Bonfire Ash

[dennis]

No hellebores then? They can be really nasty.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Golly. Dozens of the things. Wife loves em. Wondered why I have been feeling ill all year.

[Jules]

I am incredibly glad that I'd just finished my tea.

[Rick Hughes]

down smell a tad) .... then leave it over winter.

read loads of articles on line about Lime being the ideal additive to break down clay ? "Traditionally Lime was used on clay soils this makes the soil more friable ... "

[Rick Hughes]

I'll do that .... annoying thing is I live on the coast .. and surrounded by sand ... but been told that is not an option due to salt content.

[The Natural Philosopher]

THAT is sad.

and very correct.

unless you wash it with a hose somewhere fr a day or twenty ;-)

shingle may be OK tho.

less salt per unit aggregate as it were.

[Andy Dingley]

On 6 Oct, 15:33, The Natural Philosopher wrote: .

There's nothing _really_ that toxic amongst endemic UK green plants. Look at the Western Australian "poison peas" - those things contain sodium fluoracetate!

[Tim W]

Rick Hughes wibbled on Tuesday 06 October 2009 20:11

I though CaSO4 (gypsum) was the thing to use on clay. ie collect all the old sacks of lumpy plaster that people are throwing out then sprinkle on and/or dig in. It's supposed to bind the clay into smaller lumps aiding drainage.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Hemlock is a killer. and so are most of the solanaceaes that contain belladonna (atropine) type alkaloids.

Monkshood. I forgot monkshood.

[The Natural Philosopher]

yeah that works better without affecting acidity levels too much..

lime*stone* is used a bit here, and chalk for that reason. But its large scale stuff. Not quite what you want for a garden bed.

I've used it to fill boggy areas (limestone) lifting the topsoil above the water table.

[Stuart Noble]

If money's no object, or your garden is very small (like mine), vermiculite or perlite is the perfect soil conditioner IME.

[Jim]

She is complaining about arsenic poisoning cause by CCA (arsenic) treated wood being burned or landfilled or coming into contact with people.

But it's not been used for years - the tanalised timber widely used nowadays uses a copper based treatment.

[Jules]

Where is she based? CCA was only phased out here in the US about 5 years ago in favour of ACQ and then MCA and MCQ. I think it did vanish in Europe a *lot* earlier, though...

5 years is recent enough that there's probably still a lot of scrap around.

[Jim]

She is Canadian.

I think CCA was restricted in the EU to things like telegraph poles in 2003.

Sure - but I think if we're talking about burning offcuts from DIY jobs then the arsenic poisoning risk is historical.

[Rick Hughes]

damn French get everywhere.

[Jules]

No idea then, but it's possible they only ditched it relatively recently like the US, I suppose.

Does seem like it. I can imagine there might be cases where people are doing DIY jobs like rebuilding their decks, say - and they just burn the old that they tear out, which will likely be CCA. But that's not really "offcuts" :-)

[narsanam]

[narsanam]

[Clot]

Bad form responding like this, I know. But last Sunday, the wind had dropped, the forecast for this week was not good with significant wet stuff predicted and there was about 20 cubic metres of compacted dry brash in the garden that was not fit for an open domestic fire. Came 17.00 hrs with no clothes on adjacent lines and folk retreating to their houses. I started the bonfire.

Less than a cubic metre ignited and all was well with no smoke but much heat and some ash going into the air. I gradually fed the rest on to the fire completing the burn within 50 minutes with no smoke. If I had left it another day, all would be wet.

Concerned, I looked at the cars for ash and all round the garden to find minimal and then around the locality. Could be that it went further afield but having spoken to neighbours this week they were not aware that we had a bonfire.

All "soft stuff" is composted whether from the garden or the kitchen and suitable logs given to those that have suitable fires.

[Andrew Gabriel]

A few years ago, a colleague at work had a large bonfire and a lot of the material was cuttings for fir trees. Anyway, to cut a long storey short, it rained later that night, and the combination of rain and settled ash destroyed the paintwork on several neighbours' cars. He had to pay to have them all resprayed, or at least his home insurers did, and it was damn expensive. It was only newer cars which were affected (including one brand new one). The ash on older car paintwork didn't damage it.