Why You Should Shred Your Leaves

Turn leaves into fuel for next year’s garden by shredding them with a string trimmer in a garbage can before you compost them.

Shredding one leaf into five or ten smaller pieces does several good things. First, it increases the surface area, giving microbes many more places to work.
It also prevents the leaves from packing together into layers that won’t let water or air penetrate and it reduces the volume dramatically.

Ten bags of whole leaves becomes just one bag of shredded leaves. Fill a garbage can half-full of dried leaves and run your string grass trimmer in the can.
In a few minutes, they’ll be just right for composting.

4 COMMENTS

  1. how easy and simply you make it all look, and you don’t have to buy extra tools by using what you have around the house thank u

  2. Hallelujah and thank you, thank you! I volunteer in a high school garden (The Dirt Club!) and was looking for a simple way to mulch all the leaves we get and save $$ on mulches. I had imagined a “wand” of some kind to shred leaves in a trash can and jumped for joy when I found your video. We already have a “weed whacker”!

    bless you!
    Dirt Club in Novato, California

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here