Heaps of branches, twigs and undergrowth accumulate when gardening in autumn. But what to do with the bulky dead wood? Best in the garden shredder. This has two advantages. Tips, tricks and a mini comparison of four shredders.
At no other time of the year do parks and gardens produce as much clippings as in autumn. Hedges, shrubs and trees are cut. Thousands of cubic meters of branches, leaves and undergrowth remain. Burning the dead wood is a good idea. But open fire in your own garden or on the property is forbidden in Germany. So what to do with the bulky and prickly tree and plant debris? Shredding is the magic word. According to the motto: “Pure at the top, small at the bottom.” The bad news: You have to buy another gardening tool for this. The good: The wood chips are the perfect mulch for beds, tree grates and borders.
Roller chopper vs. knife chopper: These are the differences
Gardeners make a basic distinction between two types of shredders: while the knife shredder shreds the clippings into small pieces with its rotating blades, the rollers of a roller shredder merely break open the wood fibers and spit out crushed twigs and branches when the work is done. If you want to mulch paths, beds or tree discs in autumn and winter, you should rather use a knife shredder. The clippings that the roller shredders spit out, on the other hand, are more suitable for compost. Important: Roller shredders should be “fed” with dry clippings if possible. With wet branches, the cutting roller systems reach their limits.
In the following we present two models from each category. The manufacturers have both the roller and the knife variant in the range.
Two reversible knives are driven by a 2500 watt motor in the Einhell “GC-KS 2540” electric shredder. The rotating blades made of special steel shred branches up to four centimeters thick. The collection bag has space for around 50 liters of shredded material. The container can be fixed to the shredder with hooks. With an unladen weight of almost ten kilograms, the Einhell model is one of the lightest in this small comparison. It is therefore perfect for small garden plots or the orchard behind the house. Small flaw. Before thicker branches disappear in the not too large hopper of the shredder, smaller shoots have to be clipped off or broken off. That takes a little time.
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The Lidl own-brand device is an electric roller shredder. That’s actually not quite correct, because the dead wood is not chopped up in the Parkside “PWH 2800 B2” roller chopper, but crushed. A whopping 20 kilograms have to be hauled out of the shed or basement. On the other hand, the Parkside doesn’t tip over so quickly. On top of that, the roller shredder shreds wood with a branch thickness of up to 42 millimeters. The core is a cutting roller system with an infinitely adjustable pressure plate. The catch box even swallows up to 60 liters of crushed wood, more than any other shredder on this short list.
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It continues with a 2500 watt power pack that can take on branches up to 45 millimeters thick. Even hard native woods such as elm and maple are not safe from the LUX Tools electric shredder. Inside, a pair of reversible blades rotates and shreds the clippings into handy wood chips. They are perfect for beds and borders or to protect plants from the first frost. They also keep garden weeds on a short leash. That saves a lot of time. At 45 liters, however, the collection box is the smallest in this comparison. So it has to be emptied a little more often here. The device is particularly recommended for trimming hedges or perennials.
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The Bosch AXT 25 D roller chopper is not exactly cheap. At around 300 euros, it is the most expensive of the quartet of choppers presented. For this you get a branded device with a milling drum cutting system that crushes and shreds branches up to four centimeters thick, but also hedge trimmings and thorn bushes. As with the other shredders, the clippings are drawn in automatically. The hopper for filling in the clippings is removable, which should please all gardeners whose shed is already bursting at the seams. Because the shredder is less than 70 centimeters high. The collection box holds a sporty 53 liters.
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Anyone who has too much clippings and would like to help four-legged garden dwellers such as hedgehogs or other small animals through the winter should not throw every branch into the shredder. Use the long sticks of blackberries, branches and leaves and use them to build a rustic deadwood hedge. Stack the branches and cover the whole thing with some leaves and pine fronds. The winter quarters for hedgehogs are ready
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