unless you can insure all sticks are removed from the leaves... then you will be changing the trimmer line often ... and being electric.. it took a lot of extension cord to get around the large yard ...

so i ended up buying the much more expensive motorized version ... which was basically useless for sticks and branches.. but worked well for leaves ...

ken

You could use a grass trimmer and a 40 gallon garbage can. Add some leaves, grind away, add more leaves, grind some more, etc. Then put that into plastic bags (or spread it around). What you are making in the bag is leaf mold and it is good stuff but also ideal slug habitat. You could also make 3-4 foot diameter rings out of green 2" X 3" vinyl coated fencing 4 foot tall and fill them up with leaves and just let time do the work.

tj

I read that in the reviews. A couple of guys said they drilled out the string holder and bought heavier duty string which cut down on wear for smaller twigs. I don't know if it's possible but I would like to see if I could rig something up to discharge straight into a wheelbarrow. Put a plastic bag in it, cut it to height as a shield, the Worx I'm looking at has 2 piece legs so I could remove (or leave off) a section and make a stand for it (maybe with a step) and fill up a wheelbarrow which would cut down on fiddling with changing bags all the time. Looking at it I can probably use a cut off bag and sneak the nose of a wheelbarrow in with no modification. Of course I'll have to buy another wheelbarrow to wheel the leaves over to it. I let my neighbors across the street dump their leaves into my empty corner lot, so I will have no shortage of leaves. Well, you talked my into it Ken, I'm going to order one.

One of our local suburbs delivers it by the truck loan for a minimal fee. It's ok but I don't like all the twigs etc that aren't that well chopped up.

tj, I have piles of leaves and They do break down after a long time. I like the idea of chopping it up and using it as mulch. I'm sure that I can make enough to put a few inches all around. In fact I have plenty to start right away and can 'mulch' areas that I leave 'natural' right now. For $100 bucks I think it's worth it. I bought some nice Hemlock bark mulch 'mix' and the 8 yards cost me like $360 and I still bought a lot of 2 cu ft bags. Investing a $100 and having a more nutritious mulch seems good to be. I hated using the bagged mulch as it is basically ground up wood and is not very good to use. "They" say it actually robs nutrition from the soils as it breaks down. If it works decent and lasts a few years I'll be happy. From the pictures submitted by people who bought it, it does a nice job. McCullough has one with blades that will chop up small branches but I don't think it will be difficult to keep branches out. People complain about the blades going dull on that. I have a small bench grinder so that wouldn't be a problem for me. I could sharpen the blades. It just seems to be the small bladeless leaf mulcher is the way to go, but thanks for the information.

Miles, the only thing they offer here is they will pick up your leaves if you put them in paper bags for them to collect. I had some new neighbors move in across the street and they had filled up about 20 bags and would have needed 150 more. I told them to dump the leaves on my corner lot. In 100 years or so it will be filled in nicely with some great loam.

tj, A

lso I don't have big slug problems around here. There is a lot of sandy gravelly ground around that I think keeps them away. I don't see them on the many piles of rotting leaves I have all over.

Our city makes and sells leaf mulch, very cheaply I might add. I used to get it and loved it except for the detritus that had gotten mixed up with the leaves because people just raked whatever to the curb for the trucks to suck up in the fall-plastic strings, and such. Now, I leave my leaves until spring. I do it mostly for the insects that are protected under the leaves. The world is losing insects at an alarming rate, so I do my little bit to protect them.

cyn, the insects are safe here.

There are some great videos on youtube on how to pulverize leaves into smaller bits to make leaf mulch aka leaf mould (the UK description).

I tried to make some last Fall pulverized and put them in black plastic bags with holes in a warm spot in my yard for the winter. I went out to check on them about a month ago and the smell was so horrendous. I now have three bags of useless, heavy material that is probably toxic to put on anything. Now I have to decide what to do with them. Leave them and see if they will eventually break down into something that can be used or try to drag them to the street for the trash collector who will likely kill me if he has to take them.

I keep wondering if I could vacuum and shred the leaves then have the vacuum spit the leaves back out in the garden as a mulch. I let the leaves stay in place and spread a small layer of wood mulch on top. Some areas are too thick with leaves so I think shredding them would help. Still combat slugs but the leaves do help the soil.

