The Autumn Bonfire
Today is another bonfire day. It's autumn (fall) and I have heaps and heaps of dry rubbish to burn. My plan is as basic (and potentially boring) as the gardening day is long.
Severe Boredom Alert
Warning - this page attempts to describe a mundane, tedious process, and therefore carries a severe boredom alert. But there's also some good news - there are photographs!
And before any readers jumps up and down about air quality, and asks me why I don't compost... The rubbish consists of gum tree leaves, bark, and branches, dead Cordyline and Phormium leaves, and shrub prunings which are too small and annoying for the shredder. There are no green weeds, and certainly nothing which could be added to the compost. Honestly! Well - maybe just a few trimmings from the dahlias, and a few old tomato plants...
Here Comes the Trailer
Several piles of burnable rubbish have been lurking underneath the Leyland Hedge for months. Several garden areas (the Hen House Gardens, the wattle Woods) have big Eucalypt trees overhead, and these have been shedding pieces of themselves for months. And so their paths need raking, and gum leaves are spoiling their lawns. My wheelbarrow can cope with these. But the big stuff needs a trailer!
Gum Tree Rubbish
Some months ago I cleared gum tree rubbish off the ground to make the extension to the Shrubbery Garden in the Hump. Now the piles of mess need to be woman-handled into the back of the trailer, which is then driven (via the car) to the burning heap, the trailer backed expertly (not by me, I regret to say) past the Dog Kennel Garden en route.
Head Gardener Starts to Burn
The burning heap is already a conical 'volcano' of smouldering ash, situated by the water race, and cannot be allowed to get much bigger. I've been burning now for three full days, and the Moosey hair, clothes, and house are all slightly smoky. But surely my garden is better!
Another Loop in the Spiral of Garden Life
And on the horizon (aargh!) is a huge pre-winter rainstorm, forecast to arrive tonight. Thus the ash heap will be soaked through, and can be shovelled back onto the garden from whence its constituents came. Ha! Another loop in the Spiral of Garden Life.
Ha! The Autumn Bonfire.
The Garden is dead - long live the Garden...