My Gardening Flame Thrower!

Posted by Katie Elzer-Peters
January 29th, 2009
Filed in Weed Control
Tags: Weed Control

I have, apparently, piqued the interest of Chris, re: My Gardening Flame Thrower. See, I decided to write about this unique method of weed control about a week ago, so I opened up the blog and put in the title so that I would remember to write the post. Apparently, Chris has not experienced the fun of fire in the garden! Put on your safety goggles. Here we go.

Fire at Fort Ticonderoga

I used to be the Curator of Landscape at Fort Ticonderoga.  I really loved taking care of The King’s Garden, the restored, 1920s era formal flower garden.  You can see pictures here.  The new Curator, Heidi, is doing a superb job.  One part I don’t miss is trying to control the weeds in the yards and yards of brick walkways, all of which had been re-laid as part of the restoration in the late ’90s, early 2000s.  In order to not remove all of the sand between the bricks, we had to be careful about hand-pulling the weeds, limiting hand-weeding to weeds with huge taproots, like dandelions.  I wasn’t then, as I’m not now, a fan of spraying glyphosate everywhere, so I had to come up with other options.  Basically, that option was a torch attached to a propane tank, and a staff member, I’ll call him “Joe.”  (His name has been changed to protect his privacy.  I’m not kidding.  One time, we had the local news at the Garden and he didn’t want to be on camera.  I think he was joking, but I’m not entirely sure.) A torch from Red Dragon is a popular model.

Joe was diligent about his weed-burning task.  Sometimes, I would walk into the garden and the smell of singed roses would greet me.  These would be the roses that had lived through abandonment, drought, flooding, restoration, lifting, moving and 80 years of neglect and abuse.  Singed.  Smouldering. Smoking.  Did you know that lavender smells lovely when it is on fire?  Chipmunks love toasted hollyhock seeds just as much as they love them straight off the plant.

The one thing I can say about the weed burning, though, is that it worked.  It was the only thing that worked.  The masons were not a fan of this weed control method, because it was their torch we kept taking.  It isn’t the most cost-effective solution when you have so much area to cover.  It is, however, great if you have a relatively small driveway or sidewalk that has weed issues.  Here’s the skinny on using a weed burning torch in your garden.

Weeding with Fire

• Soil insulates the roots of the plant well, so it may take a couple of times of knocking the weed down and letting it grow back, only to knock it down again.  Eventually, you will exhaust the resources of the weed.
• Don’t use the fire around mulch.  This should go without saying, but you would be surprised.  Mulch, leaves and dry plant material can catch on fire and burn quickly.
• Wear safety glasses.
• Using a torch is easiest in areas of sidewalks, driveways and other paved areas.
• Use a torch that connects to a full-size propane tank.  Do not use a backpack propane tank.  Do you really want to wear a pressurized, highly flammable gas on your back?  Didn’t think so.

UPDATE: I found this great example on Amazon. I gave it a try out and the results were amazing, but most of all it’s GREAT FUN! There’s no better way to feel in command of your garden than spraying it with fire (responsibly of course).