Holly hedge trimmings disposal

[Newark Jim]

Our home is surrounded by a huge (at least to me) holly hedge - it's approx 250ft long, 12ft high and 6-8ft wide

Cutting it isn't so much of an issue with petrol trimmers and a scaffold tower but disposing of the clippings afterwards involves filling a builders bag with as much as possible, stuffing it into my Focus and around 30 trips to the tip.

Is there any sort of shredder/chipper that would cope with the large amount of green waste that is generated? There's nothing particularly chunky and happy to deal with that separately, I'm just after something I can grab armfuls of the waste of and dump into the hopper for processing. I'd be looking at taking the shredded stuff to the tip if that makes a difference.

Burning isn't really an option as the holly produces too much smoke and the neighbours would lynch me.

 

Thanks 

 

 

[rapalaman]

Thing is, google doesn’t “know” anything. All it does is find what others have put on the web on their sites.

if the right or relevant information is out there it will find it, but if it’s not there then there’s nothing to find so it brings up the next nearest thing which is often  not what the searcher is looking for.

[manco]

On 21/08/2021 at 14:52, doobin said:

You don’t need a tree man to cut a hedge…

i think tree men would be a good choice. one to cut, one to clear, and one holding the ladder. but you could get by with two.

[Newark Jim]

Thanks for the replies, you've confirmed what I suspected.

 

Probably a stupid question but would the holly count as green or brown material in respect of a compost heap. I do have a heap but as it's 99% lawn clippings it's not composting and is more of a slime heap. If the holly would act as 'brown' then I could consider adding it. I know dead leaves etc are considered brown but with the holly being so waxy didn't think it would act the same way

 

Thanks

  

[mattt44]

Hi, I'm not a tree guy, just someone with a tip site. But I do alot of composting.

I think holly would be a brown and a green, in fact the perfect compostable material, in that it would perfectly compost by itself, but it will take a long time.

I compost bay leaves and I suspect they will be very similar.

It will take I suspect at least 2 years, any sort of shredding will help, I put my bay leaves and small branches through a garden shredder, if I had a hedge that big I would definately get some sort of shredder, you will need one with spinning blades and not crushing rollers.

On the other hand. shredding that much material is going to take forever in a garden shredder, so the more you spend, the better.

The easiest way to compost would be a chicken wire circle and everything just thrown in, one per year, if you fancy, every 6 months or so use a fork and turn it.

HTH's

 

Edited August 24, 2021 by mattt44

[Dbikeguy]

Lawn mower over it to chop
it up. most chipper don’t like just leaves…

[peds]

The idea that you've been disposing of such a considerable quantity of compostable material at the tip instead of leaving it tucked away quietly in the corner for a while is bringing me out in a massive sulk.

The shape of holly clippings gives it such a volume of air that you wouldn't even need to turn it, it'd breathe on its own just fine. You genuinely could just leave it in a heap for about two years, ignoring the hell out of it, and you'd end up with a usable product. 

You could speed up the process by tossing a load of seaweed or grass cuttings through it and giving it a big thick lid of cardboard or old carpet, but honestly, just leave it alone, walk away, and just before you start building a third pile next to it, scoop it up and scatter it across your flower beds, or tuck it back in under the hedge from whence it came to return the precious nutrients. 

Edited August 24, 2021 by peds

[nepia]

9 hours ago, peds said:

The idea that you've been disposing of such a considerable quantity of compostable material at the tip instead of leaving it tucked away quietly in the corner for a while is bringing me out in a massive sulk.

😂