Firewood is not just a winter product. The assumption that logs belong in the wood store from October to March and nowhere else is one that thousands of garden owners across the UK have cheerfully discarded, and for good reason. The firepit, the outdoor pizza oven, and the chiminea have transformed the British garden into a space that can be enjoyed long into the evening regardless of the season, and the best of those evenings begin with good, dry, properly seasoned firewood.
This article is for anyone who enjoys their outdoor space in summer and wants to make the most of it. Whether you already have a firepit that gets occasional weekend use or you are thinking about adding an outdoor cooking setup or fire feature to your garden, understanding firewood, how it is produced, what makes it burn well, and how to choose loose hardrwood logs and store it correctly, is the foundation of everything else.
The Summer Case for Firewood
Summer evenings in the UK can be spectacular, but they rarely stay warm after dark. The temperature drop that follows a clear July or August sunset is enough to send most people indoors, or to the cupboard for another layer, within an hour of the sun going down. A firepit or outdoor fire changes this calculation entirely. The warmth, the light, and the particular atmosphere of an open fire outdoors extend the useful evening by hours and create the kind of gathering that people remember.
In North Wales, where summer evenings can be genuinely beautiful but also unpredictably cool, especially in coastal and upland areas, this is not a luxury observation. The ability to be outside at nine or ten in the evening, warm and comfortable around a fire, while the sky over the Conwy Valley or the Llyn Peninsula does its best work, is one of the great pleasures of living in or visiting this part of the world.
Beyond warmth, fire has a social quality that few other garden features can match. A firepit draws people together, creates a natural focal point, and produces the kind of relaxed, unhurried conversation that is harder to achieve in other settings. Add an outdoor kitchen or pizza oven and you have the ingredients for the kind of summer evening that actually justifies the effort of having a garden in the first place.
Firepits: Choosing, Positioning, and Getting the Best From Them
The firepit market has expanded enormously over the past decade, ranging from inexpensive pressed-steel bowls to substantial cast iron and corten steel structures that are designed to last for decades and look good doing it. Choosing the right firepit for your garden and getting the most from it begins with a few practical considerations.
Size and Material
A small, lightweight steel firepit will work perfectly well for occasional use and is easy to move and store. For regular or serious use, a heavier gauge steel or cast iron pit is worth the investment: it retains heat better, burns more consistently, and will not warp or deteriorate after a season’s use the way thinner materials can. Corten steel, which develops a distinctive rust-coloured patina over time, has become popular for its combination of durability and aesthetic character.
Consider the diameter carefully in relation to the number of people you typically have around it. A pit that is too small for the group creates competition for warmth; one that is generously sized but used only by two people feels wasteful. For most gardens and typical group sizes, a diameter of around sixty centimetres is a practical and versatile choice.
Positioning in the Garden
Position the firepit on a non-combustible surface or ground, well clear of overhanging trees, fencing, and any garden structure. Three metres of clearance in all directions is the commonly recommended minimum, though in a smaller garden this requires careful consideration. Check with your local authority or your property’s title conditions if you are uncertain about any restrictions on open fires.
Wind direction is a practical consideration that is easy to overlook. A firepit placed where the prevailing wind blows smoke toward the house or into the main seating area will be used far less than one positioned to carry smoke away from where people gather. Spending a few evenings observing where the wind tends to come from before fixing the position of a permanent firepit is time well spent.
Lighting and Maintaining a Good Firepit Fire
A firepit fire that smokes excessively, struggles to establish, or burns out quickly and leaves you constantly feeding it is almost always the result of wet or poorly seasoned wood. Dry, kiln-dried firewood that lights easily and burns cleanly is the single biggest factor in the quality of a firepit experience. The best firepit setup in the world will underperform if the wood going into it has not been properly dried.
Start with kindling: thin, dry pieces of wood that catch quickly and generate enough heat to ignite the larger logs above them. Natural firelighters alongside kindling are far preferable to accelerants, which are dangerous and unnecessary with properly dry wood. Build a loose structure that allows air to circulate through the fire rather than packing logs tightly together: a teepee arrangement for the kindling, followed by progressively larger logs as the fire establishes, is reliable and effective.
