Hello friends..
Can anyone recommend a mechanical chipper of some sort, or shredder that would cut organic matter into small pieces so that I may be able to accelerate the composting process. This is the only answer I believe for my situation. I'd rather invest money in something like that than let's say, a rotating composter. I live in Cape Cod, MA where there's sand everywhere. The town provides what they call compost out here which is at least 50% sand plus organic matter. In Long Island, N.Y., where we come from, the compost there was compost; made from leaves and grass primarily, and no sand. 100% organic and we were able to enrich our soil beautifully and in short time. Every year we added that splendid compost to our veg. garden and flower beds. I now have a pile of grass and old leaves in a heap, but although black on the interior and bottom, the pieces are very large, too large to incorporate into the soil.

Pour it out on the lawn, run over it with the lawn mower, using the grass catcher. If it's still too coarse, pour it out again and run over it with the lawn mower again.

I'm trying to go with a push mower only for my regular mowing, but lacking a chipper, I find that my old power mower does a pretty good job. When I trim my hedges, I now use the power mower to vacuum up the clippings. It does a good job of turning the leaves and twigs into mulch or compostable greens. It even does a pretty good job of shredding the cottonwood branches that constantly fall from my neighbor's tree.

What you would get will depend on what is sold locally. Do any of the rental shops around you have a chipper/shredder they rent that you could try out?

Decades of growing in sandy loam in Duxbury, MA, taught me that this soil is so airy that it decomposes organic matter faster than almost any other -- and shredding leaves even hastens the process, thus depleting your bank of soil organic matter. This is particularly true if you till. We found that the best method (in terms of long-term efficiency) on such soil was sheet composting, or lasagna beds, with unshredded material.

It takes a bit longer initially, and following Nature's timetable can be a frustrating pain in the butt, but it pays off.

I put in several beds with the sheet composting method this spring, waited about 6 weeks for things to settle in, then planted. The composting was/is not finished, but my plants are growing fine -- in fact the tomatoes are going crazy! I did not put any root crops in the new section, and in a couple of cases put down small amounts of "regular" soil in which to place seeds. Transplants I just put right in.

As far as a reasonably priced chipper/shredder, you could check out Sears or one of the farm supply co's in your area. Another viable resource is public auctions. I just attended an auction a few days ago where a 6.5 h.p., 2" capacity Troy Built chipper/shredder sold for $265. The machine was nerly new as the paint was not off the inside throat. This machine sells new for $599.00.

Peterfoss and Liz1, I have discovered Sheet composting/lasagna style is what works best here. I have sandy soil that is yellow with the grains of sand being bigger than beach sand, but it's still sandy. Fortunately there has been a lot of organic matter turned back into the soil.

I planted potatoes and onions in my lasagna beds. I did start them last fall and added to them with kitchen scraps and rabbit cage debris.

The leaves do hold the moisture in better.

One thing that occurred to me today is to get vegetables that are left over from Produce markets to add to compost piles to get quick results. I saw a man carrying boxes of "over
ripe" produce to feed DEER of all things. I would think the discarded veggies would break down really fast.

I agree that Lasagna beds are probably the best for your soil. However, you might want to build raised beds next year and load them with a good mix of organic compost, topsoil and maybe a little of the local soil also.

As far as cheap chipper shredder, I agree that a bagged lawnmower is an excellent tool. A few weeks ago I took out a huge pile of spent daisies (which are invasive in my yard, so need to be thinned regularly) and oriental poppy leaves. Yesterday I ran them over just a few times and the largest stem was about an inch long. Then they went into the compost tumbler, with my kitchen compost and it will be usable in about two weeks. I also use grass clipping when I have them, but too dry for subsequent mows this year.

In a couple of weeks, there will still be some unfinished bits, like fruit rinds, but they will be well worked and covered with finished matter. I call this "compulch", because it goes right on the top of my beds to hold in moisture and breaks down pretty quickly. In two more weeks, it will look like rough dirt.

The advantage of compulch is that you don't have to dig it in and you won't disturb crops already growing. Some people have successfully added small bits of organic materials to growing crops by digging them in to the side of the plant, such as a banana peel or egg shells. But top dressing can also work pretty well, especially with adequate heat and moisture to break things down.

MaggieZ:

Which tumbler do you use and would you recommend it. Thank you.