Woodburner ash.

Currently I just bin the cold ashes from my woodburner. I know that ash has its benefits in the garden but I'm a little apprehensive as to how to utilise it properly.

I'm going to start sieving the ash so I just have ash powder, and I'll store it in a container in my shed.

Can I add it directly to the top soil and let the rain naturally take it through the soil, or does it need digging in? Do you just add a nice dollop of ash once at the beginning of the growing season or do you add it regularly to reap the best benefits?

I'm aware that it isn't good for certain types of plants but I don't think I really have anything that would suffer because if it.

I'm just after general guidelines really.

 

When we were running a wood stove. I would just scope it out, take it to the side yard and dump it. Some of it would be hot still. But I needed room for the next bunch of logs. Later I would just scope it up and put it at the base of some shrubs.

 

I'd just scatter it around and wouldn't bother digging it in.
Just depends how much you have and how big the area is that you are going to put it on, you dont want too much in a small area.

 

It's high in potassium, which I think is the main nutrient for flowers and fruit.

When I clear out my fire bin, I just dump the ashes at the base of my apple tree and currant bushes. They're thriving so it clearly isn't causing them any problems.

Years ago, when I was little, my grandparents had what I called the ash mountain. Every time they cleaned out the fireplace, they'd just dump the ashes on the ash mountain. No soil in there at all. There was a red currant bush growing in the ash mountain, which always produced an abundance of the sweetest currants which my older sister and I would raid when we went round. That's slightly different though, as it was a mix of coal ash as well as wood ash.

 

I've read that coal ash is virtually devoid of anything and should be discarded, but woodburner ash is especially rich in potassium.

I don't have masses of it, and bearing in mind summer's around the corner, then I'll have even less if the fire's not lit.

But it's a shame currently that the little bit I do generate is just going in the bin!! Hence my post.

What I'll do is sieve it and just spread it on top of the soil. It's in powdered form so should be taken down quickly when it's raining.

Thanks for the input.

 

I have to sieve mine because, depending on what I've been burning, it can be full of nails and screws!

If I didn't my garden would resemble a scrap yard in a couple of years, lol.

 

Takes me back about 50yrs or more to when I was young and we had a boiler which burn coke, all the ash went up the garden in a big pile and every so often I'd get the job of sifting it, the fine stuff went on the garden to break up the clay and the clinker went in a bin and was burnt again on the boiler.
It never did the garden any harm and we always had more hot water than you would ever need.

 

fond memories of the wood stove, located in the basement. heated up the floors and walls of the house. a lovely quietness. The cement floor of the basement very forgiving to any coals fallen. A ugly stove, flat top, then a step up in the back. Front opening solid doors with two dials for air oxygen control. Could fill it up with logs for the overnight to sit on the hot coals and close the dials. Simmering heat all night. Husbands duties would be to go during the summer and find the wood, we would get it all free. Have a gas splitter. My job in the winter was to fill the stair passage leading to the basement from the outside, usually a fill would last a week. Of course eye out for harsh weather to refill from the further out wood pile as needed. But of course as soot would rise, somehow make it upstairs to the ceilings. We did after many years close it down.

A story goes along with the gas splitter, husband had a friend called "one eye jack" he and OEJ would go wood hunting together. The bought the splitter together, with the agreement of sharing it back and forth to each others property to split their separate load of wood/trees etc. OEJ had to sons that were not nice to him. As some men go husband and OEJ did not talk a lot to each other, mostly just as needed. A month went by, husband found out that OEJ had passed on. We were thankful that the splitter was with us, as we knew we'd never get it back if the sons found it on their father's property. The added agreement was if one of them died the other would get the splitter.

So if you all hung on to all my rattling. that is awesome. have a good day.