Composting – is it Just a Load of Rubbish?(part 2)

The Pros of Worm Composting

The old “Eeeeeeew!” may well become one of the solutions to environmental problems and lack of nutrition in the soil. Scientists have tested this in the laboratory and have now approved of this new technique to composting: worm composting. Particularly, the red worm variety are the ones capable of doing this new feat.

Finally, they found a new way to make use of worms aside from being the main dish in Fear Factor. Some of us may have goosebumps upon imagining the sight of creepy crawlies– it truly is more than enough to give any average person the heebie jeebies. But on the up side, they have been known to help cultivate the environment for a long time. It is really no surprise to find that they play a vital role in the whole composting process.

Some of you might think that worm composting is not really such as good idea. But before you banish the idea of those red crawlies helping save the environment, take a break, open your mind and hear out some of the advantages of the now-becoming-popular worm composting technique.

Advantage Number 1: Flexible: Indoors or Outdoors, Take Your Pick

Whether you want to have your worm compost indoors or outdoors, it does not really matter. You can have them on either or on both areas. The good thing is that you won’t even have to sweat around too much with your worm compost. They are relatively easy to transport and are non-complaining workers that will till your compost day in and day out, for relatively no charge. You only have to feed them to keep them in top condition.

Advantage Number 2: All it needs is moist bedding

Worms like moisture, and having moisture is one of the easiest components of composting. If you are able to provide the moisture, you only have to wait and see until the worms do their wonders in helping you have more fertilized soil.

Advantage Number 3: Worms are readily available and are not that hard to cultivate.

In some areas, you need not look for worms. You only have to get a jar and focus your eyes while walking in the garden. Sometimes, you need not go out of the house and you can find them sauntering in your bathroom (rich in moisture, remember?). So the good thing is that they will not really resist you if you put them in a cage rich with food.

Advantage Number 4: Aside from the yuck factor, the worms will happily do the work; you only have to regulate them.

You will act more as a worm manager than a laborer, really. After you put on the heap and the worms together, you will do very minimal work for so much positive results. You can also get a lot of support from governments and people worldwide regarding this aspect. In fact, in some American communities, it is already being implemented and widely promoted to have worm composting in the home.

Advantage Number 5: Mobile bins will not affect the worms’ performance.

Another thing with the worm composting that other composting techniques don’t have is the mobility. You can take it with you anywhere, assuming that you have small scale composting on your sleeve (industrial size worm composting isn’t really a lovely idea, anyway).

Getting to Know Your Composting Equipment

The equipment you use in your composting will help make or break your pursuits of building your compost. If you are really bent on making the most of your composting goals, a good familiarization of the tools that will help you achieve your goals is very much appropriate. The tools will not necessarily be in the form of objects, because there are also elements of place and space that are in play when it comes to obtaining the optimum performance of your compost.

A Good Composting Site
The site of your composting activity is the primary consideration and one of the best tools you need to master before you do any composting activity. The place must be free from obstruction and well capable of obtaining the right temperature needed for your composting. Aside from this, you also need to be thoroughly familiar with the site which you chose for composting. In addition, you also need to be able to access the site frequently as composting requires a lot of monitoring on a frequent basis.

Compost Bin

Your compost bin must serve the functions of the particular type of composting you intend to have. If you are up for the industrial level of composting, you may need more than one compost bin to satisfy your objectives. This compost bin needs to be cleaned every once in a while, and must be of the right size depending on the amount of materials you are to put.

Be sure that you are able to manage the compost bin you choose, and for beginners, it is often recommended to start small and then branch out once you get the hang of it or at least get comfortable with what you are working on.

Making Your Own Compost Bin

If you intend to make your own compost pile, it would be nice to make an enclosure or compost bin for your convenience and general neatness. There are a number of compost bins commercially available in various garden stores. You can buy it if you have the money or you can do what I did, make your own compost bin. It’s not difficult and the materials you need are not that many. You can do it with your eyes closed, or maybe not.

Some commercially available compost bins have their own systems or devices for turning over the compost. Some have harvesting trays or mechanisms for easier harvest. But those things are just add-ons and are made for added convenience for the consumer. You really don’t need such stuff. All you need is basic enclosures to keep the compost materials from being scattered around the area.

