[FatGaz]

Whats the best thing to do with the ashes from my bonfire? (burning garden rubbish - ie woody stuff)  :oops:  :roll:

[muntjac]

i occasionally collect up firewood from bushes  wood from my pallets i cant use sawdust spread it around the plot  and i build a teepee of it and cover it with straw and then soil .fill the bottom with straw as you build then leave a hole to light the fire at  make sure you stay with it and put more soil over areas where you see the smoke or flame popping through ,leave to cook for  a couple of days and then break it open and spread the soil and resulting  ash around  the plot , to make sure you have no naiks etc in the soil take an old stereo speaker apart and then using just the magnet .attach a nice bit of string to it pull the magnet through the ashes and it will pick up nails etc .dump them in a carrier bag n take em home for the black bin

[Trillium]

If anyone is thinking of using 'fresh' ashes in the garden, don't. I believe it's a high concentration of lime that ashes have for the first while and it'll burn your roots and cause a lot of retardation in plant growth. Ashes that are about a year old are safe to use as most of the alkalinity has either leeched out or broken down. I have friends who collect ashes for commercial soap making and insist anything under a year old is unuseable.  

[muntjac]

not for gardening use  trill mate .its been a thousands of years practice .burning the land and then planting is carried out in every culture .you may find they dont use it in soap making as they also didnt use fresh animal fats  

[Trillium]

You'll have to tell that to my neighbour, Munty. He kept putting the current year's woodstove ashes on his plot and had a terrible time with his crops and couldn't figure out the problem. Even after forest fires, it takes a little while before anything grows again - sheer alkalinity that needs some washing down by rains. A lot of resins and such in wood. Burning off weeds, however, is a completely different horse. You can plant next day if you want.  

[Eristic]

Wood ash must be used quickly if you want any fertiliser effects from it. The only reason it will burn your plants is because it is still hot from the fire. Always spread the ash thinly around the fire site and leave for at least 24hrs otherwise the ash could remain seriously hot for a week or more.

[WG.]

Wood ash must be used quickly if you want any fertiliser effects from it.

Yup, contains potassium in a very soluble form.  Same reason as Trillium suggests using with care since it'll raise the pH of your soil much quicker than lime.  The salt content is probably the reason folks put it on onion beds.

Personally, I prefer to put it on compost heap.  I seem to remember putting it on the duck shed floor too (but check with the chicken experts before trying this at home).

[Annie]

I put the ashes from our log burners on the compost heap in winter but will soon start storing in buckets for use in spring/summer around garlic and onions,also as a slug barrier.Can`t decide how much the later works but it`s free.

We have  clay so no probs with raising the pH.

[shaun]

some one told me ages ago that certain wood ash is better than ther wood ash but what he did say.if you want a good fertilizer for onions you should use ash from hawthorn the ash is realy white in colour,any one ever heard this one?.
I put ash from the log burner and from the barbi on my compost heaps

[WG.]

certain wood ash is better than ther wood ash

White ashes are the sign of a hot burn, hence a complete burn so that no cellulose material (nitrogen robbery) or tarry nasties remain.  Creosote comes from pyrolysis of wood and you know what that does to plants.

In general, I'd avoid ashes from conifers but any hardwood should be fine.