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Minnesota([email protected])

I was thinking of renting a chipper/shredder, for a day(or few hrs.), to shread a bunch of leaves on our property. First off, would this shred them quite fine, so they can be tilled into the garden well?
Also, would it work for me to cut up my (was)615 pumpkin and some Howdens in to pieces(with a chain saw), and put them through the shredder, and spead this on the growing sites. Could the shredder handle pumpkin flesh, or would it be to wet? I have no experience with shredders, but think it might be the only way to get these materials into small enough pieces to decompose sufficiently, to help next years patches.
I would think the ground up pumpkins would add a lot of the nutrients needed for next year's pumpkins.

Doug

11/11/2004 6:53:24 PM

Roanoke Il

cut up the pumpkin spread the leaves over the top of them come apirl they will all till up prety easy with out shreadding them. mark

11/11/2004 6:59:45 PM

Www.extremepumpkinstore.com

Doug, as far as the leaves go, I ran huge amounts over with my John deere until they were chopped into pieces as small as 1/2 - 1/4 inch, now granted, alot of that the rake misses when ya try to collect it, but after tilling in about 8 inches of un chopped leaves in my patch, i spread this chopped stuff over top about 1 to 2 inches and will till in in the spring.
The pumpkins, I chopped up by hand and tossed them into th compost pile.
Tom

11/11/2004 7:08:43 PM

Wichita, KS

chopping with a hatchet might be easier. maybe less messy, too. Just a thought. Myself? I slice peices off with a knife as I harvest seeds.

11/11/2004 7:17:43 PM

Ontario

I rake my leaves onto a tarp , then drag them over to the garden and dump them. Then I run the over with the riding lawnmower . Spread them out and till them in . Works good.

11/11/2004 9:41:56 PM

Menomonie, WI ([email protected])

Dont send the pumpkins through the shredder or use a chainsaw on them. The liquid and sugar content will trash out those machines with corrosion.

11/11/2004 10:22:30 PM

Deer Park WA

We have over 3000# of Squash/pumpkins sitting on the main patch all gutted out, gonna let the deer knaw on them until their pretty well rotted and then take the machette to whats left. We spread shredded leaves and the final lawn clippens over the whole site and then will till the wholeshiteree with the cover crop into the top 3 to 6 inches come spring...

11/11/2004 10:32:10 PM

Bristol, ME ([email protected])

Dump the leaves in the garden and run over them with a mulching mower, twice as fast as a chipper and no bending over 300 million times to load the chipper. Chopping the pumpkins up fairly small will make them break down quickly over the winter, no need to shred them.

11/12/2004 6:10:40 AM

[email protected]

I hauled pieces of my pumpkins to the patch from my garden in my wheelbarrow from the front yard display, dumped it all after about 2 thousand trips, thenlet the wheelbarrow sit on its side, because it was going to rain. Well, it never rained, and the spots where pumpkin guts were in the wheelbarrow, the paint came off! I believe the sugar and pumpkin gut content did this corrosive effect! Pretty powerful stuff that pumpkin soup and guts!

11/12/2004 6:40:18 AM

Kenyon, Mn.

I spread the leaves, also dragging them on a tarp(lots of leaves here), till them in, I use a long handled shovel to slice chunks off the pumpkin then drag it and use the sheet composting idea!

11/12/2004 7:32:35 AM

Oz

The shredder will shred most anything.

11/12/2004 10:44:09 AM

Minnesota([email protected])

Wow, thanks for all the replies.
It looks like sheet composting the pumpkin is the way to go(it should rot down quite easily). I'd hate to corrode a shredder, especially if it wasn't mine.
Mowing the leaves seems the best choice as well. Running them through a shredder would take some time to do.
Thanks everyone.

Doug

11/12/2004 1:53:01 PM