[brucesgirl]

Well to be honest I'm not sure what sort of ashes they are. I know he bought a wood-burning stove last year, but some of those are adapted for coal aren't they?
I really ought to ask the question, so will do that next time he mentions it.

[richyrich7]

My Mum used to chuck the ashes from the coal fire on to the garden, swore blind it broke the clay up.

[gobs]

We have always put all ashes of the fire out in the garden (mixed: all burnable rubbish, wood and coal), for probably a century (that's just what I have as told memory), what on earth else would we have done with them :?: Never was rubbish removal in my village till quite recent few years.

Always have grown stuff, me mum did and she still does, her only complaint of the last few years is : never been this many slugs!

And I can second that, in fact I did not know till about age of 12 or so, they existed, as I never saw one in my life before (living in village farming community, etc), just a mate pointed it out to me one day on the bank, 'look bare snails' (what we like to call them) 'what?'

So on topic I'm quite unconvinced as how much and what damage they do.

[richyrich7]

So on topic I'm quite unconvinced as how much and what damage they do.

None or very little IMHO, do you think the lack of slugs could be linked to the liberal use of ash ?

[burlington]

We have burnt wood on a stove at home for years.

This winter, I am putting the (cold) ashes in to a dustbin in my shed. It is almost full now!

I will spread the ashes when I plant brassicas.

Martin

[gobs]

So on topic I'm quite unconvinced as how much and what damage they do.

None or very little IMHO, do you think the lack of slugs could be linked to the liberal use of ash ?

I'm skeptical about that one, rather tempted to think that building, infrastructure, traffic, etc pushed some wildlife out and disturbed natural balance.

But then, I'm just guessing.

[Annie]

I put our ash around the garlic and onions and in spring start saving it to use as slug deterant,no little tiny rings of the stuff for me.Amazingly i did not have a bad slug year this year until last month when they took up residence in the last of the swedes,about 15-20 per swede :cry: Why do they leave the parsnips alone?

[WG.]

Wood ash Annie?

[Annie]

From two stoves WG,all wood ash and lots of it!We`re going without the central heating this year and so far are warm as toast even in this cold patch(apart fromthe morning dash for kindling in dressing gown),

[gobs]

I got to come clean about this as I just had a conversation with me mum and I asked her about this(degree in biology and geography, grown up in countryside, forever an 'organic' gardener of decades), and so she said yes, but only wood ash was put on the garden, as by WG love ,coal  ash was highly toxic and got piled up on the road (I do not have any memory of this though, also it would have leached into the surroundings by weathering I wonder).

So there.

[brucesgirl]

I asked him what he burns - and it is wood. So I will be able to use the ashes on the lottie.