Wood chippers are a great way to make use of useless branches and bushes which you would otherwise have had to reluctantly drive to the dump. The set of knives built into these industrial tree eaters shred just about anything you throw into it and either spits out mulch, saw dust or cube like shaped wood chips.
The mulch it produces can be used in your garden as a ground cover to spread around your plants and enrich the soil. It also locks the moisture in under the mulch as well as improves plant growth by releasing nitrogen slowly back into the soil. As the wood chips start to break down, they release heat which regulates the temperate of the soil under the chips and keeps it warm. This protects the soil from the scorching heat during the day and also keeps it warm at night. These wood chips produced by wood chippers also absorb water which gets released very slowly onto the plants.
Wood chippers are very simple and easy to use and the average homeowner will have no problem operating one of them. This also saves you from driving up and down to the dump when clearing your backyard and also gives you an endless supply of mulch and wood chips to through on your plans.
So now that you know how valuable it can be have a wood eating machine like this in your arsenal the next question would be is it best to buy or rent one? Most people don’t have the kind of money to lay out for a 1 million rand machine they’re not going to use more than one a month and that should go unsaid. But there are also smaller commercial machines you can buy costing between R60,000 and R80,000 which would be perfect for chopping up backyard land waste.
Renting a machine is always a great way to test the waters first and once you see it’s worth you could take the plunge and buy one. The benefit of renting a wood chipper though is you don’t have to store a monster machine like that in your backyard and you also don’t need to insure. Maintaining wood chippers can also be like having a second car. Servicing it can be pretty expensive and if you need to replace broken parts it could be difficult to get hold of if it’s an import machine.
So yes although using a wood chipper has endless benefits there are pros and cons to buying and renting one. The questions you need to ask yourself are how often are you going to use it, for what are you going to use it and is it worth it for you.