Outdoor Pizza Ovens: Firewood as a Cooking Fuel
The outdoor pizza oven has become one of the most popular garden additions in the UK over the past five years, and for good reason. A wood-fired pizza oven produces a quality and character of pizza that a domestic kitchen oven simply cannot replicate, and the experience of cooking over real wood fire, managing the temperature, reading the flame, and producing food that tastes genuinely of the fire is something that electric or gas alternatives do not offer.
But a pizza oven is more demanding of its wood than a simple firepit, and understanding what it needs is essential if you are going to use yours to its full potential.
Why Wood Moisture Content Matters for Cooking
A pizza oven needs to reach temperatures of between 350 and 500 degrees Celsius to cook pizza properly, and it needs to maintain that temperature consistently across a cooking session. Wet wood cannot achieve this. Wood with high moisture content burns at a lower temperature, produces more smoke, releases less heat per kilogram, and leaves the oven dome blackened with soot rather than clean and clear. Beyond the performance impact, wet wood in a cooking context produces creosote deposits in the flue and contributes to smoke flavours in the food that are unpleasant rather than the clean wood-smoke character that properly dried wood delivers.
Kiln-dried wood with a moisture content below twenty percent is the correct fuel for a wood-fired pizza oven. This is not a preference but a performance requirement. In the UK, wood sold as Ready to Burn under the government’s scheme must have a moisture content of twenty percent or below, and this is the standard to insist on.
Hardwood Versus Softwood for Cooking
Hardwoods such as oak, ash, and beech are the preferred choice for pizza oven cooking. They burn hotter and longer than softwoods, produce a cleaner flame with less smoke once established, and generate the high-temperature sustained heat that a pizza oven needs. Softwoods light more easily and are excellent for the initial fire that heats the oven dome, but they burn faster and are less suited to the cooking phase.
A practical approach is to use softwood to establish the fire and begin heating the oven, then transition to hardwood for the cooking session. Using a mix of smaller, split pieces initially to build heat quickly, then moving to larger pieces that hold temperature during cooking, is the method used by most experienced wood-fired pizza oven cooks.
Log Size and Splitting for Pizza Ovens
Pizza ovens have smaller fire chambers than open fireplaces, and logs need to be appropriately sized to fit, burn efficiently, and be manageable. Logs around twenty to twenty-five centimetres in length and split to around five to eight centimetres in diameter are ideal. Logs that are too large take a long time to catch and make it harder to manage the fire; logs that are too small burn through quickly and need constant attention.
When ordering kiln-dried logs, it is worth asking about log sizes if you are primarily using them for a pizza oven, to ensure the pieces you receive are manageable in a smaller cooking fire chamber.
Understanding Kiln Drying and Why It Makes a Difference
Not all firewood is equal, and the most important variable in firewood quality is moisture content. Freshly felled wood contains a significant amount of water, often fifty percent or more of its total weight in a freshly cut green log. Before it can burn efficiently, this moisture must be removed.
Traditionally, firewood was air-dried, stacked in a covered but well-ventilated woodstore for one to three years depending on the species and the conditions. Done well and given enough time, air drying produces good firewood. The problem is that it requires a great deal of time and space, and that the results are inconsistent: wood stacked in a damp shed will not dry properly regardless of how long it is left.
Kiln drying accelerates and standardises this process. Wood is placed in a large drying kiln, a controlled environment where temperature and airflow are managed to drive moisture out of the wood quickly and consistently. The process can achieve the target moisture content of below twenty percent in days rather than years, producing wood that is ready to burn immediately on delivery and that delivers consistent performance.
The Ready to Burn Scheme
Ready to Burn is the UK government’s quality assurance scheme for domestic solid fuels, administered by Woodsure, the UK’s only wood fuel quality assurance scheme. Firewood sold under the Ready to Burn certification has been tested and verified to contain no more than twenty percent moisture, meaning it will burn cleanly, efficiently, and with low smoke emissions.
