What to do with all the ash?

I have 2 greenhouses and I keep it to place around the base of each--slugs hate crawling through it to get into the greenhouses. You can use a bit of it in gardens, too.

Sprinkled some on the lawn today, cold of course. Some in the garden, and the rest along the road all winter. It is like lime so it sweetens the soil if I remember right. You just need more of it then lime to do the same thing.

EatenByLimestone said:

...I'm going to try to make soap with it. Then I'll probably spread it on the lawn.

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Why would you spread soap on your lawn? Rick

It'll foam, in the rain, and look like snow, so he can keep burning longer.

It'll fool everyone.

It's a brilliant plan.

I finally get to post! I put all of my ash in the vegetable's garden. I am convinced it adds to the value of the soil. I then till it in the spring. This is a very cool forums! Jim

sprinkle it on garden. well ok more like i am dumping out water. a different place every day. never do get the whole garden in 1 year.

Keep the ash away from the rhodies and other acid loving plants-otherwise you can kiss them goodbye. hh:

Yes, mine goes in the garden too... we have acidic soil here so it is very useful in getting a better ph balance. But like sonnyinbc says, gotta keep it away from the acid-loving plants.

I dump it in the creek along side the house or down in the drainage ditch by the road. I'm going to get a metal garbage can that I can dump it in so that I can take it out and dump it when I take the garbage out for pickup. I don't get a whole lot of ashes from the house, but the garage is a different story. We burn a lot of crap wood out there.

Compost pile in my woods- not my "good" compost pile, but an auxillary one.

Spread out on the lawn or give it away to a friend who spreads it out on his garden.

Dump in big pile. Add water. Sculpt to snowman shape. Add hat and scarf.

I sell mine on Ebay.

Maybe you could package it and sell it the guys who like to use it to wipe their stove glass. Hey! Don't forget about Ash Wednesday either. There's another good market. I wonder if they would use poplar ash.

Neil said:

I sell mine on Ebay.

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Really? Who buys them and for how much (we'll have to do a Euro to dollar conversion here).

Is it really good for lawns?
The leach field out back doesn't have that much topsoil on it and could use more organic stuff in general.
Would wood ash be generally okay for it.
There are some pine trees around the lawn, but when I measured it it seemed to be pretty neutral.

I've never seen a leach field that needed more organic material.

I have put ashes in the compost pile for years. It sweetenes up the normal acidic nature of it, for later use of the "brown gold."

I throw it on mulch piles, dirt piles, garden....

Lucky to have 4.5 acres so I can whip it anywhere and it ain't no problem.

HOWEVER< first it goes to the galvanized can, with lid, for cool down mode, THEN gets tossed....

velvetfoot said:

Is it really good for lawns?
The leach field out back doesn't have that much topsoil on it and could use more organic stuff in general.
Would wood ash be generally okay for it.
There are some pine trees around the lawn, but when I measured it it seemed to be pretty neutral.

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There is very little organic matterin wood ash, it's mostly minerals. A great way to slowly add organic matter over time is to take your leaves in the fall and spread them around on the area, then chop them into a fine mulch with a mulching mower. You can only mulch a couple of inches of leaves every other week or so, more at any one time would start to smother the lawn.

Too bad there's still snow on some parts of the lawn, lol.
It's totally dark now when I get home from work - I hate it.

I generate too much ash to use on my property, so I usually toss mine out with the garbage. I try to use some ash in the soil - and I put my coffee grounds in the soil too.