Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Pep on May 10, 2011, 17:04
-
Having inspected my peas today, I was really pleased to see that out of over 300 set, only about 20 have failed. These failures were set in soil where ash from our wood burning boiler had been scattered over the winter. Which, if any, vegetables would tolerate or thrive in this patch or should I barrow it to an unused part of the garden and replace it with richer soil? I still have to set out brocili, cabbage, brussells, tomatoes, cucumbers, runner beans and scatter some more carrot and lettuce seeds so could make use of the gap. Thank you for any advice.
Pauline
-
Asparagus likes it but i find it easier to put it in the compost bin.
-
I found that garlic did very well when grown where I'd had a bonfire. I use my log burner ash on the garden. I put it round the plants, not directly touching, round fruit or in the compo bin. Don't ever waste it :)
-
Thank you for your replies. What ratio ash to greens would be right in a compost bin and is it classed as a brown? We've never had much luck with making compost due to lack of brown material. We produce lots of ash due to having the boiler running 24/7 throughout our long harsh winters. It would be great to solve two problems in one.
Pauline
-
You need for your compost to be evenly balanced so never add too much of one ingredient at any one filling and make it dry when you add it if possible. I like to dry the grass mowings out by spreading them out to make them go brown before adding (if it's fine enough for a day or so, sun is even better) There's no mathematical ratio I don't think, it's just keeping it balanced. If you have a lot of wood ash I would add most of it to the soil in your veg and fruit beds rather than putting the whole lot in the compost bin. If you turn your compost or give it a good poke with a long metal rod or pole etc it will do it good. It aerates it and makes the process speed up. You'll make good compost but it's like everything else, it needs practice :) It's like making a cake - you have to have the ingredients in proportion :)
-
Thank you Compostqueen. That's a very helpful reply. I'll give it a go.
Pauline
-
I forgot to say, it helps if your bin is in full sun :) A couple of mine aren't but they're still cooking as I keep giving them a regular prod when I add more ingredients :)
-
In my experience most of "roots" doing well with ash, but no more than 200gr or so per sq m. Just remember that ash is kinda alkaline, so will be good for any soil with lower pH or after adding compost to your beds to neutralize organic acids