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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?!

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

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?

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

Nev

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

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.

Gidday

You got it Nev.

Annpan wrote:

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!

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

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

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!

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?

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

Well I will try it... and report back

ina wrote: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