FRIENDLYFIRE
Be environmentally wise and build a smoke-free pyre this Bonfire Night. The planet will thank you for it, says Alan
Alan Titchmarsh
As a general rule, bonfires have disappeared from the caring gardener’s repertoire. Well, they aren’t green. These days we are meant to compost all our rubbish, recycle it or send it to an approved amenity tip for proper disposal. You can’t have stinking great clouds of smoke belching out, adding to global warming, creating a myriad of health and safety hazards and upsetting the neighbours.
But it has to be said, most gardeners look back on the fire-raising days of their youth with wry affection. It was satisfying to pile up your hedge clippings, perennial weeds, brambles and other hard-to dispose of stuff, heave a can of paraffin over the lot and let rip with a box of matches. A real virtuoso would have no compunction about adding a few old fertiliser bags and the old armchair from the shed. Absolutely disgraceful, of course, and not to be contemplated for an instant, today.
However, Guy Fawkes Night is different. For one night of the year you can build a bonfire with a clear conscience, if you go about it with care. The first essential is a safe site, well away from anything inflammable – like the shed or the hedge. Clear the area of any undergrowth and dig a shallow depression, which should help prevent anything falling out.
Collect up some suitable material. You want offcuts of untreated timber, tree or shrub prunings and dead, woody stems cut from perennial plants. All your material needs to be bone-dry in order to burn well with as little smoke as possible, so collect it in advance and put it in a shed or cover it with a large tarpaulin sheet.
If the children insist on having a guy, make a natural one out of hay tied in shape with garden string and if you want to dress it, stick to natural cotton that will burn without the smell and smoke of synthetic fibres. Alternatively, let them make one to use for fundraising purposes and
keep it offside for decoration.
Don’t assemble the bonfire until the last hour or two before you want to light it, otherwise small creatures such as frogs and hedgehogs may crawl underneath, so it’s a death trap when you light up. Build your bonfire as if you were laying a fire in the grate in your living room.
Light the bonfire just before the party starts. Once it’s going well, you can throw on more wood to make it last longer, which is much safer than putting the lot on to start with. And a bonfire isn’t over when the fireworks have finished. The person in charge must make sure the fire is out, but instead of soaking the ashes with the hose, which produces smoke and mess, shovel plain earth over them instead. It’s just good 21st century bonfire etiquette.