Is Wood Ash Good For The Garden
But should they be used on the garden.
Is wood ash good for the garden. Besides you can add it into the soil to do several things. Catherine Mansley BBC Gardeners World Magazine explains all in our Quick Tips video. It is great for use in your compost heap.
Never use wood ash in the garden especially around edible plants if any fuel or wood preservative was used on the wood. Ash is the powdery residue that remains after burning wood. In fact many of those people have written in to Burkes Backyard asking if its all right to put wood ash onto the garden.
The good news is that if youre burning charcoal or wood a small amount of ash is actually beneficial for soils in many areas of Australia. If you compost a lot of acidic material such as fruit waste the wood ash will help to keep the compost at a lower pH. Hardwoods like oak and maple contain extremely high nutrient and mineral levels.
This is because wood ash will produce lye and salts if it gets wet. Ash from wood fires such as bonfires or wood burning stoves can be a useful additive to the compost heap or can be applied directly to fallow ground and dug in. One of the places it is most versatile is in the garden.
Not only that using ashes in the garden also provides many of the trace elements that plants need to thrive. When wood ash is fresh and hot do not use it. Always test your soil before using wood ash in the garden.
In general terms wood ash is good for garden fertilizer. It also has a liming effect so wood ash can remedy excessively acidic soils. However the ash has different potency levels depending on the type of wood that was burned.