Most people are aware of the dire health effects of sending sooty smoke into the air.
It is a firey ( ha ha ) topic that has been hotly debated over at The Garden Rant blogsite as well at several other garden related blogs.
I'm not here to fire up the debate again but to offer up an environmentally sound and attractive alternative to burning wood this summer in those wood burning fire bowls that for many people sit unused in the back yard.
My most favorite option is simply drilling a couple of drainage holes in the fire bowl and plant it with succulents and or any other favorite plant.
A second alternative is to easily convert the fire pit from smokey wood burning to clean burning propane.
It's fast to turn on + off, doesn't create unhealthful smokey pollution, you don't stink like a camp fire after the evening is over, and its safe.
But back to the planting alternative, .... I just potted up this old abandoned firepit bowl. I used lots of succulent cuttings from the garden and popped an ornamental grass in the center ( chrondropetalum tectorum )
Over the spring and summer it will fill out nicely and if I feel the need to sit around a fire I have another small urn with a can of denatured alcohol to create a flame in a bed of colored glass pebbles or I'll just light a serving tray of candles.
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