The scheme is important for a practical reason beyond performance. Since 2021, regulations have restricted the sale of wet or unseasoned wood in volumes under two cubic metres in England, and similar protections apply in Wales. Buying from a Woodsure-approved supplier gives confidence that the wood you receive meets the legal moisture standard and that you are not contributing to the air quality problems that burning wet wood creates.
For summer use in a firepit or pizza oven, where the quality of the experience is directly linked to the quality of the burn, buying Ready to Burn certified kiln-dried firewood is the simplest way to guarantee a good result every time.
Hardwood and Softwood: Choosing the Right Log for the Job
Both hardwood and softwood have their place in outdoor fire use, and understanding the difference helps you to choose the right fuel for each application.
Hardwood
Hardwood comes from deciduous trees including oak, ash, beech, hornbeam, and birch. These species are denser than softwoods, which means they contain more energy per cubic metre and burn longer and hotter. A hardwood log on a well-established fire will burn for considerably longer than a softwood log of the same size, which means less frequent feeding and a more sustained, manageable fire.
Hardwood is the best choice for a long summer evening around the firepit, where you want a fire that settles into a steady, glowing burn rather than requiring constant attention. It is also the preferred fuel for pizza ovens and outdoor cooking, where sustained high temperatures are required.
The trade-off is that hardwood can be harder to light than softwood and needs more established heat before it burns properly. For this reason, using kindling or softwood to start the fire before transitioning to hardwood is a common and effective approach.
Softwood
Softwood comes from coniferous species including pine, larch, and spruce. It is less dense than hardwood, which means it ignites more readily, produces a bright, lively flame quickly, and is excellent for getting a fire started. It burns faster than hardwood, which means it is less economical for long burns but very effective for quick heat, rapid oven heating, and situations where you want a fire to establish quickly.
Kiln-dried softwood is an excellent and affordable choice for firepits where the fire is kept lively and fed regularly, and where the crackling, bright flame of a softwood fire is part of the atmosphere you are after. It is particularly good for kindling and as a fire-starter alongside hardwood.
Why Summer Is the Right Time to Order Logs
Most people order firewood when they need it, which typically means October and November when the weather turns and the wood store is empty. This is understandable but not ideal, for several reasons.
Summer is when firewood suppliers have the best availability and most flexible delivery capacity. The autumn rush is the busiest period for every supplier, and delivery times lengthen as demand peaks. Ordering in summer means you are more likely to get exactly what you want, when you want it, without the wait.
There is also the immediate practical benefit: if you are planning to use your firepit or pizza oven throughout the summer and into autumn, having a well-stocked supply on hand means you never face the frustration of a planned evening ruined by an empty wood store. Being without logs on a perfect August evening is a more common problem than most people anticipate.
Kiln-dried firewood arrives ready to burn and does not deteriorate if stored correctly for several months. A good summer order, properly stored, will serve you through the remainder of summer, all of autumn, and into the winter months without any loss of performance.
Storing Firewood in Summer: Keeping It Dry and Ready to Use
Kiln-dried firewood has had all the excess moisture removed through the drying process, but it will re-absorb moisture from the atmosphere if it is stored poorly. Protecting your investment in quality firewood requires appropriate storage.
- Store wood off the ground, ideally on a pallet, treated wooden runners, or a purpose-built log store base. Ground contact allows moisture to wick up into the wood from below
- Ensure the top of the stack is covered to protect it from rain. A log store with a roof, a lean-to, or a covered area of the garden are all suitable. Avoid wrapping logs completely in plastic sheeting, which traps condensation and can encourage mould
- The sides of the stack should be open or at least ventilated to allow air circulation. A completely enclosed stack retains moisture rather than releasing it
- Do not store large quantities of logs indoors in a heated building for extended periods; the very low humidity of a heated interior can cause logs to dry excessively and crack, though for shorter-term indoor use this is not a concern
- Keep a smaller quantity in an easily accessible location close to the firepit or oven, enough for two or three sessions, topping it up from the main store as needed
Kindling: The Part Most People Underestimate
Good kindling is as important as good logs, and it is the element that most frequently determines whether a fire lights well or frustrates you for twenty minutes. Kindling needs to be small enough to catch quickly from a firelighter, dry enough to ignite at relatively low temperatures, and plentiful enough to generate sustained heat before the larger logs are placed on top.
Commercially produced kiln-dried kindling, available in bags from good firewood suppliers, is reliable and convenient. It is dry enough to light consistently and is cut to a size that works well across all fire types. Having a good stock of kindling alongside your firewood means that every fire starts confidently rather than tentatively.
For pizza oven users in particular, kindling is especially important. The initial phase of heating the oven dome requires a rapid, hot fire built from kindling and small pieces of softwood. Skipping on the kindling and trying to establish the fire with only larger logs will result in a slow, smoky start and a longer wait before the oven reaches cooking temperature.
Summer Fire Entertaining: Making the Most of Your Outdoor Space
For those who want to go beyond the straightforward firepit or pizza oven, there is a whole world of outdoor fire cooking and entertaining that summer provides the perfect context for.
Fire Cooking Beyond Pizza
A wood fire is one of the most versatile cooking surfaces available. A firepit with a cooking grate over it can be used for grilling vegetables, fish, and meat with a quality of smoke flavour that a gas barbecue cannot produce. Cast iron pans placed directly on the fire or on a grate cook slowly and evenly, and are excellent for one-pot dishes, soups, and stews that develop character from the low, sustained heat of a dying fire.
Wood-fired cooking on this kind of scale is not a precise science, and that is part of its appeal. Managing a fire, reading its temperature, adjusting the height of a grill, and cooking instinctively rather than by a digital thermometer produces a more engaged and enjoyable cooking experience than most domestic kitchen equivalents.
The Social Fire
There is a reason that fire has been at the centre of human social gatherings for as long as human beings have had social gatherings. The combination of warmth, light, and movement that an open fire produces creates an environment that is deeply conducive to conversation, relaxation, and a sense of occasion. A firepit in a garden, lit on a summer evening, does not need to do anything more complicated than burn well and stay warm to be the centre of a very good evening.
The best outdoor fires are ones where the host is not constantly worrying about the fire going out, struggling to get it going, or dealing with excessive smoke driving everyone away. Quality kiln-dried firewood that lights easily, burns consistently, and produces minimal smoke is not a detail: it is the foundation of the whole experience.
Buying Firewood Locally in North Wales: The Benefits
Buying firewood from a local supplier in North Wales has practical advantages that are worth considering alongside the obvious convenience.
Local suppliers typically use timber sourced from sustainably managed woodlands in the region, which means a shorter supply chain and lower transport emissions than wood imported from outside Wales. The Conwy Valley and the surrounding upland areas of North Wales have a significant forestry resource, and local firewood businesses that are part of this landscape and community are drawing on a genuinely local raw material.
Local delivery also means that larger orders, delivered in dumpy bags or loose loads, are practical and cost-effective in a way that national couriers and small-parcel delivery cannot match. If you are stocking up for the whole summer and into autumn, a substantial order from a local supplier who can deliver directly to your garden is a far more sensible approach than buying small bags from a petrol station or garden centre at several times the unit cost.
The towns and villages of the Conwy Valley, Llanrwst, Llandudno, Colwyn Bay, and the surrounding area are at the heart of some of the most beautiful outdoor living country in Wales. Getting the most from a garden in this landscape, whether you are a year-round resident or a regular visitor, means having what you need to enjoy it in every season, including, and perhaps especially, the long summer evenings when the valley is at its most inviting.
Conclusion: Light the Fire This Summer
Firewood is not a product that belongs only to November. From the first warm evening that invites you to stay outside after dark, through the long summer nights and into the mellower evenings of September and October, a good supply of kiln-dried, Ready to Burn firewood is one of the most useful and enjoyable things your garden can have.
Order now, while the supply is good and the delivery is easy, store it properly, and you will be ready for whatever the summer and the seasons beyond it bring. The firepit, the pizza oven, and the long evenings are waiting. All they need is the right wood.