DIY mulch?

[BlueMR2]

One thing I'm short of around the house is mulch to help keep the weeds down behind the bushes.

I have another problem in that I have a few bushes that grow insanely fast.  On average I was putting out 30 bundles of limbs/stick per Summer just keeping those bushes in check.  The city is no longer going to accept green waste bundles and is requiring buying containers, stickers, etc.  Spending money to get rid of this stuff is not something I want to do.  Considering taking a big one time hit and ripping out all of the bushes in the yard, but I do like having them there (both as a wind break and to hide some of antenna wiring).

Can I solve one problem with the other?  Is there a "reasonable" way to turn all my excess limbs/sticks/trimmings into mulch every year myself?

[Nords]

One thing I'm short of around the house is mulch to help keep the weeds down behind the bushes.
I have another problem in that I have a few bushes that grow insanely fast.  On average I was putting out 30 bundles of limbs/stick per Summer just keeping those bushes in check.  The city is no longer going to accept green waste bundles and is requiring buying containers, stickers, etc.  Spending money to get rid of this stuff is not something I want to do.  Considering taking a big one time hit and ripping out all of the bushes in the yard, but I do like having them there (both as a wind break and to hide some of antenna wiring).
Can I solve one problem with the other?  Is there a "reasonable" way to turn all my excess limbs/sticks/trimmings into mulch every year myself?

When I have a plant that's growing insanely fast, it's usually because I have a broken water line next to it.

Instead of slowing down your existing plants, could you replace them with plants that grow more slowly?

You could buy a residential version of a wood chipper, but you tend to get the quality you pay for.  The cheaper ones get dull blades quickly and jam too easily, while the quality ones are expensive to buy & maintain. 

Our island collects green waste (for free) and delivers it to a composting company.  The material that can't be composted is run through a wood chipper and dumped next to community gardens for mulch.  Is there a similar facility in your area that would accept your green waste, even if it's a pickup-truck load at a time?

[happy]

Firstly, if  you are going to get a chipper/chopper get a good quality one that can be maintained and serviced. (the cheap ones from Bunnings..like Walmart in US I think, they just die real fast). If you are good with engines you can self-service. It depends on what you are going to chip: think about max diameter you would like to deal with.. but my advice is to the the largest size thats practical for you.  I got the biggest one I could move myself being a 5 foot two 50 year old female. It also is the biggest size that will fit in the back of my car....in order to take it to be serviced (which I've only done once in the 2+ years I've had it). Get a good quality engine...Down Under thats Honda or Briggs and Stratton.

You can chip/shred prunings and sticks,bark and leaves. Some things eg hibiscus look like they shred real well but are fibrous and tie my shredder in knots. Get to know your machine and whats in your garden.

Here's my strategy..not quite a closed system but as close as I can get at present:

Shreddable garden material gets shredded. The shreddings are either used as weed suppressing mulch (pref on top of newspaper which we get from our newspaper buying family members). OR they will compost quite fast, especially if you have a good balance of green and woody... ideally from small tree/shrub branches.

Compost goes back on garden and now the vege garden.

When I'm weeding I separate into :
-edible weeds  ie edible by our voracious guinea pigs...saving money on GP food
- other weeds/ soft green stuff that won't shred goes into our green council recyling bin
- sticks kept for kindling for wood fire for heating in winter, or otherwise can be shredded if not too dirty. Large diameter prunings also kept for firewood or shredded.
- shreddible waste

Guinea Pig waste ( woodshavings + straw + uneaten food + POOP, lots of POOP) gets composted with or without shreddings. Compost goes back on garden.

Kitchen vege/fruit/ some other food scraps get put in Bokashi bin. Bokashi  "tea" is drained off and used for fertiliser. The pickled Bokashi food waste needs to be buried and will rapidly break down to get great compost. I got sick of burying it, so now I "bury" it in a compost bin, covering with GP waste or leaves/bark.

This has saved me a fortune in removing garden waste, buying mulch and compost/fertiliser. Also reduced volume of garbage collection. You can substitute chooks for GPs or worm farms for Bokashi. Male members of family can provide liquid yellow fertiliser high in urea and nitrogen. ( mechanically trickier for girls).

Sorry long post, got carried away.

[Jack]

If you're having to trim your bushes that much, the problem is that you picked the wrong bushes. Go find some whose size at maturity is correct for your space (read the nursery label!).

[BlueMR2]

If you're having to trim your bushes that much, the problem is that you picked the wrong bushes. Go find some whose size at maturity is correct for your space (read the nursery label!).

I don't even know what they are, they came with the house.  I've only tried to plant a few things, and they all died, so I'm done planting anything here.  Question is, do I keep trimming back these guys, or do I just rip them out...  The ROI on a reliable chipper doesn't look so great (not to mention that I have absolutely nowhere to store it).  Waste disposal is difficult around here.  Probably going to go for the one time hit and just remove these things.  Thinking a chipper rental might be the way to go for the actual removal (I do still need the mulch anyways!).  :-)

[happy]

Your costs may be different to ours here but to hire a skip and pay for waster removal costs a bomb, so hiring a chipper may be the way to go if you just want to bin them.

As far as ROI on a chipper/chopper I guess it depends on your volume, but if I costed green waste removal, and the cost of buying mulch for the garden, the shredder easily paid for itself in the first year.  But I live in a high rainfall area, and stuff grows like stink all year round. The block was also relatively overgrown with vigorous shrubbery.

[DirtBoy]

I have one of those electric 14amp McCullouch Chippers, they aren't made anymore, but many knock offs are available.  I bought it for $50 used off Craigslist about 5 years ago.  My neighbor and I have literally chipped mountains of mulch with that thing over the years.  I probably created 3 cubic yards last year alone.  So, I've had good luck with my cheapo mulcher.  I'd chip it all myself.

update:

Here's a similar chipper:

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-12-capacity-14-amp-chipper-shredder-69293.html

You can't force feed it sticks like a championship eater, but it will work for small 1" or so trimmings and smaller.  Keep the blades sharp and learn the technique of feeding it at it's max rate without bogging it down too much.  I'd check CL for a chipper.

[BlueMR2]

Here's a similar chipper:

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-12-capacity-14-amp-chipper-shredder-69293.html

Ah!  That's a nice sized one too!  All the "good quality" ones I'd been looking at were quite large!  I could fit one like this in the shed.  Although, my ultimate goal is to thin out my equipment enough that I can eliminate the shed eventually...  Hmmm...  :-)

[DirtBoy]

If you do get one of the electric chippers I have found the comments on this guy's page to be very helpful:

http://www.robsplants.com/chippy.php

It isn't easy finding spare parts, but they can be found.

[tuyop]

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Mulch

I think shovel is the mustachian choice here.

[BlueMR2]

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Mulch

I think shovel is the mustachian choice here.

I like that, I've certainly got enough leaves...  :-)  Chopping all the sticks real short would take forever though, maybe I can just leave them as longer lengths?

[tuyop]

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Mulch

I think shovel is the mustachian choice here.

I like that, I've certainly got enough leaves...  :-)  Chopping all the sticks real short would take forever though, maybe I can just leave them as longer lengths?

I think that depends on what you're using the mulch for. If it was me, I'd probably burn the sticks for fuel somehow, but I don't know what your setup for heating or cooking is.

[BlueMR2]

I think that depends on what you're using the mulch for. If it was me, I'd probably burn the sticks for fuel somehow, but I don't know what your setup for heating or cooking is.

Unfortunately, no capacity here for using wood as a fuel for either heating or cooking.