Possibly the only limitations you have in making your compost bin is the amount of imagination and ingenuity you have. Fortunately, you can look in your storage room or garage and look for suitable materials and most likely you will find some quite suitable ones. They can be made from heavy plastics or wood or tin. Like I said, it’s just a matter of how you handle the “paints” to create a “masterpiece”.

One of my suggestions would be using a wire mesh, a couple of wood planks or even pipes. The idea would be like creating a simple wired fence around your compost pile with the pieces of wooden plans or pipes as support. You can tie the wire mesh to the pipes or planks to make it more secure. The shape is up to you. You can make it round, square, rectangular or even triangle shaped.

Just keep in mind that you will need to have quick access to the compost pile to turn it over at least once each weak. You can create a doorway from the wire mesh or you can make your enclosure in such a way that you can easily lift and put back the whole enclosure.

Also, if you have some left over wooden slats from an old fence or wooden planks from an old shed, I’m sure you can assemble a quite sturdy compost bin in your backyard. Just make sure to let the air in by allowing spaces between the wooden boards. This will keep the air flowing inside the compost pile make decomposition quicker. If you have enough loose boards lying around, you can create a dresser-type compost bin complete with a door with hinges for easy access to the compost pile.

You can even fashion one from your garbage can. Look for an old can where you can afford to experiment without being scolded by your wife or your mother later one. What you need to do is punch a couple of holes in your garbage can to allow the air to circulate in the soon composting materials. You just put your composting materials inside the can. Before you cover it, wet the materials inside until they appear damp.

You can turn over or roll it around to let the materials mix while always keeping the compost pile damp. When storing the trashcan compost bin, if would be best to place it above ground. In a month or so, you should be able to get satisfactory results from all your effort.

You see, making your own compost bin is very easy. You just need to consider the following fundamentals: air should flow inside the bin, you should have quick access to the compost pile, and you should be able to wet the pile when needed.

Thermometer

Composting requires you to maintain a specific temperature. So a thermometer may come in handy for you as you do your daily rounds of inspection on your compost pit. You need to make sure that the thermometer is properly calibrated. Some shops also sell thermometer that is tailored to suit the needs of compost owners, so you can also check these out. The specifically tailored thermometers may prove to give a better advantage for you.

Garden Fork

The garden fork has a great variety of uses. In the aspect of composting, it will really help you mix your materials especially if you are dealing with a large composting pit or bin. The garden fork will help you rake in the materials, mix them and test the texture and softness of your compost mix. For a garden rake, you must choose one that is optimum for the size of your composting operations and with a complete manual and warranty so as to maximize its usage.

Other Containers

You will not only need a compost bin, but if you are a sucker for combining and categorizing your materials, you may also need additional containers that can help you manage your compost materials. In cases where you need to monitor your Carbon and Nitrogen ratio components in the mix, you have make sure that you are adding the right type of materials to maintain the right temperature, mix and ratio needed.

Room for Growth

The spatial aspect of composting involves having more room for growth should you decide to pursue higher levels of composting. Your area must be spacious enough to accommodate your present composting needs, but at the same time, it must be able to hold in expansions, should you decide to increase the capacity of your compost pit.

Compost Smells: This and Other Composting Myths

Composting is a natural and simple process and yet it has been complicated by machines, fallacies, misinformation, myths, and misunderstandings that came out due to erroneous publications and aggressive commercial marketing approaches. Some of these misinformed facts have been passed around so many times that the general perception has become truth. An example would be the seemingly accepted fact that all compost smells. But before we go into that, let’s discuss some other composting myths first.

Myth: Composting requires a lot of work

Truth: Composting is a natural process which involves basically the elements of nature doing the job for you. All you need is to gather all the materials, lay it on, and let nature do her job. Composting is a low maintenance activity as well. You only need to turn the compost file every once in a while to keep the air flowing to quicken the decomposition process and that’s it. You practically sit and wait for the the compost to finish.

Myth: Composting is limited to farms and wide open spaces
Truth: On the contrary, people living in urban areas who have no luxury for space can create their own composting bin from a trash can. How much space would that take up? Also, there is another technique which you can use, the so-called vermicomposting which involves the use of red worms in a contained bin where you feed them table scraps.

