Garden innovations - chippers

Chippers are heavy-duty pieces of power equipment for heavy-duty gardens, they turn leaves, garden refuse and tree trimmings into raw material for the compost pile or mulch for the your garden beds, but they aren't cheap, ranging from around £150 to £1,000.

For a big garden, or one that's heavily wooded, a larger model may well be worth the money, as they handle of materials, including tree limbs up to six inches in diameter. Titchy chipper vacuums are ideal for small gardens and they suck up and shred leaves, and some will chip small branches too.

A chipper is really two machines in one. Most have one or two hardened-steel blades that measure three or four inches in length. As you feed limbs and branches through the chipping tube or chute, the blades chip them into small pieces. The chipping mechanism turns tree limbs and branches into chips for use as mulch but the shredding mechanism converts softer materials, such as plants and leaves, into a form suitable for the compost pile.

This is important because shredding debris before composting increases the surface area tenfold, which means the debris will take only weeks to decompose instead of months.

Using a chipper is not a joke - here are some safety tips to help you chip safely:

• Read and follow the manufacturer's instructions carefully.
• Keep children and pets away from the work area.
• Avoid loose-fitting clothes which may get caught in the machine and always wear gloves, ear protection and safety goggles.
• When filling the shredding chute, use the plunger provided to push material into the shredding chamber. Never use your hands or anything made of metal in this area.
• If the chipper becomes jammed, turn it off and wait for all moving parts to come to a complete stop before attempting to unclog the machine.
• Some towns now chip Christmas trees and give you back a bag of chippings to use as mulch on your garden.