Grow your own fire wood?

[Elizabeth]

Do any of you grow your own fire wood?

What do you grow?

How long do you dry it for?

[Clara]

We harvest our own wood but that's not quite the same thing I guess, as it was already here.

Ash is favoured for coppicing, though there was a thread a while back on doing this with willow because it is much faster growing.

Do you have any trees at the moment? Where are you going to plant if not? Can you afford to buy a small piece of woodland to get you started.

Most importantly make sure you know how to use a chainsaw properly before you even start.

[red]

Most importantly make sure you know how to use a chainsaw properly before you even start.

unless you are not planning on using a chainsaw. we don't - have been laying hedges by hand, using bow saws and bill hook

I advise contacting a local nursery (the kind that supply hedging trees etc, not garden centre... local council have a tree warden who can point you to someone) - try Perrie Hale in Devon, and talk to them about the area you have in mind, how water logged it is, high etc. and they will be able to give you infor on the right type of trees to grow

[Elizabeth]

We will already have some trees to cut down.

Thanks for the advice on how much water there is in the area will try Perrie Hale.

We have been investigating range cookers today, very excited.

Luckily my hubby is great with all saws!! I'm only any good with an axe!!

[contadino]

There are loads of resources about forestry on the web - coppicing, green woodworking, and wood yields for firewood by species. The best trees depend entirely on your climate. I harvest wood from our olive trees, and sell the excess around my neighbours. A summer is all the seasoning it needs - but then it's over 40 here for 6 weeks of the year. Obviously it would be completely different for you.

There's a great firewood buyers guide online from some Canadian government agency, which is perhaps more useful. It tells you how to tell whether wood is seasoned just by looking. If I can find the link again I'll post it up.

[possum]

we have eucalyptus, pine and tree lucerne. It only takes about 6 months to dry, but for the UK i would leave it a couple of years.

[JulieSherris]

We've had to cut down a LOT of trees this winter.... now, Ash we are burning green with no problems, and sometimes, other woods get caught in the ash pile... they get burnt too, but in a closed range - I wouldn't like to burn too much green on an open fire.

The rest of the wood is being chopped & stacked for next year & beyond.
Seasoned wood should take at least 1 year, but if you can be patient & season it for 2 years, it will burn much better & much hotter.

Good luck with it!