Hey d, you may be aware of some of my crustier views on "prairie restoration" from elsewhere on GW, but truth be told, I am involved in a great deal of prairie maintenance, including burns. We contract much of our maint. work out and to a very good firm I might add. FWIW-and this could be a regional specificity-spring is when the vast majority of prairie burns take place for us here in the north. One of our goals with these burns is to inhibit cool-season grasses, many of which are non-native, and therefore on our bad list. It's always a balancing act between getting conditions suitable for these burns, not having valuable native forbs coming up yet (nearly impossible, I'm afraid) and hopefully having a good stand of the cool-season junk present to get nipped by the flames. I'd be interested in hearing your-or anyone's really-account of what objectives are met by fall burning. And to be complete, some fall burning can and does take place up here. I've never requested it personally in our system but I came close this year, with a big "flood storage area" that is exhibiting poor plant community make-up at present. We've since come up with another plan, so no fall burn there-otherwise we'd have done so. If you have the time, would you lay out your objectives with a fall burn? I know woody "invaders"-a highly nuanced term in my book!-are likely one of your targets. anything else at this time of year? Thanks, +oM

Most companies have a max. burn time rating for each product. These tend to be a little on the optimistic side... The trouble is a really long lasting fire tends to be a 'cool' fire [so to speak], which means more smoke, more polution, creoste, and a higher chance of chimney fire due to incomplete combustion, etc. 6 hours sounds unlikely to me for a fire box this size, though I'm no expert. But if you burn a hotter fire for a shorter time, it has the potential to raise the room temp enough that your central heat won't come on for at least 6 hours...

I went on ahead today and snipped the still-soft and growing tops of the rosemary and put them in seed starter to try to grow them as cuttings again. I checked the roots of all my rosemary and all are brown and appear to have been burned by the fertilizer. They have all been indoors the whole time. I was not going to move them outside until the spring when I can harden them off and then keep them outside. When I planted the cuttings in January, I just put them in what appears to be a top-quality seed starting mix that one reviewer who compared seed starter mixes said had almost 100% germination when he used it. I read on the back of the bag that it can also be used for rooting cuttings, so I used it. The company is called Coast of Maine and the seed starter mix is their Sprout Island Organic Seed Starter, if you want to check them out. They use lobster shell, kelp, and other organic leavings from the seafood and marine industries in Maine in their seed starter and other products. They suggested keeping the rosemary cuttings inside plastic bags (I used ziplock bags) that are mostly closed, with a little bit open for air circulation, while they developed their roots, then transplant them to pots with potting soil. So, that is what I did with the cuttings, then transplanted them to individual terra cotta pots with Coast of Maine's Bar Harbor Premium Potting Soil in them. I would say 80-90% of my herb and vegetable seeds have germinated and they and all of my rosemary cuttings have grown like wildfire with this seed starter and potting soil, but this is my first time doing all of this.

We had wood burning, and while I very much enjoyed the sights, sounds, warmth of a wood burning fire, we converted to gas. I do not miss the dusting, vacuuming, cleaning the fireplace. While we had wood, we were able to cut our own firewood which was a satisfying project at our ages then. I suppose we could still do it now, but cutting, loading, hauling and splitting wood aren't very high on my list of satisfying chores these days - and ordering, buying firewood has become expensive. Truthfully, we don't use the gas fireplace that often. This sprawled out one story house (1955) isn't hard to heat with natural gas radiant in the ceilings. I have the fire going during storms, or for the ambiance occasionally and when expecting winter guests and wanting the house to feel welcoming.