@popmama- Dump the leaves out and let them be exposed to air. They are not toxic to plants. You had an anaerobic processes going on due to lack of the big O (oxygen) and that is causing the smell. That is why I prefer the the vinyl coated wire mesh fencing.

tj

Jon, all our neighbors use companies that spray their lawns-for mosquitoes, for weeds, for just about anything and everything.

Beth, my former mother-in-law had a small leaf shredder that she moved around her property and aimed the shredder to blow her mulched leaves into her garden beds. It was the best thing ever! I can't seem to find one like hers though. Most do not get good reviews now. I would love to find a decent one! You should definitely try it!

We collect all the leaves on our acreage and along with our lawn clippings that go through the mulcher blades of the lawn mower. We pile with donkey' horse droppings and mix . within three years black gold. We also bought a little electric chipper shredder an it works just fine to speed up the process. We bought it for breaking down hay bales for our 33 yr old horse as she is now having trouble chewing. Works awesome and seems to me it was only $125. Also spread them direct onto my tomato garden with grass clippings and water well. 2 years and I have the best black soil on the claim and tomatoes are growing big and healthy this year. Best I have ever had

Can not comment on the technical part but leaves are gold for me. I leave them on beds and collected in piles. I grab them from whatever hood offers.

In my situation a lot of the leaves are just where I want them. The Worx unit I'm looking at weighs 24 pounds so it would be nice if I could find some small wheels to walk it around and mulch the leaves 'in situ'. Drop some through and rake them around where I want them. In areas where this wouldn't work I would set the shredder on a tarp and drag and dump it where I want. I think I have a plan. OK, off to the Amazon site to order this puppy. Done, it will be here Monday!

tsugajunkie, the problem is I have no where to dump them. I have a very small yard and no where to dump out the bags. The only thing I can really do is poke more holes in the bags and hope they dry out some. Do you think that would work?

BIG holes.

tj

One of the comments by a buyer on the leaf mulcher stated it reduced the volume to 1/16th size. I have no idea how (or why) he would have such a precise measurement.

beesneeds, you have a great system going. My thoughts are to grind them up which, I feel, will look neater and similar to ground mulch. I'm also thinking it will break down quicker than just leaving leaves. When I get my new toy I will grind some up and put it next to the $36 a yard mulch I bought in the Spring and spread after I carted off all the leaves.

Getting any height wire mesh creates instant composting site anywhere. I use it in the summer to support tomatoes, 6 ft tall one and to compost leaves in the fall. Small yard here too.

Me too lindalana on the instant action. I get the 6 foot wide mesh. Full width to make 6 foot tall tomato towers. A roll lasts me for a while.

Sometimes tower tops or bottoms get a bit too ganked to be good as sturdy towers. I open the tower back up, split in half, and put back together again as a 3 foot tall compost cage. The gank stuff at the top of the cage don't matter.

This year I got a couple new spots that need to get compost cages too. Including in the deep shade area in front of our house that I'm going to try tackling and getting cleaned up and resetting... with some new hostas along with a few other shade lovers. Now I'm starting to think to fall and perhaps trying out a leaf mold cage instead of a compost cage. It would be interesting to see how that might pan out.

" it would be nice if I could find some small wheels to walk it around and mulch the leaves 'in situ'."

Harbor Freight has some small moving dollies that might work. They are basically 2X4's put together in a square. Then they have 4 wheels. They come in two or three sizes. It wouldn't be perfect, because the wheels aren't really big enough to work perfectly on turf. It might be worth looking into, though.

bk

bkay, I'm thinking simply setting it on top of a tarp would be an easy way. Attach a plastic bag and cut the bottom off to keep down the dust and keep it contained. I would use a fan rake and load up a 5 gallon "Home Depot" bucket and dump it full of leaves holding the bucket until the leaves are chopped and then repeat. When I have a load on the tarp drag it to wherever I want and dump and rake. I think it's a plan. Don't tell anyone but I got the HD bucket idea off the website for the mulcher. The tarp is my idea though. Sounds like the best/easiest way to me. The mulcher is listed as 13 amps. Most individual home circuits are 15 amps so this thing should be pretty powerful. The plants should like the leaves.

I just mow the leaves on my lawn in the fall and then rake them or blow them into the flowerbeds. Works great as a mulch!

conniepr, If I did that everything would be smothered.

Please let us know how you like the Worxx mulcher, Jon. I could definitely use one if it is a good product!