Myth: Composting needs precise measurements

Truth: Even though composting ideally would be best achieved with the right combination of greens and browns elements, having the exact measurements is not that necessary. Estimates work just fine. And those neatly piled up layers of composting piles you see in commercials, books, pamphlets and brochures of composting products, those are all for show. You don’t need to copy those, composting works the same way as you pile them up haphazardly.

Myth: You need specially formulated chemicals as starters or activators

Truth: Well, despite the claims of commercially available products that applying them to the compost pile will speed up the process of decomposition, buying them is not really necessary. It is often the practice to just throw in some finished compost into the newly formed compost pile and that itself will serve as the activator to get things started. There’s no need to buy those expensive stuff.

Myth: Adding yeast will boost the compost’s performance

Truth: This is not true at all. What you’re doing is just wasting your money by adding yeast to the compost pile. Yeast does not do anything to the compost pile and neither does it affect the performance quality of the compost.

Myth: Animals are attracted to composting piles

Truth: Yes, this to some degree is true. Composting piles do attract the occasional cat, dog or raccoon. Small critters will likely go for open compost piles and for piles that have kitchen scraps like meat, fat, dairy products, bones and pet manure to the pile.

Myth: Compost smells

Truth: Compost should not smell. If you find bad smelling compost, then the maker did a poor job picking the materials for the compost pile.

Other composting myths exist and it would be best to do your research first before accepting them as truth.

Enjoy your composting

Steve Cownley

http://organic-gardening.net46.net

http://infoblog.net78.net/

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/composting-is-it-just-a-load-of-rubbish-550027.html

About the Author

Wide experience on many things and just publish information for fun.Experienced Salesperson and marketeer, both internet and non on-line. Web designer, very knowledgeable on PC and pc related issues, both hardware and software. Parent, driver and blogger.

http://infoblog.net78.net/

It’s now been a few weeks since I started to include these guest articles on how to get the most from your garden shredder. Not surprisingly we have spent time looking at aspects of how the garden shredder adds to the green side of life through composting (I’ll upload a business case some other time on how a garden shredder saves money and time in other ways).
I expected this series of articles to continue for some time but, as you will see below, Steve Cownley’s article says just about everything that needs to be said on the subject of composting. As this site is all about electric garden shredder reviews I think we will let Steve have the last word on compost. Because of the length of this article we have split it in 2.

Composting – is it Just a Load of Rubbish?

Author: Steve Cownley

To Compost or Not to Compost

Well, there’s no doubt about it, composting is a good practice that any self-respected gardener should learn to do. But the question really is what materials we could make into a compost and which ones we cannot. We have been told that composting can be done with any organic material. Well, in theory that may be true, however, in real life it may not be always so.

There are a several organic materials that should not be included in the compost pile unless you know how to do it properly while there are other materials that should not even be attempted even by the experts. To compost or not to compost, that is indeed the question. And let’s see if we can provide the answers.

For home composters like you and me, we have a number of materials available inside our own home and even our own backyard. The big, industrial composters have a little advantage over us. They can compost more materials than us because they have the facilities to divert, mask, or absorb the odor that may come out from composting a lot of organic stuff. We don’t have the same luxury. We don’t want our neighbors organizing a protest rally against our composting in our own backyard, now do we?

Don’t let this worry you though, there are still a lot of materials that we could include in our compost pile. Let’s begin with something our front lawn is always dying to dispose off: excess grass. Yep, grass clippings from our lawn can be put to better use like for the compost file in our backyard. In situations where you have hay instead of grass clippings, that could work as well.

Using hay for composting is often practiced by farmers. You will find that farmers are more than willing to dispose of that hay. And when it comes to using hay for composting, be sure to pick the greener ones. Green hay means it still has a lot of nitrogen in it.

Others include kitchen wastes such as vegetable peels, fruit rinds, tea bags, eggshells and coffee grounds. These substances contain high levels of nitrogen. Make sure, however, to keep pests away from your kitchen wastes. Some would prefer to prepare a compost bin intended for their kitchen wastes. Others would prefer burying these wastes in eight inches of soil. And because they precisely attract pests, it would be best to stay avoid including scraps of meat, milk products and left over bones.

