Doing A Little Bit of Burning - Ornamental Grasses - Spring Clean-Up - March 2025

I've had a weed-burning torch for a couple of seasons and I've used it in various ways - mostly to burn-out weeds on the patio and in the lawn when I didn't want to use a herbicide.  But, starting last Spring I introduced trying to do a tiny bit of a 'controlled burn' in some of our beds.  Here's a post from just a couple days over a year ago showing the 'controlled burn' of some of the leaf litter left behind from Fall and carried over through Winter.  

I also burned up some of my compost bin last year, too.  I don't think I'll be doing that again.

But, I am going to keep going on some of the bed burns.  I started this weekend by burning out some of the area at the corner of the patio.  This spot is home to three Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses.  After cutting those down to their crowns, I used the torch to burn up some of the leaf material and the dried blades of the grasses.    You can see in the photo that I didn't let this fire get out of control - both due to being right on top of it (stomping it out) and the fact that much of the material is still a tiny bit damp and drying out from the snow melt.  

I'll do even more of this 'controlled burning' this weekend.   My thinking is that I'll be leaving behind some of the leaf litter while burning down some of it - which leaves organic material behind.  Best of both worlds, maybe??