Have a Garden Friendly Bonfire Night

Wrapped up warm, standing around a bonfire, sparkler in hand…there’s nothing quite like Bonfire night. More and more families are opting to celebrate Bonfire Night at home this year and, whilst your family will probably love having their own personal bonfire, your garden might not appreciate it as much. Let the garden experts at Artificial Grass Direct help you have a garden-friendly bonfire night with this handy guide.

Make Sure Your Garden is Suitable

First things first, make sure your garden is suitable for an at home bonfire and/or firework display. This means ensuring there is enough space for you and your family to safely retreat to when lighting fireworks. For most garden variety fireworks this amounts to roughly 8 meters, whereas for bigger “display” fireworks this could be up to 25 meters; make sure you’re buying the right fireworks for the space you have available.

Check that there are no flammable materials within your fireworks’ safety radius such as plant clippings or even sheds and make sure your fireworks aren’t likely to crash into any overhead tree branches on the way up.

Protect Your Turf from Fire

If you have artificial grass we recommend swapping your bonfire out for a safer alternative such as a fire pit. Fire pits are often raised above the ground (and can be set atop concrete slabs for extra protection) and can provide sufficient heat and lighting for night-time garden activity.

Keep Fireworks Off Your Lawn

The simplest way to protect your lawn from firework damage is to use a combination of concrete blocks and slabs. We recommend using concrete slabs as a flat surface to light your firework on, as this will protect artificial turf, and then using heavy concrete blocks to stabilise your fireworks when setting them off. It’s important to protect a much larger area of your garden than just the space underneath your firework as fireworks can travel slightly in any direction on their way up, damaging the lawn underneath.

Dispose of Fireworks and Sparklers Safely

One of the easiest ways to damage your garden is by improperly disposing of fireworks and sparklers. Discarded sparklers and firework debris can easily melt artificial turf, resulting in an increased fire risk. Make sure you have buckets of water to douse and cool sparklers in before transferring them, along with any firework remains, into a bucket filled with sand. Keep all heated materials here overnight then dispose of with your regular rubbish the following day.