Wood chips, wood shaving, saw dusts, paper, and other wood products are generally good to included in your compost pile. However, be sure to stay away from chemically-treated wood products. Arsenic is one of the highly toxic chemicals that is sometimes used to treat wood. Using sawdust from such treated wood products is a no-no since the chemical will leak into the soil causing more harm than good.

Speaking of no-nos, there are other things that you should not include in your compost. Plants that died due to a disease should not be included. There is still a possibility that the disease the caused the death of the plants might infect your future plants.

And similarly, human, dog and cat wastes are not uses as composting materials as well precisely because they contain organisms that could cause disease. Such disease might cause people to be sick or might affect your plants.

Even though grasses can be used for composting, it would be best to avoid weeds like morning glory, ivy, sheep, and kinds of grasses that could grow in your compost pile. The weeds seeds also can survive the composting pile which can be carried to your new garden.

So going back to our earlier question: to compost or not to compost? Composting is something that is ideal for your garden. However, choosing the right materials will determine how successful your compost pile will be.

Top Reasons for Composting

Some of us may be hesitant in making and using compost. They find the task of making one troublesome and time consuming. Or they might have false perceptions of smelly compost piles and having such a messy process right in their backyards. While others would prefer buying their fertilizers, soil amendments or conditioners, and mulch from their garden stores to avoid all the hassle of reading about compost and actually making one.

Here are my top personal reasons for composting. I only hope that you move your butt out of that chair and begin your own compost pile before you reach number ten.

The first reason I find composting highly worthwhile is the fact that the materials used are absolutely free and are readily available. Compare that with the ever rising costs of commercial fertilizers and other gardening products in the market today. All you need is a little extra effort to find the best materials for your compost pile, but otherwise, everything’s for free.

The second one is that compost provides more nutrients and minerals needed by my plants than commercial organic or synthetic fertilizers. The overall effect of compost is also longer than commercially available fertilizers. It’s free and it works better, who wouldn’t want that? Plus, if you organize your ingredients just right, you can provide a whole lot more range of nutrients.

Another good reason would be the benefits of compost to the soil structure. When applied to the soil, compost can help the soil be more resistant to erosion, improve its retention of water, and in some types of soil (like clay) it can reduce the chance the soil becomes compact. This is also important for farmers since compost can make the soil easier to till conserving time and fuel needed to operate the machines.

With the right composting technique, the process can kill those troublesome weeds as well as pests and disease-causing organisms present in the materials being composted. High temperature composting is the technique I am talking about. Although, this technique is not the backyard variety but rather a more laboratory or industrial type variety, I still find it a good reason why we should make composts.

There have been studies which indicate that using compost can suppress the growth of diseases in crops. Other studies also show that crops grown over compost rich soils can resist better pest or insect attacks. Likewise, some news and observations in the field also shows that crops grown using compost bear produce that can be stored longer. If that’s not reason enough, I don’t know what else you are looking for.

For the environmentalists and conservationists, compost has something for them as well. Using compost together with the soil can build soil carbon which can eventually reduce the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It may take a lot of compost to have a positive effect on the greenhouse gases but that fact is quite useful as well.

It is also found out that compost works well as an antidote for soils that are toxic with agricultural chemicals. Compost can balance the levels of soil acidity, and helps farmers to go organic after years of using synthetic agricultural products.

These are my top reason for composting. Some of it may not directly benefit my personal needs but having those reasons to cling onto is a good thing to motivate the use of compost.

Part 2 coming soon…

Steve Cownley

http://organic-gardening.net46.net

http://infoblog.net78.net/

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/composting-is-it-just-a-load-of-rubbish-550027.html

About the Author

Wide experience on many things and just publish information for fun.Experienced Salesperson and marketeer, both internet and non on-line. Web designer, very knowledgeable on PC and pc related issues, both hardware and software. Parent, driver and blogger.

http://infoblog.net78.net/

There is nothing difficult about composting.  In many ways it is one of the most natural processes there is.  In many larger gardens gardeners will often simply leave their garden waste in piles strategically positioned out of view to most visitors.  Over time these piles simply rot away to nothing.

