With Halloween and Bonfire Night upon us many will be building a bonfire as part of the ritual of these fire festivals.
Even if you have only recently made your pile of material, it is vital to make sure it hasn’t become a temporary shelter for hedgehogs and other hibernating creatures.
One way to avoid this is to use an elevated firepit that you simply fill and light on the night. It contains the material for burning, lifts it off the ground and provides a barrier too.
You can use it to despatch your junk mail plus some dried woody prunings and still have a wonderful party pyre but without the guilt trip.
By burning garden made material you are using fuel that doesn’t need transport to get it to you and it actually releases about the same amount of carbon as it would if you chopped it up into pieces and put it on the compost heap to break down. What’s more garden trees and shrubs, like all growing things, use up CO2 in the growing process and you can return the ash to the compost heap. And the great thing is you get a lovely hot party fire with no additional cost for fuel.
You don’t even need to use costly chemical firelighters. A handful of dried leaves, especially oily ones such as bay laurel and some scrunched up paper will soon have your dried prunings alight and roaring away.
Get a bag of marshmallows in and some sausages to toast over the glowing embers and make the most of the autumn nights in your garden.
Toasty.
