Late Winter Burn In Perennial Garden Beds - February 2024

Here's something that I've never done:  burned parts of my garden beds.  Each Fall, I do a clean-up that includes mulching in A LOT of my leaves.  I also add a big number of mulched leaves to my compost bins.  And, I typically try to 'blow out' my beds into the lawn where I run them over with the mower.  I then...blow them 'back on' the beds.  A modified 'leave the leaves' that works for me.  

Then there's the Oak trees.  They hold their leaves WELL past the time that I've called it quits with Fall clean-up.  

So come late Winter, our beds are filled with leaves.  

Over the past few years, I've tried using a weed propane torch to burn up some weeds.  In lieu of herbicides, the torch is supposed to be 'better' for the world that chemicals.  

But, I also thought....maybe I could burn up some of the dried leaves laying around my beds.  And, it didn't take me long to learn that I certainly could.  Here's a photo showing the leaves going up in flames pretty easily:

I tried this in a few spots, but tried to be careful to not let the fires get to big/out of control.  I also tried to keep them away from any wood stems. 

Below is a wider look at some of the ash that has been left behind by the process:

This is new (to me).  You read about prescribed burning.  And all of the benefits.  But, I've never done anything like this - and I just did a few little areas.   What does burning parts of your perennial garden get you?  The fire can destroy any weed seeds and pathogens that might exist.  It also returns carbon to the soil and....can (we'll see) produce bigger/healthier plants.  

With my little trial out of the way, my plan is to go back out there, rake some of the remaining leaves into sections that are away from the fence, away from wood stems.  And...have 'breaks' in them.  I can then go around, starting little fires and will be able to manage them on my own.