January 2001

When I've finished the shredding I may have time to continue this journal instead of venting my spleen all over this page

Shredders! I have owned three over the last twenty years.

The first was hand operated. One turned the handle at the side like an old fashioned mangle, ( any of you old enough to remember using one of those on washing day?). The inside, as far as my memory serves, had blades rather like those on a lawn mower. Without doubt it was an environmentally friendly tool but it rusted if left out in the open, was heavy to put away and take out and its shredding capability depended on the strength of the operator. Too much sappy weed clogged it and one had then to spend an hour dismantling it before one could unglog the innards. The screws had always managed to disappear when needed for remantling. These , not being a standard size could not be replaced so the machine grew progressively less safe until eventually it fell to pieces.

Its successor was an electrically powered, incredibly noisy Black and Decker, which operated on the food blender principle. It enjoyed mashing up sappy weed and small twigs, however an overdose of much sappy weed caused it to clog. Over-large twigs It too had to be dismantled for unclogging and unjamming and its screws even when not AWOL became less and less efficient with each dismantlement so that it to fell apart in use exposing the whirling blades that were far more dangerous than those of the manually operated shredder.

The shredder I have now, a Bosch, is also powered by electricity but is much quieter in use. It uses the screw-motion old-fashioned mincer principle. It's main vice is that it will have nothing to do with sappy weeds.It loves hawthorn, poplar and Leylandii and when fed those while blocked up with sappy weeds will consent to get rid of them of its own accord. It has a tendency to regurgitate any too springy material such as Russian Vine, bramble or clematis. but happily chops woody branches to a diameter of 7cm. If too hard a branch jams the screw, a reverse button feeds the offender back so I have never yet had to dismantle the machine. As it has 2 wheels I can move it around quite easily and leaving it outside in the rain does not seem to harm it. I used the shreddings to cover black mulching membrane I had spread on flower beds but then read a Ryton leaflet warning that, although woody shreddings are fine round shrubby plants like roses, the tannin from the bark damages tender stemmed plants. Since then I have been busy clearing the shreddings from my strawberries

Weather this month?

The only gardening I have done this month apart from shredding