Bonfires

[Pyewacket]

Can anyone out there help me!

I am fairly new to allotmenting..? and have only just started getting my allotment cleared of weeds, general rubbish, old wooden pallets ect. I need to have a really big bonfire but as the ground is so wet, we are right next to a bogland nature reserve, I can't get the fire to stay alight.

Does anyone know where I can buy, new or second hand, one of those metal cage things or dustbin with holes? that I have seen people using?

Pyewacket

[shirlthegirl43]

Can't remember for sure but think I got mine from Focus. Be aware they don't hold an awful lot though. If you have a really big pile to get shot of it might be worth buying a bale of straw from a farmer or riding stables to get it going - you could be burning stuff for weeks in a little dustbin-size incinerator.

If you can get a couple of sheets of corrugated tin stuff then you can put the fire on that and it should go.

Good luck and have fun!

[PAULW]

PYEWACKET
I use a 45 gallon drum with holes in the bottom half once the heat builds up the quicker the stuff burns.

[Peter]

Use the pallets as a platform to build the fire on?

[Alice]

There could be alternatives out there to burning Pyewacket. Smoke from bonfires can be a real nuisance to yourself and neighbours - apart from the problem of getting the thing going. Smoke from a bonfire is a real carcinogen - about the equivalent of smokong 1000 cigarettes I believe. You could ask your Council to provide a community skip so that everybody on the lottie could get rid of their rubbish, or you could all club together and pay for a skip to share. If you're detemined to burn, then you have to stack the stuff til it's dry, build the fire from a small beginning and feed it as it burns - and stay out of the smoke and make sure the direction is not in the path of your neighbours, however far away they are. Think about a skip !

[shirlthegirl43]

Alice, forgive me if I misunderstand, but I didn't think wood and weeds were bad to burn unlike plastics and stuff.

I would have thought burning was more friendly than using landfill.

Not an expert on waste disposal so again, please forgive me if I am incorrect.

[supersprout]

We got one of those heavy galvanised dustbin-with-lid incinerators at our local garden shop for £13 - ideal for burning rubbish in a controlled way

[Benacre]

Try your local Freecycle Site in Yahoo.
Type Freecycle (Your Area) ie Birmingham and you should be able to find you r local freecycle site.

I use the drums from old Washing Machines and tumble dryers

[Nicos]

Hi
Got mine from B&Q

[Alice]

Hello Shirlthegirl, smoke from anything is a carcinogen and a real nuisance to those around. Wet wood and weeds just smoulder and give off lots of smoke causing a nuisance to all. If it really needs to be burned it should be well dried so that it burns quickly with a bright flame and little smoke. This was the point I was making. Hope it clarifies things a bit.

[shirlthegirl43]

Fair enough. I don't burn stuff often as my neighbour always seems to have washing out - yes even when it is raining. Always thought that burning was preferable to landfill though I understand the smoke probs.

[Pippin]

What are the pallets like Shirley?

If they are reasonably intact use them to make a compost heap - they`re the best and you only need three to start with. If you need more, keep your eyes open (flap your eyelids and look demure) around an industrial estate or some such place and scrounge some.



Pippin

[muckdiva]

What are the pallets like Shirley?

If they are reasonably intact use them to make a compost heap - they`re the best and you only need three to start with. If you need more, keep your eyes open (flap your eyelids and look demure) around an industrial estate or some such place and scrounge some.



Pippin

Great looking compost bins Pippin, will have to sweet talk OH into building something similar.

[roitelet]

I have to admit that I am very anti burning and have not had a bonfire for the last 4 years and hope to continue to carry on not burning. Waste disposal is a problem so, weeds and non compostable garden rubbish I put in a container and grow courgettes on top and then the following winter sift it and put it on the flower beds. By this time most things have dissapeared and the few weed roots that there are go in the dustbin. Turf is stacked and covered with black plastic and when it had rotted down sifted for loam. Wood I stack and in time it all gets re-used. Twiggy stuff is shredded and Compost King adds it to his heaps, yes plural, 4 at present. Some grass clippings go in the compost heaps, some are used as mulch and some are stacked and
allowed to rot and then used under things, mostly pretty stuff, to retain moisture. In general I try to re-cycle or reuse as much as possible, and as a last resort I go to the tip

My ground is brickmakers clay with huge areas of flint in all shapes and sizes, some too big to lift, so I need as much humus as I can get, and I have 2,500 sq. meters of ground to deal with

[ugly gourd]

garages have metal 45 galloon drums that there anti freeze is delivered in cut the top of and make holes around the side at the bottom and youve got a drum to burn in