In smaller gardens we need to be a bit more economical with space so we typically keep all of our green waste and woody prunings (suitably shredded) in compost heaps.  The process is the same and after a year or 2 all that lovely mulch is ready for spreading on the garden again.

Homemade Compost Bins

By Darrell Feltmate

Homemade compost bins can be as simple or as elaborate as you like. In fact it is not necessary to build one at all. Compost can be made quite well in a pile or a series of piles. On the other hand there are advantages to a bin or system of bins. They allow for a more organized systematic approach to composting, they look better than a loose pile and may be mandatory in some municipalities. If they are mandatory in your area there may be conditions imposed on what you can build. Be sure to check before you start.

A compost pile to be effective should be three feet wide and high and at least three feet deep so that is the start of the measurements for the bin. One of the simplest bins takes a 10 foot length of welded wire fencing three feet high. Once it is wrapped in a circle it makes a bin. To turn the pile once the bin is full, in theory it can be lifted off the pile and the material turned into the bin. In reality the compost material holds the fencing in place and it is hard to move. It is better to have prepared the fencing in the first place so it can be opened and unwrapped from the pile.

It has become fashionable in some areas to make a compost bin from recycled pallets. Three of them on a side make the sides and back of the bin. They can be tied together with twine or nailed together for a more permanent setup. With a bit of ingenuity they can be extended to a three or more bin connected system.

Still others have taken concrete blocks and dry set them one on top of the other so as to make a bin. This is particularly fashionable in some suburban areas where the compost pile will be visible to neighbors and passers by. Staggering the blocks allows for better aeration. Again the system can be used to make one bin or a system of bins.

Obviously there are as many ways to make a compost bin as there are imaginations of gardeners the world over. Consider however, the desired system as much as the construction. A hot composting system is best served with at least three bins; one to build the pile and two to turn the pile back and forth. Cold composting will want an easy way to add composting materials to the top of the pile and finished compost from the bottom. Either system requires a way to easily access the compost.

Which ever system you use, fix up a homemade compost bin and get the compost coming for the best garden ever.

Darrell Feltmate is an avid gardener who has been composting and gardening for over 25 years with gardens up to 1/2 acre and compost piles for each. His composting site may be found at Compost Central. You can be a master composter in no time at all.

Much of his compost uses wood shavings from his wood turning hobby. The site for wood turning may be found at Around the Woods.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Darrell_Feltmate
http://EzineArticles.com/?Homemade-Compost-Bins&id=625229

If you have been reading the Garden Shredder Review it will have been pretty difficult to miss that we are big fans of composting.  However, if you have a particularly woody garden you can find that composting, without first shredding, can take a lot of time (and space)

In her article below Sarah Cowell asks if Garden Shredders are simply toys for the boys or essential parts of any gardeners compost regime.

How To Make Compost – Are Garden Shredders Expensive Boys’ Toys or Useful Kit? by Sarah Cowell

The garden shredder can help you make compost if:

1. You’re drowning in woody prunings

2. You want to make more compost NOW

3. You are a keen mulcher or have woodchip paths to renew

Let’s start with drowning. You have a small garden and nowhere to put all the shrubby prunings. Because your garden is small you have to keep pruning or will never see the light of day. Shredding reduces the bulk enormously. Then it can fit into a small-ish compost bin and start earning its keep.

For number two, you want to make more compost and NOW, you probably grow some veg (or have roses that think they’re teenage boys – hungeree). By reducing the size of the woody materials, shredders increase the surface area available to decomposing microbes. They can attack it from every side and hey presto compost is made. Whereas if you had added rose prunings to the compost directly they would probably still be there when all your other stuff had broken down into lovely crumbly compost. This isn’t necessarily a problem however as it can be easily sieved out and returned to the pile for another year. If there are a lot of them it makes sense to make them all smaller when putting it in. For patient composters who can wait as long as two years before using their compost it’s not a problem but the alternative is to spend ages cutting up twiggy stuff before it goes in. I’ll bet you’d rather do other garden jobs. The shredder comes to the rescue and earns its salt.

Finally you may live somewhere hot (lucky devil) and drought is a problem (OK we do tend to forget why our land is green and pleasant). Mulching after rain keeps the water from evaporating too quickly and ultimately feeds the soil. Wood chips might be useful for paths or play surfaces. Chippers are more suited to the kind of woodchips required for paths and playground. Similar to shredders they deal with bigger chunks of wood, branches rather than twigs.

