This was my bonfire about three weeks ago, it had been burning for about two weeks and would go on to burn for 5 weeks (and half a day!) in total! We compost a lot here but this winter there was a lot of annual leaf fall, and a lot of 'catch-up' clearance to do.
Once you have got a good centre of hot coals, you can pile wet leaves on the fire for ever if you have them! I used the old rotting stuff left in piles by the previous gardener to put a damp, muddy 'cap' on the fire over Christmas, and even though I thought it had gone out at one point and I saw no wisps of smoke for several days, through the first of the recent cold snaps, it burst back into life when the wind picked up.
At one point the fire heap was taller than me and 12-foot across at the base, after Christmas, barrow after barrow of raking from the beds and under the trees went on the fire, some days as many as 15 loads. There is a lot of mud and grit in this stuff and you end up with a quite heavy aggregate, which is full of orangey or pinkish stuff that is basically fired earth, this holds the ash together and stops in blowing away, some 20 barrow-loads of this sandy ash will go on the vegetable patch before it's dug over (a job already started)
This Frog was rescued from the fire twice in recent weeks, I'm quite sure he appreciated the fact that for days it was giving of a lot of warmth while doing very little, but from time to time it would flare-up and I only hope he/she didn't get caught out...
Already piling stuff up for another fire as soon as we get a south-westerly, which will take the smoke out over the fields. Yes, I know we had Northerlies during the cold snaps, but the village school had broken-up for the Christmas Holidays and the Church is infrequently used in turn with several others, so annoyance was minimal.
Once you have got a good centre of hot coals, you can pile wet leaves on the fire for ever if you have them! I used the old rotting stuff left in piles by the previous gardener to put a damp, muddy 'cap' on the fire over Christmas, and even though I thought it had gone out at one point and I saw no wisps of smoke for several days, through the first of the recent cold snaps, it burst back into life when the wind picked up.
At one point the fire heap was taller than me and 12-foot across at the base, after Christmas, barrow after barrow of raking from the beds and under the trees went on the fire, some days as many as 15 loads. There is a lot of mud and grit in this stuff and you end up with a quite heavy aggregate, which is full of orangey or pinkish stuff that is basically fired earth, this holds the ash together and stops in blowing away, some 20 barrow-loads of this sandy ash will go on the vegetable patch before it's dug over (a job already started)
This Frog was rescued from the fire twice in recent weeks, I'm quite sure he appreciated the fact that for days it was giving of a lot of warmth while doing very little, but from time to time it would flare-up and I only hope he/she didn't get caught out...
Already piling stuff up for another fire as soon as we get a south-westerly, which will take the smoke out over the fields. Yes, I know we had Northerlies during the cold snaps, but the village school had broken-up for the Christmas Holidays and the Church is infrequently used in turn with several others, so annoyance was minimal.
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