Burning lawn
 

I've done a spring burn on a small 3 acre field before, but I have never tried it out on a grass lawn.

My riding mower conked out last summer and the lawn is really overgrown to the point where the rider wouldn't be able to cut it. I've rented one of the brush cutter type mowers before, but that entails a lot of cleanup.

My question is has anyone spring burned their grass lawn, and how did the lawn grow back? If the lawn doesn't grow back right (splotchy, etc.) I'll rent the other mower.

I have about 300 feet of water hose, a sprayer tank with water, and I am familiar with backburning, perimeter burns, and of course correct wind conditions.

Thanks!

Have you contacted the local fire dept.
to see if they will issue a burn permit?

If not . . . stand by.

This could prove interesting.

Burn permit? To burn some grass? Wow, too many regulations everywhere else. Around here if you want to burn your grass, you use some common sense, and burn your grass on a day that isn't windy, and you put some barriers in place to keep it from spreading.
And if it gets out of control, you call fire dept.

Now, burning your lawn isn't something I would recommend if your grass is as out of control as you say. It will end up damaging if not destroying house, garage, ornamental plants, etc.

Sounds like maybe you should find someone to now it for you. Or, fence it in and get some goats.

It will grow back just fine. In fact, if you catch some good rains, it will grow better than it has for years.

As far as burning stuff: If you are as familiar with careful burning as you say you are, go for it.

The experts speak:
http://turf.uark.edu/turfhelp/archiv...g%20Lawns.html

Thanks for the replies. I went out and looked at the lawn and of couse it has already started to green up quite a bit in between the dead grass so it probably wouldn't burn very well. Interesting reading on the link to turf management.

This is what I use when the grass gets too tall for a mower.. makes short work of it..

http://www.self-sufficient.co.uk/Oth...r-strimmer.jpg

Burn permits have more to do with allocation of resources more than anything.
Things can and do get out of control sometimes. A burn permit allows the fire department to control the number of burns so they don't run out of resources for a response.
It's a polite way of telling them they might be needed.

As a person in the lawn business, I would never suggest burning a lawn.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Tapatalk

Burning has always been a method of management for grass. Being raised in the Flint Hills of Kansas we are very familiar with the practice. We are required to get a burn permit number and call in to the local county 911 dispatcher when we are ready to start the burn. This helps the local fire dept and also if some stranger sees smoke and calls 911, the dispatcher knows what is going on.

Couple weeks it will come back nice and green. What is this Burn Permit thing? :confused:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...ot%202/006.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...ot%202/011.jpg

big rockpile

Don't ask me why, but I always pictured the average Arkansas lawn to be a more vertical affair made of rock than a horizontal one made of grass. Not saying it wouldn't be beautiful, cuz I'm sure it is.

This part from the article strikes a coord:

"1) damage to surrounding ornamentals, 2) damage to your or other property from fire,"

Back in my days of living in the suburbs of St. Louie, I remember once when driving out of our subdivison, I saw a guy that was burning his lawn and the fire was headed towards his house. As I was driving by, he was very nonchalantly heading to the garage to fetch a garden hose--probably not wanting to look like a guy that made a foolish mistake. I was thinking, "Man, you better be sprinting for that hose." Being the selfish pig that I was, I drove on past so I could pick up my White Castle. On the way back, his yard was very effectively burnt off. But so where all of his shrubs and bushes. And his siding was all melted. I would've made a mess in my pants.

Sounds like you've got the safety things covered but I feel compelled to repeat them after nearly burning down half a county myself:

1) Have your fire hose armed and ready. We don't get this luxury when burning out in open field. Don't forget it.

2) Rake dead leaves and trim up all areas near shrubs and your house to create a break.

3) Burn against the wind.

As far as the lawn appearance goes, I think it will look awesome if you do it at the right time. What zone are you? It is already too late for us. Too much green is already on its way. The best time (for my zone) is right around early to mid March--before the little green shoots are poking up. (Presuming you want cool season grasses to grow after). I'm not a big fan of burning, but where it seems to do best is in situations where there is rough stubble from weeds of the year before.

