What do you who heat with wood do with a winters' worth of wood ashes?

   / What do you who heat with wood do with a winters' worth of wood ashes? #1  

nickmags

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Location
Gainesville, MO
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Kubota L4701
I burn anywhere from 5-7 cords of wood per winter. For the last four years I've been putting on the garden, and or yard. Ive got to be careful putting them on the yard. I mulch a lot of leaves with the mower, and we oft times have no snow cover, just dry cold here in the Ozarks. Grass fire spreading to woods and house/shop/barns is real possibility. I've put so much ash on the garden I have altered the PH. Looking for a viable use rather than just dumping them in a pile of cleared ground. The leachate from such a pile would kill anything down hill, plus draw possible unwanted attention from various State & Feds. Figured you guys might have some ideas not thought of. Tried the lye soap deal last year, made a few bars, but somehow I don't see a need for 250 lbs of lye soap, which would correspond to the amount of ash we generate.
 
   / What do you who heat with wood do with a winters' worth of wood ashes? #2  
If it is clean (no chance of nails or trash in it) I bet a neighboring farmer would be happy to have it along the edge of their field if you just want to get rid of it.
 
   / What do you who heat with wood do with a winters' worth of wood ashes? #3  
I'd love to hear new ideas on this. I also burn in the 6-7 cord a year range and have been doing it for 10 years. When I remove a stump I sometimes leave the hole there though winter and fill it in with a winters worth of ash and then cover it over with dirt in the spring. I don't know if this is good or not or what impact it has on the ground. I don't have a stump hole right now so wondering where I'll put it. Probably just dump it in an area of pricker bushes behind the wood shed as I don't really wan those prickers so if they die I don't care.
 
   / What do you who heat with wood do with a winters' worth of wood ashes? #4  
Package them up and sell as "Premium Organic Compost Additive"!
 
   / What do you who heat with wood do with a winters' worth of wood ashes?
  • Thread Starter
#5  
Problem with doing something like that is wood ash is concentrated alkali- a little is sort of okay, but very much is very bad for compost pile. Out of the box idea though. Thanks.
Package them up and sell as "Premium Organic Compost Additive"!
 
   / What do you who heat with wood do with a winters' worth of wood ashes?
  • Thread Starter
#6  
No trash, just cut and split year old dry oak and hickory. Same problem with dumping them on the yard - any remaining hot coals are sure fire, fire starters. Too many days of no rain/no snow all winter to be practical. Thanks.
If it is clean (no chance of nails or trash in it) I bet a neighboring farmer would be happy to have it along the edge of their field if you just want to get rid of it.
 
   / What do you who heat with wood do with a winters' worth of wood ashes?
  • Thread Starter
#7  
Gladehound, are what you call prickers wild blackberry thickets? If so adding wood ash to them in small amounts will double the berry production. Adding a lot will change soil PH to high alkali and stop almost everything from growing.
 
   / What do you who heat with wood do with a winters' worth of wood ashes? #8  
They work fairly well as a coating on gravel driveways.
 
   / What do you who heat with wood do with a winters' worth of wood ashes? #9  
I burn about 10 cords a year, ALL of the ash goes my garden, we just spread it around...

SR
 
   / What do you who heat with wood do with a winters' worth of wood ashes? #10  
We burn less then two chords and the ashes end up in the garden. First they go to a metal can to sit for a week or more, then into the garden.
 
 
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