How do you dispose of your ashes?

WonderingWoman said:

How do you dispose of your ashes?

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I'd leave that up to the relatives to decide.

Dump them on the snowbank along side the road every 4-7 days. Some go in the garden but the lab likes to run thru and, well, yuk! :lol:

There are several threads on this. One metal trashcan!! A whole one?!! I might have 10 gal. total for a year. I don't think I could accumulate a whole metal trash ca of ash in 4 years. Don't throw out the charcoal.

Anyway- a few ideas:
Spread thin on the lawn or garden- it contains potassium and other nutrients, but too much may raise pH.
Compost it
I use it in pottery glazes
Use it for traction on an icy driveway ( I do this a lot)
Dump lots of it where you have poison ivy, in waste spaces, etc where you want to kill weeds

On an unrelated topic- I made a cremation urn for a friend of mine (he's not sick, but figures it'll be too late to ask when he needs it) and the experimental glaze came out nasty. I was going to make another one and he said "nope- I want the "unique" one. I told him I'd check the volume to make sure it would be big enough and he replied- "never mind- whatever don't fit can go in the compost pile". LOL- ever the pragmatist.

I have the same problem... I have a 10 gallon as well. cant dump them in the yard anywhere unless I want to wade through 2' of drifts carrying the can...

As long as you aren't going to track it in- just spread it on ice, or fling it across the yard. The tree you burned took a long time accumulating and concentrating the nutrients from the soil- it would be a waste (IMO) to not use them.

Pull live coals to the front of the stove, put in a couple splits of soft wood (I assume that's what you burn out there in WA) and leave the air open. It will heat up and burn down the coals. You want to remove ashes, not coals.

edit- again- no need to "dump" them in one spot. Fling cooled ashes out on the lawn or garden, or over the icy driveway and get some use out of them.

I dump mine along the stream bank that runs through the back property. I tried spreadin gon the lawn but it was too windy at the time, almost a white out lol.

I spread mine in the woods out back....came from the earth..returned to the earth!

The Bering Sea, which is right out my doorstep. Its froze solid, so drive the snowmobile out a 1/4 mile or so and pour 'em out. Recycling at its finest.

Adios Pantalones said:

Anyway- a few ideas:
Spread thin on the lawn or garden- it contains potassium and other nutrients, but too much may raise pH.
<snip>
Dump lots of it where you have poison ivy, in waste spaces, etc where you want to kill weeds

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Uh-oh...I just dumped an ash pan full (pellet ash) on the asparagus patch. Do you think it'll hurt it any?

I don't think asparagus likes it, I would just spread it out thin. My tomatos ended up with spots and then rot, checked with a master gardener and it was the ash!

adrpga498 said:

I dump mine along the stream bank that runs through the back property. I tried spreadin gon the lawn but it was too windy at the time, almost a white out lol.

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This isn't meant as a righteous lecture- just info- water and ash make a strong alkaline and could affect fish in the immediate area.
Also, the dump was mentioned above. For the same reason many dumps don't want ash because it's caustic in concentration- I think it can damage dump liners???? Not sure.

burntime said:

I don't think asparagus likes it, I would just spread it out thin. My tomatos ended up with spots and then rot, checked with a master gardener and it was the ash!

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Hopefully one ash pan won't do too much damage, and maybe it'll thin out as the 3+' of snow melts away. I guess from now on I toss my ash in the neighbors yard.

I read that they could probably grow asparagus on Mars, but not many other garden plants, because it is very basic soil there so the asparagus will probably be OK with more ash than other plants.

Burntime- I add it to my garden every year and it does great. We have acidic soil here, though, and I have lots of compost to buffer pH changes.

Lilacs love it, by the way, but everything in moderation.

I used to put it on the garden,I don't have one anymore,I was told at the time that they had potassium in them and that ashes were good for tomatoes because of it.I do still put them on flower beds when I can,I haven't seen that it bothered the flowers at all.I also keep a bucket around in case we get some ice,I'll use them on that as a traction aid or anti skid.

My town puts ash on the roads for traction with the plows. They buy ash from the power plants (coal).

I burn coal and wood so my mixture of ash goes over in their HUGE piles at the plow building. They don't mind one bit as its pretty much the same thing they purchase and I am giving it for free.

I am not sure where I read it, but it said to place the ashes in the ground (dig a hole). If your ground is frozen and the snow is deep, you might have to sit on a can of ash until spring. Get another can to fill.
So far, I've spread mine in the wood line.

I take ash out each morning. I usually push everything to one side, and sift the charcol and hot coals out of the ash and move it to the other side, then scoop the ash into a pale and dump it in my can. I get about a plate size each morning of ash. I really like the chunks of charcol, that stuff is great for jumping the fire back HOT.

arcticcatmatt said:

My town puts ash on the roads for traction with the plows. They buy ash from the power plants (coal).

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Interesting...

The company I work for is just putting the finishing touches on a huge biomass boiler that will consume 3 large B trains per hour of wood waste. Not sure how much ash it will produce and what disposal methods they have, but landfill was mentioned ao anything that avoids landfill is worth considering. Some places spread ashes on agricultural land.

bokehman said:

WonderingWoman said:

How do you dispose of your ashes?

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I'd leave that up to the relatives to decide.

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LOL

I just got it now... I know, a little slow. :red:

I just hope they don't dump them in the snowbank as burntime suggested.

bokehman said:

WonderingWoman said:

How do you dispose of your ashes?

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I'd leave that up to the relatives to decide.

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I thought that was really funny!

I just dump mine in my back yard in my fire pit I use to burn yard wast. The wind will take some, but the rain washes most of it back into the earth.

i sprinkle mine on the flower beds and turn it in in the spring , bulb flowers seem to absolutely love it. my roses do not seem to suffer from it either, its a natural substance it should do well with organic gardening however i wouldnt concentrate it as it can "burn" seedlings if too much is present. dumping it in the woods or around trees (especially oaks and evergreens) is not a bad thing to do as most non-fruit trees like acid