The drawbacks are the initial financial outlay they start at around £150/$200 and then the running cost of the energy needed to fuel it. There are petrol and electric versions available. For electric models you’ll need a source in the garden (or a long enough extension lead) but electric or petrol, the noise! Nature is a whole lot quieter. A word of caution, be careful about getting soil or stones in the shredder as it quickly blunts the blade. Replacement blades can be bought but that’s another expense.

If you like machines and are keen to make compost as quickly as possible then a shredder is a useful addition to your garden practice but if you have a little patience there are millions of small and even microscopic organisms ready to do the job for you. By shredding you give them an ‘in’ so they can get to work more quickly but they will get there in the end without you lifting a finger!

Check out a website like reviewcentre.com for reviews before choosing a shredder or find out more about getting nature to do your work – see link below.

Want to learn more about the alchemy of composting and how to choose the right system for you? Go to www.CompostEverything.com and sign up for a FREE 10 part mini-course now!
Sarah Cowell Dip. Hort. is a gardener and writer on horticulture matters

• In over 90% of the searches we have done Amazon prices are the cheapest (often by a considerable margin)
• Amazon is very well know and universally trusted
• Product reviews on Amazon are primarily from real users who will tell you what a product is really like – warts and all
• Delivery time is usually next day
• If you have a problem with your purchase Amazon’s customer service is outstanding

No matter what garden shredder you buy you can be confident that Amazon provides a good deal.

We make very little secret of it – we are big fans of Bosch garden shredders.  If you want to know why you should check out our earlier post – 5 Reasons to Buy a Bosch Garden Shredder. Now we want to turn our attention to the reasons why you should buy a Bosch AXT 2200 Rapid Shredder.

Any buying decision for any product or service should be based on the best fit for what you actually need.  All too often people read a few reviews, pick out the ones that support their own views and then go out and buy.  If I could afford it I would love to have a Lamborghini sat on my drive but it is not much use if I want to take the family out or to carry my golf clubs and the weekly shopping.  It is really not that different when buying a garden shredder.

So, first things first.  Here are a few questions you need to answer before buying any Garden Shredder.

• How big is your garden?  Rotary shredders like the Bosch AXT 2200 Rapid are best suited to small to medium gardens with reasonably low amounts of shredding.
• What is the ratio of green, soft stemmed waste compared to harder, woody waste?  If you are looking at more than 50% then a rotary shredder is likely to be fine.
• If you have a higher percentage of woody waste what is the normal size of cutting likely to be?  If it is mostly hedges and bushes or small trees where cuttings are normally no thicker than your thumb then a rotary shredder is probably OK.
• Is noise a problem?  Noise isn’t normally a problem for the shredder operator – they can wear ear defenders.  However, if you need to use rotary shredders for extended periods and you have very closely sited neighbours you may find your neighbours start to complain.

OK, your garden is not too big, you are going to dispose of predominantly soft stemmed waste with the majority of your woody waste not too thick, and you have understanding neighbours.  Great – a rotary shredder is for you.  Here’s 5 reasons why we think you should buy a Bosch AXT 2200 Rapid:

• It has more reviews (129 at the time or writing) on Amazon than any other garden shredder.  The vast majority of the reviews are positive.  This is more than for all  other garden shredders sold on Amazon combined.
• Bosch is renowned for build quality.  The AXT Rapid is very well built and will give good service for years to come.
• Double edged cutting blades.  Rotary shredder blades take a pounding.  The blades in the Bosch are specially hardened and are not meant to be sharpened by users.  The ability to turn the blade over so the previously trailing edge is presented prolongs the life of the blades.
• Well matched motors and power train.  All that motor power is delivered where it matters – at the blades.
• Bosch customer service.  We have said it before.  Bosch deliver great customer service.
• 2 years parts and labour warranty
• And a bonus reason – the Bosch AXT 2200 Rapid is incredibly good value especially over at Amazon who seem to consistenly offer the best price online.

So, no more excuses.  You want to buy an electric garden shredder.  You have checked that an impact or rotary shredder is best for your personal needs.  Why not follow this link to buy a Bosch AXT 2200 Rapid from Amazon now?

