Hello, Mr. Chips

Ask Umbra on chippers 3

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Q. Dear Umbra,

Is it better to use a gas-spewing grinder/chipper to mulch up yard waste for plant beds or just burn it?  I am thinking you will be tempted to say do neither and let it rot in place, but many don’t have a big enough yard to leave piles of leaves, sticks, and branches lying around for years.

Steve W.
Waynesville, N.C.

A. Dearest Steve,

Ah, it’s not a simple as either/or. Your county or state may have rules prohibiting the burning of brush and yard waste. Look on the EPA Backyard Burning pages to get started on the rules in North Carolina or other states. Burning non-vegetative trash, I remind us all, is always a no-no.

If your only two choices are burning or gas-powered chipping, then I say go for gas-powered chipping. Today’s column does not end there, however. We can think of a variety of ways to wiggle out of the rock and hard place.

woman chippingDestroying the evidence.One is to rent or buy an electric chipper. These are generally smaller and less powerful than a gas-powered chipper, but in my brief research on the matter (i.e., do these things actually do the job? yes), I found that a decent one should shred leaves and chip branches up to 1.5 to 2 inches. Two brands seemed to rise to the top in internet chat: the McCullough and the Patriot. They are available for internet purchase, but whether you yourself will be able to find a rental one is unknown.

It’s possible to reduce the amount of electricity/gas consumed by any shredder by reducing the amount of stuff needing chipping. You could, of course, achieve this by letting your yard go to the dogs and never pruning, raking, or tidying. But there are less drastic steps. Unchopped deciduous leaves make an excellent mulch for ornamental beds year-round and for vegetables during the winter. A machete is handy for chopping smaller, non-woody items; pile the stuff atop a tarp and hack away until everything is smaller or your blisters get bad. Then mound it all into a four-by-four compost pile, add water, and turn it over weekly for a month. Larger pieces of burnable wood can be set aside to cure for a woodstove, if you or a friend use one to heat your home (I know very little about life in North Carolina, in case that isn’t already obvious).

What else ... sculpture? Woven fencing? Bean teepees? I welcome suggestions.

Mulchily,
Umbra

 

 

 

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Send your green-living questions to Umbra.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

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  1. woodsygirl Posted 8:12 am
    01 Jun 2009

    I made sort of a loaf of sticks and branches against one section of my chainlink fence and then topped it with some decaying leaves.  Then I put 2 or 3 handsful of dirt in little pockets of leaves on the pile.  I stuck some zucchini seeds in the dirt on Wednesday evening.  Saturday morning I had seedlings coming up already.  I'm figuring they can grow up the fence.  I have a very limited budget and am trying to use the resources that I have on hand.  That part of the yard has pretty hard, dry dirt.  Not to mention hundreds of tiny mesquites.  So I'm doing the mulching in place thing.  They look really strong today, but we'll see how it goes.  A good reference:  Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemingway.

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  2. TheNaturalCapital Posted 2:59 pm
    01 Jun 2009

    It is very unpleasant to burn leaves -- they make a lot of smoke. I also wouldn't leave leaves unshredded for mulch. In our yard, at least, they blow around too much. But you certainly don't need a chipper for them. We rake them into a pile and run over them with an electric lawnmower and it makes great mulch.We do burn our sticks -- either in outdoor campfires, which may or may not be legal in your area (you may need to have them in a "fire bowl" or other container), or as kindling in our woodstove.Piles of sticks also make good habitat for small critters in your yard, if you've got an out-of-the-way spot where you can leave at least a small pile. And if you have some thin sticks or plant stalks, break some into pieces -- birds will take them to make their nests in the spring.The Natural Capital

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  3. KaylenS Posted 10:45 am
    12 Jun 2009

    Recruit (adopt or borrow) a dog who loves chewing sticks. The sticks in my yard are never more than a few inches long, despite having a maple tree taller than my two-story house in my yard, because my dog adores breaking branches into progressively smaller sticks. You'll likely still end up with some material that needs to be composted or chipped, but the dog will have done much of the work.

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