Quickest way to burn logs, grass & branches?

[Mentalguy2k8]

Spent most of the day feeding crap through a new garden shredder, all I'm left with is a huge pile of cuttings that are too small to shred, various halves of trees that are too big to shred, and dried crap/grass.

I've made the executive decision to burn the f***ing lot, but can't decide whether to buy an incinerator or just build a big heap on the ground and torch it. There's plenty of stuff here that'll need sawing up to fit in an incinerator, but on the other hand I don't want to leave a big scorch mark on the grass (which is the only place to do it with enough space around). Although I can live with it, it'll grow back one day.

What's the expert opinion? Will it burn quicker if it's "free" rather than in a dustbin with holes in? I just want shot of the lot now, don't really care how, and balls to the neighbours they ought to be at work tomorrow.

[Mr Pounder]

Our council give us a "free" garden wheelie bin. Not in the south are you?

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[Nick Odell]

If you are going to pile it up in a big heap and set fire to the lot. you should first check which way your telephone wires run. Don't ask me how I know this.

Nick

[Phil L]

Slice the turf off a 5ft by 5ft patch and roll it up, build the fire on the soil and burn the lot in one go, you may have to adjust the unburned log-ends to get rid of everything. Leave the ground to cool down for a few days, water it, then re-lay the turf

[meow2222]

If it'll burn, save yourself the time & hassle & scorching and freecycle it. The rest just spread it about and it'll vanish, or pile it up out of the way.

Incinerators are inevitably slower, and still scorch the ground, just less so. I don't bother with them.

NT

[Mentalguy2k8]

Yes but it's 70 quid a year for a fortnightly collection and I've already missed 4 months of it. Most of this stuff won't fit in a bin unless I spend days sawing it up anyway.

[Mr Pounder]

The bins hold quite a lot. The joys of living in the south 'eh?

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[Mentalguy2k8]

From what I've seen, they're the same size as the big black wheelies. But you pay 70 quid and that only takes you up to the next January, whether it's February or December. I might sign up just to get rid of the small stuff. I'll see if I've got any garden left after my dangerous bonfire tomorrow

[The Natural Philosopher]

this weather leave it a few weeks to get the worst of the moisture out, pour some diesel (NOT petrol*) on it, and light blue touch paper.

we torched all the scrap ends of a tatty maple a couple of months ago about 6 weeks after it had been felled and turned into sticks. Took a but of leylandii and some old boxes to start it (no diesel) but it went. old candle stubs perched on top will also hget it going nicely,..

*Really, don't even THINK about petrol . I used it once and am fortunate not to have the scars to show for it.

[alan]

+1

[Mr Pounder]

Yes, they are about the same size as our northern brown wheelie bins. I have got rid of tons of crap in them, sometimes slowly but always surely. Sorry about the crack about the south, I'm becoming a grumpy old racist. Make sure you have a hose pipe available to put out the fire which is going to engulf your house :-) Seriously ...

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[DerekG]

The rest just spread it about and it'll vanish, or pile it up out of the way.

I don't bother with them.

The galvanising burned off the tinny effort I got from B & Q the first time I used it and it went red rusty the first time it rained.

It was rusted out altogether within 1 season. :-(

I'd sell the logs / wood on EBAY and as for the rubbish too small to shred, well that's just rubbish - fodder for the black bin innit ?

DerekG

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Wassa problem? Stand well back and throw some alit at it.

[Bill]

In message , Grimly Curmudgeon writes

---------The problem is that it is unpredictable.---------

I had a 40 gallon drum that was used to burn cardboard boxes, we had a lot of them. One day they had been left in the bin overnight and got damp. A splash of petrol and a match to, luckily, a hole in the bottom of the drum and the resulting explosion propelled burning cardboard boxes onto the roof of the building. Also used a splash to start a bonfire, the first match blew out, the second match blew out, the third match lit and I threw a piece of burning rolled up paper at the bonfire. Will all the delay the petrol fumes had spread a good ten feet away from the fire, I was about five feet away. It was interesting in a perverse sort of way.

-----------The problem is that it is unpredictable.-----------

I'm still living and somewhat surprisingly still in one piece and unmarked, from fire anyway. But I would be very wary about using petrol for anything apart from in engines.

[Clive George]

I use it in camping stoves, but they are designed for it :-)

Isn't diesel a decent accelerant for fires?

[Brian Gaff]

Here it costs 55 quid a year.

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

What a pity you can'tjust buy Thermite innit?

Brian

[The Natural Philosopher]

I did.

its instructional to see how big a fireball a cupful of petrol fully converted to vapour can make

[Martin Brown]

It will only burn sensibly quickly if it is all tinder dry. I would say you are completely stuffed now for at least another fortnight.

Start with the thin bits until you build up a bed of charcoal and then you can burn pretty much anything. The grass where the bonfire was will always look different afterwards even if you use the same seed. The ground acquires a fair amount of potash from the fire ash.

If you burn it wet you will only succeed in generating lots of smelly smoke and annoyed neighbours. Perhaps that is your unstated intention?

[Martin Brown]

It tends to explode in a wide range of fuel air mixtures rather than providing a steady flame that imparts heat. Way too many people have been killed using or throwing petrol onto hard to start bonfires.

You would never sell petrol to the general public today if it was not already common practice to do so. It is far too dangerous and volatile! (even has its own exception for the high carcinogenic benzene content)

The latter problem with unleaded fuel caused Perrier some grief after their carbonated water aquifer started picking it up.

Kerosene is a lot more forgiving if you must use it, but newspaper and a properly constructed bonfire of dry material is by far the best way.