UKH

Morning all. I ponder this as I empty the burner as the temps are set to plummet over the coming days.

I clear the ashes once every 4 or 5 burns and throw the ashes in the bin but are there any practical uses for the ashes?  

Wood ash is fine on the garden/compost. 

Also good for cleaning the glass of the woodburner, scrunch up a bit of newspaper, very lightly wet it and dip it in the ash. Use as an abrasive scourer.

+1 for the compost heap.

A lot of people do put it in their compost pile, it raises the ph so a little will counter the composts tendency towards acidity. if you dig it directly into soil which already has a high ph then you'll raise it to the detriment of most plants you might wish to grow. If you dig it into a low ph soil then it will be beneficial to a lot of plants. A lot of berries like slightly acidic soil though, as do potatoes I think, so you wouldn't want to put ash anywhere near them. But then potatoes like potassium and that's in ash. Some people make a slurry/ash tea, I'm not sure why. Perhaps it removes some things and leaves a concentration of others.

It depends on how much ash you have, what kind of things you compost, what ph your soil is and what plants you're growing. Just chucking it into the garden willy nilly as a way to dispose of it isn't necessarily going to help. I think there's more in there as well, nutrients and such which complicate it further. Mine all goes in the bin.

I was brought up watching my mum sprinkling the ashes around the garden fruit trees. This settled in the grass and the rain did the rest of the work. I have always done the same. Didn't seem to do them any warm, no ideal if actually made things any better.

I only collect the ashes in a metal bucket after an unfortunate experience with a plastic bucket and surprisingly warm embers in the ash.

Garden enrichment seems easy and sensible.  The ash is from a range of woods and kindling which is either pine or from a large evergreen I took down from the garden last year.  I have lots of borders so I think I will start to sprinkle it in them and across the grass to see what happens.

I store up all of mine and, come March, work it all into the allotment beds that will contain brassicas in the coming year.  They absolutely love it.

I also used to put on the compost until one evening my 6 year old son said " Why is there a fire in our garden?"

I put mine on the lawn which suffers excessive moss. The following from interweb..

'If moss is allowed to grow, the built-up layers of dead moss will leach more acid into the soil until only moss and other acid-loving plants will grow there. The wood ash effectively ruins the soil for moss, killing it and encouraging grass to grow. ...'

seems win/ win.

As a general rule I don't see why people have a problem with moss on the lawn.

Generally it grows where grass can't, it doesn't need cutting (a big bonus) and is green. OK mossy areas tend to be boggy, but I think that's more because grass doesn't grow well in boggy areas rather than because moss causes wet conditions.

In answer to the OP ashes from the woodburner go on the composter (and linking in with another thread, my grandparents ashes went on mum's veg plot).

I recommend to make diamonds, takes less space, and you can still bury them in the garden. 

on a related note, apparently you shouldn't put coal ash on your garden as it contains bad things.

Something I learned from my Mum is that it's quite helpful towards stopping a wheelie bin ponging, if you sprinkle cold ashes into it when it's empty, it absorbs any moisture I guess.

I have some raised beds with some very healthy garlic coming through. Do you think it would hurt to give them a sprinkling? 

It'll keep the vampyres away.

Make soap...?

If you are really quite bored and don’t have small children you could try soap making.  http://web.archive.org/web/20101124180045/http://grandpappy.info/wsoap.htm

Not relevant to the ash, but your chimney, are you sure your wood is seasoned enough. Pine is awful to burn unless properly seasoned, loads of resin that makes a mess of your chimney.

I burn so little (1/2 cubic yard in 4 years) nowadays I haven't had to worry about seasoning but I used to but 2 year old wood and leave an extra year, and still avoid pine.

The pine is just used for kindling and is thoroughly dry. I use a moisture reader in the house to be sure.

If you cover them in peanut butter and put it in ice overnight in the freezer the ashes turn to diamond.

Trust me I'm a geologist and the internet says so.

Does one just sprinkle the ash onto the mossy area of lawn or do you rake it over / fork it in?

(I've always just stuck mine in the compost heap but have large mossy area on the lawn under some trees that I could do with getting rid of)

Just sprinkle it on, the rain does the rest.

It's an effective barrier to slugs if sprinkled round the base of plants. Not that slugs are much of a problem in November.