There are options. You can ignore the mess and let the leaves, twigs and branches stay where they are and hope they'll decompose quickly. You can pray for gusty tradewinds to blow them into someone else's yard. Or you can chip and shred the stuff, creating natural, nutrient-rich mulch to fertilize your plants and lawn, and wood chips to enhance your yard.
There are two varieties of chipper/shredders:
The "stationary" type - despite its name - can be rolled around the yard from one spot to another where you've gathered leaves, twigs and branches. You dump the stuff into the hopper and chutes and the machine grinds them up. This type generally costs $400 to $800.
The chipper/vacuum looks like a big lawnmower on large wheels and is usually self-propelled. It inhales leaves through a snout and shreds them, and chips branches you insert in the chute. These heavy machines may be hard to maneuver. Price can be as high as $1,800, such as for the 10-horsepower Troy-Bilt model.
"We ask our customers what they want to run through the machine, including the size of the limbs," said Sandy Brodie, owner of Sandy Brodie Hawaii, which sells the Troy-Bilt line. "For most people, all they need is a machine that can handle a 3-inch diameter limb and shred leaves."
Stationary types can handle that.
What this all means is that if you bag your leaves, you'll use fewer bags. And if you compost, the shredded leaves decompose easily.
On some stationary models, you can drop debris in while the machine is upright, or pivot the machine down and rake in the leaves and twigs.
"Popularity for chipper/shredders is building," Brodie said. "Landscape contractors are now being charged to dispose of green waste and residents can only dispose of what they can fit in their trash cans.
"But it seems a lot of people still don't understand the phenomena of composting or mulching, either the benefits or the ease of doing it."
Troy-Bilt chipper/shredders at Brodie start at about $600 for the three-horsepower Junior Tomahawk which can chip limbs up to 11/2 inches in diameter. Then there's the Troy-Bilt 10-horsepower "towable model" at $1,699 that chips limbs up to 4 inches in diameter.
So just how fast can a shredder shred or a chipper chip?
Now if you're just interested in pulverizing leaves - not twigs or branches - try an electric leaf-shredder, (cost, about $100) which uses spinning plastic filaments.
The electric Poulan/Weed Eater 2580 Super blower/mulching vacuum can be carried around the yard. The Flowtron LE-900, about $110, also sold as the Sears Craftsman 79986, is a cylindrical, 17-pound machine which reduces eight bushels of debris to one bushel of mulch. It shreds wet or dry leaves, grass clippings and is adjustable from coarse to fine.
Just carry it to a leaf pile and plug it in. A lever adjusts fineness of the shreds that come out the bottom into a trash can or a plastic bag fitted around the base.
Where:Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden, 45-680 Luluku Road, Kaneohe.