Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time using my garden shredder. That’s mainly because I’ve been helping various friends reduce the size of various trees and large shrubs. For the first one, I brought all the branches home but, since then, I’ve been taking the shredder with me. It saves having to move the branches around while they are still long and loose; once shredded, the material is much more compact and has either ended up mulching their gardens or being brought back home or to the allotment.

The shredder is one of these Mac Allister ones. I actually bought it from Screwfix (who now only have a reconditioned model for sale) and I’m sure the price was somewhat lower. That probably makes writing a review a bit of a waste of time but it has worked like a beast – in the sense of coping with all the labour I’ve it to and not in the sense of being wild or uncontrollable. It is on the noisy side and not the most convenient thing to cart around but it has excelled at most tasks.

Its forte is material with a high proportion of woody material, so sticks and branches with the leaves still attached; it does have more tendency to get clogged with softer material although that is mitigated by not shoving too much in at once. That is helped by the design. The plastic cover to the feed chute limits the size of branch you can feed in and it has chewed through every branch that has fitted with aplomb.

I’ve been working hard but my trusty shredder has been working harder!