Allotments 4 All
Allotment Stuff => The Basics => Topic started by: lushy86 on April 05, 2009, 21:53:07
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Had a bonfire at the end of the day today
TOTAL JOY :) :) :)
So wonderful to watch some of that horrible couch and brambles we have been digging out over the last few weekends go up in flames. Satisfying and wariming as the day turned cold.
It is slow going becuase the whole plot is covered but got some onion sets in today (my first babies are in!!) in first bed and the bigger potato bed is on its way. Yeehaaa ;D
Lushy x
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well done lushy, those onions will taste delicious when you eat them :) and i love the smell of a bonfire, it reminds me of my childhood home in the country (I'm now a townie lol)
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Another thing i am going to try this year is soaking the weeds i pull out in a bucket of water until you get soup. We can't have fires after 1st of march, so i thought i'd give this a try, saw Alice do it on gardener's world last year. At least i can feed the plants with the soup.
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Have done this (soaking perenial weeds) - it stinks!! Not sure I will keep doing it - think I will try bagging it up for a year or so.....
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There's nothing like a good bonfire!
http://flightplot.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/dscn0919.jpg?w=500&h=375
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Wow flighty bet that felt good! :)
Lushy x
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Yeah couch goes up a treat doesnt it. Recommend one of these.. my favourite garden toy, much better than a bonfire! S0d putting it into a bucket ;)
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Yeah, got one! old and rusty with no bottom tho not smart like yours lewic ;D
Lushy x
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It was actually a plot neighbour's bonfire on a very cold day back in January. It was certainly nice and toasty warm!
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Mine still had the price tag on it in that photo.. its maiden voyage. Looks rather more knackered now!!
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Totally with you on that one Lushy ;D. Luckily I managed to have lots of fires over the winter because I just discovered recently we can't have them between March-Nov. I've been looking at the other vastly overgrown plots on our site with sympathy.
Our pile of weed roots is still growing tho & we've still not really dug over much of the plot. Will have to give soaking them a go.
x
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Another thing i am going to try this year is soaking the weeds i pull out in a bucket of water until you get soup. We can't have fires after 1st of march, so i thought i'd give this a try, saw Alice do it on gardener's world last year. At least i can feed the plants with the soup.
We've got a stupid rule like that as well. The fire brigade had to be called out to a couple of allotments during the drought three summers ago. So instead of bringing in a rule allowing them to enforce a temporary ban on fires during drought conditions, which we'd all have supported, they banned them for six months out of the year. Result is, everyone ignores the rule, and there are going to be problems again in the next drought.
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I love bonfires too - except when people start burning bits of plastic, which some anti-social people on our site have been doing lately. We also have Council rules about bonfires that defy logic and are impossibly complicated:
November-April: Any time (except before 1 pm on Sundays)
May-June: No bonfires at all
July-September: first Wednesday in the month only
October: after 4 pm any day.
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I'm IC bonfires for site debris.. eg when we have hedge laying and so on. I always make the big one coincide with bonfire night. Some members aren't very thoughtful and wait for the warmest/driest holiday weather to generate the most complaints... :-X
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Up until now we have been able to have bonfires from November till March. Next year however bonfires are only going to be allowed during the month of November. I do like to see a bonfire but now that I have breathing probs they have become a nuisance cos we have to leave the plot if anyone close by or in the wrong wind direction starts a fire and as hopalong said some folks burn plastic and the fumes from that wouldn't help a healthy person. We have booked a holiday for 3 weeks in November so it's all worked out ok.
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I love bonfires too - except when people start burning bits of plastic, which some anti-social people on our site have been doing lately. We also have Council rules about bonfires that defy logic and are impossibly complicated:
November-April: Any time (except before 1 pm on Sundays)
May-June: No bonfires at all
July-September: first Wednesday in the month only
October: after 4 pm any day.
What happens before 1pm on a sunday?
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I think you'll find it's called a "religious" covenant... not doing things that clash with divine service. :)
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I think you'll find it's called a "religious" covenant... not doing things that clash with divine service. :)
There you go and i thought it was about waking people up.
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I think you'll find it's called a "religious" covenant... not doing things that clash with divine service. :)
I thought it was about not choking all the people who are NOT at divine service but are working on their allotments instead!
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;D ;D ;D
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Some members aren't very thoughtful and wait for the warmest/driest holiday weather to generate the most complaints... :-X
Thats why we are not allowed bonfires anymore.Not very good when its time to cut the hawthorne hedges.....ever tried bagging that stuff up! :(
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No bonfires anytime for us. :(
It is a pain.
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There used to be a rule on my site that you couldn't have a plot unless you went to church. Fortunately it fell by the wayside way back.
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I love a good bonfire. We have to be careful of which way the wind blows so not to annoy neighbouring houses, also I avoid Sunday mornings as football matches are played on the adjacent playing fields. Think bonfires have to finish by end of this month, otherwise a fine. I am a bit of a coward so wait until 2 or 3 people have bonfires before I light mine.
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I have been of my site for four years and never had a bonfire others do but as Borlotti says our rules say respect the neighbours especially when the wind is blowing towards the houses, some light them and get very smokey because they burn greenery or the heaps are too damp, we have a skip once a year and I recycle all my plantage so have no need to burn. ;D ;D ;D
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I too find burning dried bindweed roots very satistfying! We are not allowed fires May-Sep or any fires on any Sunday. We live in a clean air zone and there is much paranoia about complaints leading to £1000 fines. You are liable for any fines yourself. Since we have been clearing a new plot over winter we have had quite a few fires. I have put broken dry wood (old pallets etc) in so the fire gets really hot, which means that it is burning fast and seems to reduce smoke. Burning anything wet isn't really fair on the neighbours as it is far too smokey.
