resources. So I'm not going to use fossil fuels or electricity to speed up the decomposition of leaves.

I always mulch my beds while whole leaves in the fall, come spring most of them are gone, only the one on top remains, I also throw a couple dozen bag of leaves in my 20x20 chicken run in fall and compost all year in the run, again come spring the chickens shred the leaves in search of tasty insects and in the fall I have fine compost for my vegetable beds, IMO if you got space, just employ chickens to do the compost work, cost you no feed and they give you tasty eggs.

Watch Mike McGrath explain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9OhxKlrWwc

Here is a link that might be useful: Mike McGrath TEDx talk

Lloyd, my sister does not do much gardening. She has a small flower border but her yard is mostly lawn. The leaves come from her neighbor's yard at the rear of her yard. The neighbor planted trees near the border and those trees leaves get blown over her yard. Every year they have to rake the leaves and collect them in bags so the township can pick those up. So instead of these bags going to the township this year, these leaves go into my new shredder and become mulch for my garden beds. It is a great deal for me. I do not have much leaves on my yard because I have only one tree. Next year, I may ask my neighbors if they want to give me their leaves. Some of my neighbors grow oak trees.

I know how you feel, I love leaves myself. I get them delivered by the truckload. In the peak of the season, I might get 20 loads per week. Some are shredded, most are not, but I take them all.

Lloyd

P.S. In case it didn't read that way, I was trying to be funny with my other comment. People (cough Annpat cough) used to brag quite a lot about their leaf thievery (especially OPBSL) .