Around here the burn permit number is issued by the volunteer rural fire dept, and is good for the season. This gives them a contact to call if anything unexpected comes up. Just before actually starting the fire, I call the local sheriff/911 dispatcher to let them know I will be burning in such and such township and which section. Now if some do-good citizen calls 911 and says "There's a fire over by whosits" The dispatcher knows she doesn't need to send the fire trucks out to investigate. If there is any question she can call me to verify I am still in control of the fire.

Today I got a laugh. I was coming home there was a fire over in a holler. Seen a Forestry Truck behind me. I flagged him by.

He went up, looked around, then turned. I stopped talked to him. He said he was worried about the fire getting up to the clearing. I told him I know the Guy that owns it and he wouldn't care if it burnt. Oh I know he wouldn't but it will get over on Government Land from there.

I told my wife when I got home I knew the Guy was going to call in a whole Crew when two people could get it under control. She asked if I helped him? No they won't let Private Citizens help anymore.

My wife works in the office that takes care of things like this anymore. Like I told her and her Boss with their policies and the way they are trained to fight wild fires anymore there is going to be way more damage and injuries then there has been in the last 100 years depending on dumb hillbillies with Leaf Rakes and Matches :shrug: Like her Boss told her there is only two people in the whole area that he would trust fighting fire with fire it's me and one Guy that works in the office.

When I lived in the woods Forestry would leave me fighting fires over there by myself. They would have a Plane watching me making sure I was doing ok. Only time they sent me help is I had 3 fires at the same time then one of the Guys on their crew about caught me on fire being stupid.

big rockpile

But being a Pyromaniac I do tend to think of fire as a thing of beauty including this one close to us a few years ago :shrug:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...arksonfire.jpg

big rockpile

My neighbor has her land in CRP so had to burn it off this year. Well, she hired a crew who did it yesterday. The wind was directly from her land, some 100 acres to be burned, to my place. I was still in the barn when I smelled the smoke and had to stay out there to finish feeding the animals. I have allergies and some degree of asthma and thought I was going to die before I could get into the house. I had already planned a run into town and fortunately, by the time I got home, the fire was mostly out and the wind took what smoke there was to the south of my house.

The first thing I thought about when I read this post was how absolutely volatile yews can be even when they are fresh. They are a cheap and favored landscape plant and I bet very few people know about their volatility and about their berries being highly toxic. I hate them and have bought 2 houses over the years with them. They didn't last long in either location.

a summer burn is do able and even better for some parts of OK. most of the time in the spring it is way to windy to do a burn the winds have been howling her at 40mph+ some days . some guy burned off 6 days ago and the winds kicked up 2 days ago and it restarted while he was at work. almost burned his neighbors place up.

October thru May here you have to have a burn permit...the rest of the time you dont. Even when we didnt have to have one,I still called the volunteer fire dept and let them know we were burning things.

Burned about 200 acres of native pasture yesterday eve. Too windy all day but wind died down in the evening and the burn went well. Got rid of a lot of red cedar , dogwood, sumac, and buckbrush, and setback a lot of undesirables. That finished this years burning; Now if we can get a good rain this weekend, the pasture will be green in a week. Only negative was the smoke did blow towards town about 3 miles away but only for a short time. Serves them right for all the trash and beer cans they toss along the roadsides. LOL

When we lived on the ridge I seen smoke so thick for days it was like a wall all around. You could hear trees falling for day and nights. But this was thousands of acres burning.

big rockpile

It will come back good and green and its a good time to plant seeds.

Suggestions:

1) Burn in 'patches' with the perimeter wetted to prevent it from growing too big.
2) Burn late in the day. The wind is usually not as bad and you can see any flying embers. Seeing if the embers burn out in the air or falling back to ground hot will help prevent pop up fires. Also it will allow you to make sure the area is completely out before you leave (see #3)
3) It isn't out until there's standing water, steam but no smoke and you can't see a single red spot. Fires have a nasty habit of playing possum.