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Our Council skip is coming on 24 April so can get rid of all the old rubbish I cannot burn. I agree, have burnt dry stuff and when it got hot put some damp stuff on and the smoke was appalling. I always make sure the fire is out with water or covered with earth before I go home or else have nightmares about causing the whole allotment site to burn, in the dry weather. It is better to have one central fire that gets very, very hot and then anything will burn and not give out too much smoke. Luckily most of the stuff will rot down eventually, but my poor brussel sprouts, which had no sprouts or had bolted have very thick stems. I am quite pleased with Enfield Council and they do deliver compost and cut the grass around the allotments, and even cut the trees down when they get too high. Sometimes, if we are really lucky, we get wood chip although one has to be quick. It is amazing how quickly the compost mountain disappears, as everyone is busy with wheelbarrows.
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My first post and it's a moan....sorry :-[
I have one bonfire a year and that's in November. The rest of the time I compost or take diseased material to the tip.
My house backs on to the allotment and I am sick and tired of stinking bonfires as soon as it's a nice day and I want to sit in my garden. Main gripe is coming home after a day out and finding the house stinking of smoke because I've left the windows open and the washing on the line has to be re-done.
The worst offenders are those wretched incinerators, a galvanised bin with a lid and a chimney on top. They can go on smoldering for days. The ignorant bloke that lights this one only ever puts green weeds in so it goes on for ever......well it used to. I now go over the allotments and extinguish his wretched bin.
If it goes on much longer his bin may well disappear from the plot.
The council rules are that bonfires should not be left unattended. They should not be lit if there are people in adjacent gardens or the houses have their windows open. Of course the selfish bloke two plots up from me ignores all of the rules.
There is no need for a bonfire. :-X :-X :-X
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And to think that I always wanted a house that backed on to my allotment. Glad now that I dont have one.
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Welcome to the site Crypto... our house backs onto the lotties and it can be a real pain with the smoke issue... a good day and they turn up trim and burn, no drying out and then wonder why I go nuts... it's a good day there will be people and washing out... ::)
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Bonfires are totally banned on our site now. Initially there was a rule 'no bonfires on Sunday or Monday' and you must not leave them unattended, but it was frequently broken, then 'no bonfires between 1 April and 31 October' but again people ignored this so its now 'no bonfires'. We do have a shredder (a large one) which is used to shred most material which would otherwise have been put on a bonfire - we have a bay for material for shredding and people are supposed (but don't) tell our field manager if they want to put material for shredding here, also if people have a lot of material for shredding, the shredder is taken to their plot. We also have two skips a year, one each end of our site. It mostly works well, except we appear to have one plot holder (or maybe more) who puts material in the shredding bay which doesn't come from the allotments, and we suspect he (they) do gardening work for people and bring the rubbish to us for shredding. But we're watching out for them!
We have houses the whole length of our long thin narrow site and bonfires really caused a nuisance to the occupiers - and also to other plot holders.
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When I had my bonfire it was late in the evening just before dusk on a cold day, I burned dry perennial weeds and would not dream of doing it during the day or on a day when people are likely to be in their gardens. To my knowledge there is no set up for shredding or a skip for waste. When I asked someone where people put unwanted green waste they told me people often dump it on untended plots. This seems a terrible thing to do and will not help the fight against the couch invasion.
Having read the posts I am not sure what the right thing to do is now! ??? ???
Lushy x
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Well, I've crept back here after 24 hours expecting to be shot down in flames and am pleasantly surprised by the general views. Thanks for not shooting me down. Some forums to which I subscribe are all to keen to demolish a new person with unpopular views.
I confine my pyromaniac urges to barbeques which most blokes like, combined with a can of beer, but I always let my neighbours know if they have washing out.
too wet for fires anyway today, was hoping to get some spuds out this weekend. :-[
The joys of gardening..../.... :P
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We tried to have a bonfire on a plot we were clearing, but it wouldn't burn.
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Managed to get a good blaze going this morning before the rain set in. Very satisfying! The OH thinks it's the caveman instinct coming out.
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Brambles go up like nothing else on earth. A few years a go I stuffed a heap of brambles into a barrel to burn, soon after I had 12' purple flames and the heat was so ferocious the grass caught fire, I could barely get close enough to stamp it out, the heat was unbelievable. A plastic bin several metres away melted sufficiently that the water inside started leaking out.
Be careful kids.
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Hi Lushy,
Would love to hear from you! swop gardening tips.
Finding it impossible to send messages on here can email though.
I'm James 38yrs work as a professional gardener 20yrs at local college.
Often grow seeds & cuttings at work to bring home for my garden.
Make my day please James
{email removed by mod}
Cheers james
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I remember reading my great grandads memoirs about his joy of lighting fires. He wrote about starting a small fire in his bakers shop down in London and then falling asleep.
I think it was somewhere in Pudding Lane.
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Wow sawfish you must be really really old if it was your great grandad :P ;D ;D ;D
By the way do any of you know who this James is? I see that he has posted on several other threads trying to 'meet' women - not sure I like it :(
Lushy x
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maybe he thinks it the 'a lot men for all' website?
;)
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I think you'll find it's called a "religious" covenant... not doing things that clash with divine service. :)
Surely religous people are in church before this time, not out on the allotments?
Sounds a bit stupid to me!
There are fires by me when you want them, not sure what the rules are, I haven't had one yet, but am tempted with all of the couch grass, and then I can put the ash back in. Knowing my luck the ruddy allotment site would go up too!
Cheers
Dave
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Are bonfires really necessary do you not have green waste collected?
I compost most things. Nettles go in a bucket for fertilzer, this leaves bindweed, which I wrap in newspaper and throw out in the food waste bin.