Bosch is the dominant manufacturer in the Garden Shredder market – and for good reason. Here are 5 reasons why you should seriously consider buying a Bosch Garden Shredder.

1 Best range of electric garden shredders

Every Bosch Garden Shredder is top of its class:

• Best rotary/impact/rapid shredder – Bosch AXT Rapid 2200 – More Amazon reviews than all other shredders of all types combined. Average rating 4 stars. The few negative reviews concern the cutting blades.  There seems to have been a poor batch of blades in the earliest machines – this problem was fixed long ago.
• Best quiet crusher type shredder Bosch AXT 25D
• Innovative quiet turbine cutter shredder designed to cope equally well with green and woody waste – Bosch AXT 25TC

2 Build quality

All Bosch products are built to a high quality. In the impact shredders you get very hard, tough blades which seem to last much longer than those from other manufacturers. The quiet shredders are immensely strong – I have not heard of any Bosch quiet shredders failing in operation.

3 Innovation

Bosch is at the forefront of garden shredder innovation. Their powertrain, motors and drive on the ‘Rapid’ range of shredders set the standard for smooth, continuous rotary shredder operations.
Bosch was the first company to use, the now discontinued, Archimedes screw in quiet shredders.

Their current range of quiet garden shredders use gear teeth and static plates. Where customers struggle to adjust the cutter on other makes of shredder Bosch users are generally pretty happy with the one-click adjustment offered on the Bosch machines.

Most recently Bosch introduced their turbine cut range of shredders designed to cope equally well with green and woody waste.

The integrated collector boxes on the later Bosch quiet and turbine cut shredders are a step forward in designing safety into the machines.

No other manufacturer comes close to matching Bosch on garden shredder innovation.

4 Top customer service

We have heard of few problems customers have experienced particularly with the impact shredders. It seems there may have been a bad batch of blades included with the early batches of the Rapid AXT 2200 launch. Whenever Bosch has been informed of this problem they have invariably quickly fixed the problem at no cost to the customer.

There are far less reports of customers needed support from Bosch than for other manufacturers. Whenever service is required it is always exemplary.

5 Long parts and labour guarantee

2 years parts and labour warranty comes as standard with all Bosch garden shredders.

Just what are Quiet Shredders?

Quiet Garden Shredders use an entirely changed shredding technique compared to their more raucous relatives – the impact shredders. In place of the high-speed cutting blades a great deal slower revolving gear and plate mechanism is utilized. When the gear wheel rotates the teeth catch onto the garden waste jamming it against the solid plate. Further movement of the gear pulls the cuttings into the shredder crushing and cutting it on the static plate.

Is it Quiet?

Sound ratings are normally two to three times less if you are standing next to a quiet garden shredder. Ear protection is not necessarily required. Only a slightly raised voice is required in order to have a conversation right next to the machine. There is little difference in noise output when shredding even hard, dry, woody clippings too. These machines are unlikely to upset your neighbours. Obviously they certainly are substantially less noisy – at least when compared to an rotary shredder.

Shredding Efficiency

Shredding performance is for the most part determined simply by the correct set-up of the cutting cog to the strike plate. Indeed there continue to be various adverse reviews online for some quiet shredders because of the gears/cutters not being set up properly when the shredder is first used. Adjustment is generally quite easy however one shouldn’t have to carry out adjustments for a brand new shredder.

To maintain the correct gap in between gears and plates it truly is rather important that the shredder doesn’t deform or twist in operation. Therefore, quiet shredders are made to be much stronger than impact shredders. Furthermore, motors and gear trains have to provide very high force and high torque to keep turning when working. Again, higher torque motors and gears need to be made far more robustly than in high-speed motors.

Quiet shredders are usually engineered to give good results on principally woody cuttings. Even moderate amounts of soft stemmed waste will block the input chute and prevent the shredder working. The cutter gear mechanism continues to rotate yet you can’t feed more in through the dense wedge of compacted soft stemmed garden waste.

