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

[hosspuller]

I dump the ash into a metal bucket for a few days. My soil runs acidic. The ash then goes on clumps of Brome straw (Noxious weed)in the pasture. The Brome straw doesn't like the ash and I don't like the Brome straw ... Win - Win.

 

[gladehound]

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.

No berries where I'm throwing the ash right now. Jus those single stem prickers that come out of the ground everywhere. However, we do have a lot of wild berries in other places. They are red, and very tasty. More tasty than the raspberries in our garden. They look a lot like a raspberries. Maybe I should experiment with an area of these to see if they get better or worse. Thanks for the idea!

 

[Garandman]

If the ashes should go in the garden or on the yard would depend on if you have alkaline or acid soils. Here in New England, Acid soils dominate, and I can't put down enough wood ashes to make much of a difference.

We have a patch of yard wher moss grows, and putting down ash is effective to kill it off and reestablish grass.

 

[CalG]

We have a patch of yard wher moss grows, and putting down ash is effective to kill it off and reestablish grass.

My entire back yard back to the woods is taken over by moss (about 50X150') A dozen years back, when the kids wanted a ball field, I tilled the entire area, levelled it, and planted shady mix seed. It looked really nice for a couple of years. I dispurse ashes there from time to time, But I do like not having to mow that area. ;-)

 

[pyro29]

Although I don't burn wood anymore, we still have ash. We switched to burning anthracite coal about three years ago, previously burning 4-5 cord of wood per year for the 25 years prior. With coal, we're burning about 1.5 tons per year. We currently have about five years worth of coal in our basement, which took me about three hours to bring inside last year. It's nice not having to work so much with cutting, splitting, and stacking, as well as not having the bugs and the risk of wood rotting or even getting wet.

Our ash stays in the stove for 24 hours, in an ash pan, until cold, then goes in a metal garbage can lined with a heavy duty trash bag. When full, the bag goes to the dump.

 

[CalG]

Although I don't burn wood anymore, we still have ash. We switched to burning anthracite coal about three years ago, previously burning 4-5 cord of wood per year for the 25 years prior. With coal, we're burning about 1.5 tons per year. We currently have about five years worth of coal in our basement, which took me about three hours to bring inside last year. It's nice not having to work so much with cutting, splitting, and stacking, as well as not having the bugs and the risk of wood rotting or even getting wet.

Our ash stays in the stove for 24 hours, in an ash pan, until cold, then goes in a metal garbage can lined with a heavy duty trash bag. When full, the bag goes to the dump.

Right, Coal ash is not suitable for any yard or garden application.

It can work for ice on the drives however.

 

[Ford850]

I fill a small metal trash can, and then spread it in a combination of places as the winter progresses. The first cans get used on the gardens, until each has a healthy coat. Then the lawn in a 30' width along the wooded areas. Then around the fruit trees. Then the compost pile and the leaf mulch pile. If I'm still emptying cans by the time those are all covered, I'm tired of winter and just start slinging it anywhere in the lawn.

 

[ovrszd]

I scatter mine onto the hay field behind my shop. The area where I scatter ashes has lost most of it's finer warm season grasses like Timothy, Orchard Grass, etc. They've been replaced by heavier grasses such as Fescue. So it's definitely changed the nature of the soil.

 

[Pilot]

I clean the wood stove about every two weeks, the ash goes into a bucket & I just go out into the woods and sling the ash out which disperses it. Here in western Oregon we have plenty of rain so I don't worry about fires. Actually a creeping little fire would give me a little fire break which would be nice to have in case we got a serious fire like we had a couple years ago, a mile from our place and headed our way with the wind behind it's back. But that was summer, I burn wood in winter.

Don't do as my grandfather did. Put the ash in a cardboard box & left it on the back porch. House burned. Used to happen often to folks in the Portland area, but not very many burn wood any more--Forest Service isn't selling much timber any more.

 

[oldpilgrim]

4-5 cords a year. Ashes go into a coal hod, sit for a few days and get dumped in the woods. No garden here