101 uses for wood ash

[burek]

I've got sacks of the blooming stuff, way more than I need for tomatoes and potatoes, after a winter using a wood burning stove in the office. I thought I'd better hold on to it for 'something' but tell me what else I can do with it, please?!

[Welsh Girls Allotment]

I have been keeping mine to protect my plants from slug attack - apparently they hate crawling across it as it drys them out - it will need
re-applying after it has rained.

You could also use it for pathways

[Annpan]

You could also use it for pathways

How do you go about doing this?

Is it just a matter of spreading the ash over grass, or should you dig it over first? Do you need to wet it to stop the wind blowing it away?

It's coal ash I have at the moment, is that the same?

[Wombat]

Extract it with water and use the resulting "lye" to make soap!

Nev

[Welsh Girls Allotment]

re the pathways, line with cardboard or heavy duty plastic and then put on top, down on my allotment I layed thick cardboard and then covered it with sawdust and have nice squishy paths to walk on - if I ever work out how to upload photos I will stick one on

[Annpan]

Cheers, I am looking for an easy way of making a path to the top/ back of my garden and I have loads of ash... so I might give it a try. Is the plastic / cardboard just to stop the weeds coming up? If so I might try it without to see how it copes as the path is well traveled and all the grass on it is dead already.

[Jack]

Gidday

You got it Nev.

[Millymollymandy]

You could also use it for pathways

How do you go about doing this?

Is it just a matter of spreading the ash over grass, or should you dig it over first? Do you need to wet it to stop the wind blowing it away?

It's coal ash I have at the moment, is that the same?

I don't know what coal ash is like but you can't make a path from wood ash, it would just blow away, and you and your garden would be filthy all the time!

It's bad enough just scooping some out of the dustbin I keep it in, not to mention the state of the living room just on emptying the ash tray of the woodburner every morning. I have black dust coating everything. Thank god it is not on at the moment!

[Annpan]

Thats why I thought that you ought to wet it first... or something...hmmm

[Welsh Girls Allotment]

you could damp it down with a watering can I should think that once it becomes compacted over time it should be ok - my wood shaving don't blow away and they are quite light

[Millymollymandy]

You wouldn't want to walk on that path in a pair of sandals though. I think it would just blow away again as soon as it dried out, but I've never tried so can't say 100%. I'm not going to try though. You guys can experiment and report back!

[ina]

Can't you just add wood ash to the compost heap - not all at once, of course, but gradually and mix it in with other stuff?

[baldowrie]

coal ash and clinker is how the oldies used to make cinder paths...I am doing that where I live on a few areas. Don't know about wood ash, would have thought it too fine. Coal ash goes like cement after a while.

I would be interested in wood ash ideas too as next winter I shall be trying to burn just wood on my stove. It was too 'wet' this year

[Annpan]

Well I will try it... and report back

[red]

Can't you just add wood ash to the compost heap - not all at once, of course, but gradually and mix it in with other stuff?

thats what we do