Any use for this ash?

Each time Mr. F'sMum has had a bonfire in the garden incinerator, the ash - mainly from softwood - has been carefully tipped into heap. This 'heap' has been there for some time and I'd estimate is now about half a cubic metre.

Our garden is used exclusively to grow flowers and shrubs ('himself' shares an allotment elsewhere) and has a pH of around 6.8. I've read conflicting suggestions about putting ash in a compost heap so haven't done this, but I'm sure I can do something with it.

What's the best use I can put it to in the garden?

 

Hope this helps..........http://tinyurl.com/y6bhrc5

Steve

 

I've been told onions like it - is that right?

 

Is volcanic ash good for our gardens? :D

 

Yes and so do tomatoes, fruit bushes and trees.

The potassium (K) content is high, though ash from green material is higher in K than that from dry material.

 

My thanks for your suggestions (this is only wood ash I'm afraid - I'm guessing the volcanic type is yet to fall). Since the pH of my soil is about 6.8, I'm loathe to start spreading the ash about and the only crop I grow here is a few tomatoes.

I'm actually wondering whether I have any use for it after all, especially since the 'heap' has been gradually accumulating over a period of months, and much I've read on 'the net' seems to suggest that in such circumstances, most of any nutrients will in fact have leached out (through rain etc) during this time - would this be correct?

 

Hopefully it'll fall then and stop the slugs, if they hate it that much!

 

I hope some of this volcanic ash rains on my garden, it could do with a nutrient boost :hehe: I use wood ash raked into the soil in the chook run as it can counteract the acidity caused by their droppings and, like the garden birds, hens like a nice dust bath as well.

 

We have the mixed blessing of sandy soil - easy to dig but always hungry. If our cat thinks she's going to get yet another place to loll about, then she's going to be bitterly disappointed! I think I may use it to foil those pesky slugs what are queuing up to munch on my emerging lupins and delphiniums et al.