Ash

Usually goes on the gravel drive, in the garden or on the grass between my stacks.

wood spliter said:

I was thinking of putting my ash in the compost pile. What do you guys do?

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Whatever you do, don't put it on an unfinished compost heap as the change in PH will kill all the microbes and it will take a very long time to compost. Ask me how I know.

For years I was dumping my ashes in a separate pile and then later blending it into the finished compost. Then one year I had a brain fart and dumped it straight onto the unfinished compost. It was a huge pile, the size of a pickup truck and it all turned cold. No steam when I turned it and not a worm to be found anywhere. It took a lot of turning all Summer before it looked anywhere near what it should look like. I ended up spreading it anyway.

I throw it in the "Pit of Despair", a briar and stinging nestle infested drop off behind my wood storage area. It is good for the garden I'm told, especially if you have acidic or potassium depleted soil.

I don't sift through the stuff to get those pieces of charcoal out, so I can't put in on the driveway or I'd get divorced for leaving black tracks all over the house.

My raspberries love it!

I spread it around the outside of my garden. Does an excellent job of keeping the snails and slugs out.

wood spliter said:

I will dump it in my gardens. I only ad finished compost to that. I can adjust the PH if I need to. If I put it on the lawn I think my dog would track it in the house. Thanks for the help.

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DUMPING the ash is wrong! Spread it thin else you will do more harm than good.

+1 on the gravel driveway. Does wonders for improving traction and melting the snow/ice.

sift out the pieces of charcoal & put them straight in the garden

" Unlike tiny tidbits of ash, coarse lumps of charcoal are full of crevices and holes, which help them serve as life rafts to soil microorganisms. The carbon compounds in charcoal form loose chemical bonds with soluble plant nutrients so they are not as readily washed away by rain and irrigation. Biochar alone added to poor soil has little benefit to plants, but when used in combination with compost and organic fertilizers, it can dramatically improve plant growth while helping retain nutrients in the soil.

Amazonian Dark Earths

The idea of biochar comes from the Amazonian rain forests of Brazil, where a civilization thrived for 2,000 years, from about 500 B.C. until Spanish and Portuguese explorers introduced devastating European diseases in the mid-1500s. Using only their hands, sticks and stone axes, Amazonian tribes grew cassava, corn and numerous tree fruits in soil made rich with compost, mulch and smoldered plant matter.

Amazingly, these “dark earths” persist today as a testament to an ancient soil-building method you can use in your garden.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/print-article.aspx?id=147440

A week in the can and then spread in the garden.

After hanging out in my outdoor ash can for a week or more I spread it on my driveway (traction and snow/ice melting), garden or I dump it in a big pit in the woods.