We have cut down a conifer hedge, sorted out burnable firewood and shredded a lot of trimmings. We have reached our limit of patience with shredding, so we need to have a bonfire. The best available space for the fire is close to where the old hedge was. We intend to plant a new deciduous hedge there in a couple of months - hawthorn plus some species from blackthorn, crab apple, dog rose, dogwood, field maple, guelder rose, hazel, spindle, sweet briar, wayfaring tree. Are we poisoning or enriching the soil (or neither) by having the bonfire there?

Oh, we have no neighbours, so the bonfire will not be a nuisance.

Many thanks, as always. I know I ask a lot of questions - I've definitely taken on, as a novice, a big job with this garden - and I appreciate all your help.

Laura (on not-very-acidic soil in Fife)

On Oct 1, 4:44*pm, Laura Corin Laura.Corin.
wrote:
We have cut down a conifer hedge, sorted out burnable firewood and
shredded a lot of trimmings. *We have reached our limit of patience with
shredding, so we need to have a bonfire. *The best available space for
the fire is close to where the old hedge was. *We intend to plant a new
deciduous hedge there in a couple of months - hawthorn plus some species
from blackthorn, crab apple, dog rose, dogwood, field maple, guelder
rose, hazel, spindle, sweet briar, wayfaring tree. *Are we poisoning or
enriching the soil (or neither) by having the bonfire there?

Oh, we have no neighbours, so the bonfire will not be a nuisance.

Many thanks, as always. *I know I ask a lot of questions - I've
definitely taken on, as a novice, a big job with this garden - and I
appreciate all your help.

Laura (on not-very-acidic soil in Fife)

--
Laura Corin

Wood ash is a useful source od potassium (fertiliser) I would shovel
up as much as possible and spread it round the garden.
Don't burn pressure treated wood, it contains arsenic. BTW.
Or painted wood, old paint contains lots of nasties.

On Sat, 1 Oct 2011 15:44:11 +0000, Laura Corin
wrote:


We have cut down a conifer hedge, sorted out burnable firewood and
shredded a lot of trimmings. We have reached our limit of patience with
shredding, so we need to have a bonfire. The best available space for
the fire is close to where the old hedge was. We intend to plant a new
deciduous hedge there in a couple of months - hawthorn plus some species
from blackthorn, crab apple, dog rose, dogwood, field maple, guelder
rose, hazel, spindle, sweet briar, wayfaring tree. Are we poisoning or
enriching the soil (or neither) by having the bonfire there?

Oh, we have no neighbours, so the bonfire will not be a nuisance.

Many thanks, as always. I know I ask a lot of questions - I've
definitely taken on, as a novice, a big job with this garden - and I
appreciate all your help.

Laura (on not-very-acidic soil in Fife)

Burn away. The ash will be good for the soil. The only thing I'd
suggest is that if you have a pile of trimmings in one place, burn it
in another - move the pile to the flames. A pile of hedge choppings
will be a very tempting hideaway for lots of creatures and moving to
the bonfire gives them a chance to escape.

Cheers, Jake
================================================== =====
URGling from the less wet end of Swansea Bay in between
sweeping up leaves by the cubic metre!

IMPORTANT: To those seeing this message in Garden Banter
or other "forums": The forum you're in is pulling stuff
from something called Usenet, in particular the UK Rec
Gardening newsgroup.There's a lot more to this but if you
see a message from someone calling himself "Mike" and using
an email address ending "woollies.com" the best thing you can
do is ignore the idiot. He does not, in any way, speak for
the group. He admits that he knows nothing about gardening.
He is simply what the internet calls a ~troll". You have
been warned.

www.rivendell.org.uk

On 01/10/2011 16:44, Laura Corin wrote:
We have cut down a conifer hedge, sorted out burnable firewood and
shredded a lot of trimmings. We have reached our limit of patience with
shredding, so we need to have a bonfire. The best available space for
the fire is close to where the old hedge was. We intend to plant a new
deciduous hedge there in a couple of months - hawthorn plus some species
from blackthorn, crab apple, dog rose, dogwood, field maple, guelder
rose, hazel, spindle, sweet briar, wayfaring tree. Are we poisoning or
enriching the soil (or neither) by having the bonfire there?

Oh, we have no neighbours, so the bonfire will not be a nuisance.

Many thanks, as always. I know I ask a lot of questions - I've
definitely taken on, as a novice, a big job with this garden - and I
appreciate all your help.

Laura (on not-very-acidic soil in Fife)





If you could contrive to have the bonfire along the trench where your
conifer hedge was, it may help to clean up the soil there and finish off
what's left of any stumps or roots, making it easier to plant your new
hedge saplings. When we got rid of a conifer hedge but left all the
stumps, we had an invasion of orange toadstools along the line of the
hedge. Fortunately, they don't appear to have harmed the new hedge.

As to enriching the soil, the best thing your new hedge needs is
bonemeal for root growth. However, provided you put nothing noxious on
the bonfire, the resulting ash should improve the soil slightly.

--
Spider
from high ground in SE London
gardening on clay