Incinerator

[Icytundra]

After pregnancy and maternity leave making my garden a bit (very) neglected, I went out and went a bit mad pruning. I now have loads of hedge/ tree trimmings to get rid of. I've been quoted £150 which I can't afford but it's going to take forever of I keep waiting for my garden bin to be emptied.

Considering getting an incinerator but don't know anyone who has used one.

Any thoughts/ advice welcome!

Is your local council tip taking garden waste if you can take it there? Ours is but you have to book a slot I think.

They are not the queues are huge and it would be 2/3 cars full I think (and I'd have to faff with kids seats!)

We bought one last year because but it was useless. We were burning branches from an apple tree and wisteria. Within a few minutes there was a massive thick cloud of smoke and we had to put it out before our neighbours called the fire brigade. If you have a huge country garden with loads of space it would be alright but if you're in a town or village with neighbours I wouldn't bother. We haven't used ours since that first attempt.

It's a rather antisocial way to deal with it, especially in dense urban areas.

When I faced the same problem I got a garden shredder, but they're close to £100 anyway.

Shredders are much better as you can then use the remains as mulch.

I'd wait a week or so. It'll all rot down just a bit, and then you'll be able to shove it into those big bags and take it to the tip.

Don't get an incinerator, not unless you live in the middle of nowhere. They are a massive pain to use AND they smoke everyone else out unless you've let everything dry out and die for weeks and weeks first.

Ok that's what I thought. They seem far to cheap a solution. Might go a combo of tip and garden waste collection

I wouldn't buy a shredder either, but if you could borrow one, that might be an idea?

How big are the branches? I have found that cutting things into smaller straight pieces of about forty cm makes them much more manageable, because they fit into bags or sacks better. For this a well made long handled lopper is a good investment ( or borrow one) mine cuts easily through branches several inches thick. Obviously harder to do with bigger branches, but even with these I find if you take off any side growths they fit together better and are easier to shift. It is when you have a tangle of branches and twigs that it makes a pile that looks insurmountable. Sometimes an hour spent organising reduces the task .

Could you do as viques suggest to make them more manageable/stackable, and then make a woodpile somewhere our of the way? Great for wildlife.

As Mildura says, if the cuttings are still green then they will create a lot of smelly smoke if you try to burn them. You will only get a clean burn with dried-out wood or a very hot fire.
You need to time your visits to the tip. A lot of people spend the morning creating rubbish and then try to tip it in the afternoon. Go early or (during term-time) after school pick-up time.

Thanks for all the tips everyone. I have got a really good lopper so it'll get chopped a bit smaller now it's dried out a bit. Definitely no incinerator!

As well as getting everything shorter, you need to get everything straight. No forked branches- it’s these that stop the heap compacting

Thanks for all the tips ladies. I'm a teacher but kids will be in childcare at some point this week so going to dedicate a morning to sorting it

Check if your council does bulky waste collections, ours will take 15 bundles of branches/garden bags every 2 months free of charge, if you need more collections is £5 per batch.

I think shredders are a pain. Even some of the better ones for domestic use jam all the time.

Yeah, ours was a cheap own brand one and jammed a lot. But it still reduced several bins worth of branches to one bin worth of shreddings.

For taking stuff to the tip I have this big boot liner bag but I still damaged the interior. Good thing my car's old anyway.

I think I'll try to do without the shredder- just chop it small- may ask the neighbors of I can use their garden waste bins.

We do yearly subscriptions where we live and they're connected fortnightly