Last week we were celebrating the start of the Autumn colours on the garden trees and shrubs, the lowering of temperatures triggers the unveiling of hidden colours in the leaves, with shrubs like the Sumachs and Japanese Maples joining the party this week in my own garden.
As the temps lower in our homes we fire starts becoming more and more the centre of the home, the rush to get in at night to light the fire becomes a mission at the end of the working day. But what about all this Ash which is created in our quest for ‘cosy toes’. Ash is largely a useful product for the garden, enhancing soil, feeding plants and benefiting the biology of your soil.
The big choice relates to the type of material you are burning. Largely here our material of choice will be normally Coal, Wood or Turf.
Coal Ash is a problem. Within coal ash you will get high levels of heavy metals, which if you were to use this ash near edible crops, would be taken up in the roots of your lettuce (for example) and in turn you would consumer this, which is not good as heavy metals are poisonous and consumption of said lettuce won’t do you any favours!. If you have a large lawn its best to lightly dust the coal ash over the lawn over the duration of the winter months.
Turf Ash is a much more useful product to use in the garden than Coal, although arguably more difficult to work with as it can be a bit dusty when handling outside. As you clean out the fire use the turf ash throughout the garden to improve the flowering of shrubs and hedging and in soil which you may be planting potatoes or bedding plants next year.
Wood Ash is of great use in the garden
Wood Ash, in my opinion, is the most useful of all. It has all the attributes of Turf Ash – in that if you put around shrubs and plants in the garden it will improve flowering and disease resistance but Wood Ash also acts as a liming agent, so it’s good for spreading over the lawn, adding to vegetable gardens and in general improving the health of the soil.
Use the wood ash around your garden
Other weeks we’ve covered the need to Lime soil. This is due to the glorious rain which makes up most of our weather at the moment. This rain washes the Calcium out of the soil, and without this Calcium the soil compacts, worm numbers decrease and the soil becomes less fertile and workable. So replacing this Calcium is vital to the health of your soil, and you can do this by utilising the wood ash from your fire.
As mentioned you can just dust the ash around the garden as its produced or you can add it to a compost area (but make sure the compost area has a cover to stop all the goodness being washed out), and then spreading this onto your garden as you need it.
It was dealing with coal ash that made me change over to wood in my own stove. So these past 3 years we have burned nothing but wood and the garden has benefited from the ash, especially the lawn with the problem of moss being a thing of the past now. So with colder weather coming think about utilising more wood this year in the home and make a difference to your garden as a result.
Tags: