[JulieSh]

Hi all,

I'm about ready to start planning my bottom garden for next years crops, but I have a question.....

Now, I use a Stanley range for heating/hot water/cooking & we burn peat turf & some wood - can I use the ash from the range in my raised beds?

We have to prepare some ground that leads to the hayshed (the tractor got stuck when delivering our turfs, because the ground was so wet!) & hubby wants to lay a bed of ash down before we fill with hardcore - but I want to know if I can use it for the veggies as well - this winter, I'm sure we'll have a lot!!

Any ideas anyone?
Julie.

[Rampant_Weasel]

i think ash has teh same effect as lime ( making soil more alkaline)
so u can use it where ur going to plant brassicas.

[Trillium]

I also found that fresh ash was VERY alkaline to the point where it burned some crops on me. Best to collect the ash and leave it for a few months and then sparingly add to your soil.

I have friends who are professional soapmakers and even they can't use woodash under a year old as it's too alkaline and would burn customers using their product, not to mention it makes a poor quality soap. Imagine what it does to your soil.

[Minty]

We were talking about ash on the plot the other day as the site has a huge bonfire every year and one of the old boys was telling us to save a bucket of the ash and dilute it with water in a sprayer as it's really good at getting rid of all sorts of pests.

My grandad used to always use their coal ash and soot for slug control but as we are now in a smokeless zone we dont get any of either.

[DIGGER]

I have gathered a compost bag full of ash from the summers barberques [yes i did manage some] which i have failed to dispose of. Any reason why i could not dispatch to the lotte on next years brassica ground.

[wighty]

I thought you could use wood ash  but not coal ash, this has been dredged up from the dark recesses of my mind so might be a bit out.

[Annie]

Try asearch as this topic comes up every year and there is a fair bit of info there,I know `cos I say the same each year!!