Soft stemmed garden waste could also become compressed in to the gaps in between the gear teeth. This prevents the teeth latching onto the waste and once again stops the shredder operating. Cleaning each and every single gap in between teeth is not really difficult but can be a little tedious.
Taking care not to input too much green matter in one go together with mixing all green waste with woody clippings goes a long way to maintaining the shredder working efficiently. You are going to need to prepare your shredding a bit yet fortunately it is really not too much trouble after you get familiar with the exercise.

Specifics to Note

The need for very stiff chassis as well as higher torque motors creates 2 evident consequences for the customer:

• Price tag – quiet shredders tend to be far more expensive to manufacture and actually buy
• Weight – quiet shredders are much heavier than their rotary/impact relatives. The Bosch 25D weighs 32kg compared to the Bosch AXT Rapid 2200 on 12 Kg.

Continuous operation will depend more on the configuration and design of the motor and transmission compared to the basic electrical power rating. I have only once witnessed the cutter jam on a quiet shredder. The cutting I fed it was quite big and still had a lot of smaller branches attached. Where a group of the side branches all came out of the central branch there was a large, particularly tough knot. The shredder pulled the branch in but couldn’t cope with the knot. The self feed action is very powerful and the knot became firmly stuck within the cutter. Freeing the blockage with out dismantling the shredder wasn’t simple.

Stated throughput for this type of shredder are usually more than twice that of an impact shredder.

Is it for you?

The good

It depends on your garden. For my garden a crusher shredder is great. We have around 100metres of assorted hedging – Elm, Laurel, Holly and a handful of bits I can’t identify. We have a bunch of trees – Apple, Plum, Beech and Willow. Presently there are loads of bushes the majority of which I can’t identify. So my clippings are predominantly woody in type.

At certain occasions in the year we have significant volumes of waste material. The larger (compared to rotary or impact shredders) output is essential. A great deal of the greater throughput is probably delivered by the self feeding operation of the shredders. As soon as you have presented a branch down into the shredder it will try to catch hold of it and pull it in. With impact shredders someone has to add the branch or cuttings through which is clearly more time consuming.

The not so positive

The shreddings produced by quiet shredders are far from as fine compared to any of those out of Impact or rotary shredders. Soft stemmed shoots and leaves may possibly remain whole but will commonly end up being squashed and marked (stems will have no rigidity). The cuttings and bruising mechanism prepares and breaks down a plant’s cell structure getting it ready for composting but it may well take more time until it is ready to be your garden.

Branches are going to be broken down into around 1 centimetre pieces which should have been broken and split by the garden shredder mechanism. The output is good for composting but it will take substantial time to rot down enough to be added back on to the vegetable patch.

Quiet shredders are currently definitely considerably more heavy as compared to their impact or rotary equivalents. Moving any of them tends to be quite challenging in the event that you have steps or multiple tiers in your garden.

You should additionally expect to spend far more – most likely 50Percent more plus – than a comparable rotary or impact shredder. However, it is unlikely that you will have to replace the cutters in a crusher shredder. Furthermore, the more robust framework ought to suggest that the shredder lasts much longer.

So, is it for me?

For my money, quiet shredders are the right tool for anyone with medium sized gardens with lots of hedges, bushes and trees.
At the moment, the market leading quiet shredder is the Bosch AXT 25D.

But is it any good?

Well for the full answer you will have to go over and take a look at our full Bosch AXT 23TC review.

However, the short answer is ‘yes’

With the turbine cutting system there is practically no chance of green waste clogging or stopping the cutter.  With 8 blades there is no real chance of woody waste jamming the machine either so it does seem that Bosch have created a shredder which will cope with all types of garden plant waste.

The 23TC will happily chomp through branches up to 42mm in diameter while the 25TC has a bigger appetite and can cope with branches upto 45mm.

At 89dB these are pretty quiet machines do you shouldn’t disturb your neighbours either.

The not so good?

These things are expensive – half as much again as a similar power quiet shredder.  They are heavy too so they are not that easy to drag around your garden.

That’s about it really – there aren’t any major gripes.

Oh, perhaps we should mention that if you are unlucky enough to need to change the cutter it is going to cost you something North of £150.

I want one

Go read our Bosch AXT 23TC review and make your own mind up. If you have seen enough why not go buy a Bosch AXT 23TC or better yet go for the Bosch AXT 25TC now.