Wood Ash on Yard

[walhondingnashua]

I have soil that is almost entirely clay with some shale. Very little top soil. I am surprised I have as much gras as I do in just one year. Clay soil tends to have a high pH, and I know that wood ash is alkaline as well. With this in mind, and knowing that I don't want to increase pH to much, does anyone with a similar situation spread their ash on their yard?

 

[Doc C]

I use iron to lower my ph. And I use ash from the wood stove around high ph loving plant critters.....certain bushy plants, flowers, leafy trees. Just have to figure which specific plants and trees in your area want a higher PH and then confine the ash to the base of those.

Also home depot and Lowe's sell an inexpensive probe meter to check your ph.

 

[GadDummit]

I used to put mine on my clay. It's like yours, all clay and no dirt. It just sits on top for a year or two then finally works its way somewhere, probably in the storm drain.

This year I was planning on burying it in the yard but so far I've only had one fireplace worth of ash.

 

[Tar12]

I have a large and small galvanized can. I use the small to empty out the stove and dump into the the large can then haul off when it gets full. Looks like crap laying in the yard.

 

[GadDummit]

Tar is right. I only use a 5 gallon bucket, but it still looks awful. And you step in it every time you forget it's out there and track it in the house.

 

[Bad LP]

Makes a freaking mess getting tracked into the house. I dump it at the woods line but I've seen people use it in their driveways after an ice storm.

 

[Dobish]

i have used it in the walk way during an ice storm... i normally just dump it in a pile out back, then don't mow for a summer and I don't notice it

 

[ZZ Tom]

I spread my ashes and char in the garden.
I've got alkaline clay too but I don't worry too much about changing the pH of the soil. I was told some time back when I wanted to grow blueberries (they require acidic soil) that I would need to constantly add sulfur and lots of it to make much difference in the soil pH. Basically leeches away.
I've been doing it for years and I grow a mean garden.

 

[gerry100]

Dump the ashes in drive way if its icy ( on the part where we don't walk though)

When not I dump cold ashes in the woods, on the compost pile or garden

 

[CentralVAWoodHeat]

I dump mine on our gravel driveway during a rain. No risk of fire and it works its way down through the gravel very quickly.

 

[firefighterjake]

Most of my ashes go on to the gravel driveway to help with traction/melting of the ice . . . due to plowing I suspect a fair amount of that ash ends up on my lawn.

In early Fall I have a small ash pile in the woods.

 

[maple1]

Ash is for ice at this place.

 

[Soundchasm]

As I understand it, ash is going the wrong way for clay soils. You'd want to add ash to a peat bog or highly organic soil. But I don't have the foggiest on a Ph target or how much ash achieves what goal.

Thought I read somewhere that whatever is in the ash gets released really quickly, and then the material is just material.

 

[venator260]

From all that I have read, one should use ash as they would lime; to bring closer to neutral acidic soil. I've also read that, when subbing wood ash for lime use 2.5 times the amount of ash as lime.

I sprinkled last year's ashes on my garden. Got a soil test, and it was very basic, and my area usually has acidic soils. This year I've been sprinkling it on the yard. But my yard is pretty large, and I'm not walking through it and then into the house on a regular basis.

 

[Eater309]

Toss it onto the farm fields which are surrounding my yard. Come spring it's worked into soil before planting.

 

[CincyBurner]

I apply/ sprinkle a couple ash buckets worth each season to yard, garden, and compost (after ashes have cooled several days) just prior/ during a rain, OR use ashes on walks and drive.

 

[firefighterjake]

I suspect the ashes in my ash pail will soon be put to use on the driveway . . . we've had a bit of everything today -- rain, hail, freezing rain, snow . . . everything but sunshine, rainbows and unicorns.

 

[Wood Duck]

I spread mine in the gardens and woods. I spread it thin and it doesn't seem to cause problems. I have alkaline clay soil.

 

[cahaak]

I used it on my lawn and garden for years. I collect it all winter in a large metal trash can. Then in the spring I filter the ash through some 1/4" hardware wire cloth to catch any of the larger particles. I then use my fertilizer spreader to spread it around the lawn. You want to do this spreading on a calm day and ideally when it will rain shortly after that. The ash has a high K content, so works very well in that regard for plant nutrition needs, but the major component is calcium carbonate. It also has a lot of trace minerals such as iron. If you think about it, it is likely to have all of the mineral components of a tree. You would think that a 30 or 35 gallon can of ash would go a long way, but you would be surprised how quickly you go through it spreading it out on the lawn. I have never noticed a pH build up with this approach, but I have a pretty big lawn, so the concentrations are not that high.