What did you do in the garden today?

[Ascholten]

I have a bucket of wood ash from the fireplace.... Wondering how much you would give them?

Id say sprinkle a hand full or two down, it largely depends on the tree size too. Given you make Lye from wood ash, to make soap with, Id not to want to throw TOO much of it on them. let me go do some googling and see if I can come to a consensus from the 500 different answers Im sure to get, as to what is the correct amount

Aaron

 

[Ascholten]

Here are some ash tidbits:
Only use wood ash on acid soils and low-potassium soils that can benefit from its application. Never apply more than 25 pounds of wood ash per 1,000 square feet in a given year. After applying ashes, have your soil tested again before applying any more wood ash. While wood ash is a good fertilizer and liming agent, excessive use of wood ash in the garden can be harmful to soil fertility balance.
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Only add wood ash to the compost heap occasionally (every 15cm/6in of material), as heavier use risks high levels of alkalinity and soluble salts which could damage plants and soil.

If applying wood ash directly to soils, do this in winter and rake or dig it in. This will allow the compounds in the ash which could scorch plants to react with the moist soil and be rendered harmless before spring sowing or planting.
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Wood ash can be spread directly on soil in the vegetable garden in late winter at a rate of 50-70g per sq m (1.7-2.4oz per sq yd); **My comment: that's basically grab a handfull and spread around where you are standing, it don't seem to take much at all with this !!**

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So it appears a little goes a LONG way with this and it's fairly easy to over do it. It also appears that using ash from my pallets is probably not a very good idea either,at least for food crops.

Aaron

 

[TJAnonymous]

Here are some ash tidbits:
Only use wood ash on acid soils and low-potassium soils that can benefit from its application. Never apply more than 25 pounds of wood ash per 1,000 square feet in a given year. After applying ashes, have your soil tested again before applying any more wood ash. While wood ash is a good fertilizer and liming agent, excessive use of wood ash in the garden can be harmful to soil fertility balance.
======
Only add wood ash to the compost heap occasionally (every 15cm/6in of material), as heavier use risks high levels of alkalinity and soluble salts which could damage plants and soil.

If applying wood ash directly to soils, do this in winter and rake or dig it in. This will allow the compounds in the ash which could scorch plants to react with the moist soil and be rendered harmless before spring sowing or planting.
======
Wood ash can be spread directly on soil in the vegetable garden in late winter at a rate of 50-70g per sq m (1.7-2.4oz per sq yd); **My comment: that's basically grab a handfull and spread around where you are standing, it don't seem to take much at all with this !!**

======


So it appears a little goes a LONG way with this and it's fairly easy to over do it. It also appears that using ash from my pallets is probably not a very good idea either,at least for food crops.

Aaron

Our soil is supposedly acidic here. Not sure how much I ascribe to that belief BUT I will toss some around the trees (and in the garden) sparingly.

We easily collect 1 - 2 buckets per month of wood ash during winter. We've been tossing it into the compost pile. The entire compost pile is easily 20 ft x 20 ft x a foot high. Not uniform, of course, so thicker in some areas than others. We dump a LOT of stuff out there. Manure from chickens, ducks, horses, goats, and rabbit, along with shavings, straw, hay, leaves, and kitchen scraps. The chickens do the turning whenever they free range,along with other critters (foxes, coons, possums, etc...).

 

[Ascholten]

Im going to be adding algae water and Tilapia Poo to my compost piles here soon. Should be interesting as the water component of it should really jump start any composting going on here.

Aaron

 

[TJAnonymous]

Im going to be adding algae water and Tilapia Poo to my compost piles here soon. Should be interesting as the water component of it should really jump start any composting going on here.

Aaron

I'll add algae to mine in the spring when the blooms get thick and nasty

 

[Ascholten]

mine are pretty thick right now, it's been warmer out, which is good, the less I have to heat them in the winter the better. Spring hopefully i get a good hefty batch of young'uns in there to get the population up and then I can really get it self sustaining like I want. Right now I only got like 6 or 7 in there, and not looking to really boost that too much until after the winter and the season is right.

Aaron

 

[chickengr]

Here are some ash tidbits:
Only use wood ash on acid soils and low-potassium soils that can benefit from its application. Never apply more than 25 pounds of wood ash per 1,000 square feet in a given year. After applying ashes, have your soil tested again before applying any more wood ash. While wood ash is a good fertilizer and liming agent, excessive use of wood ash in the garden can be harmful to soil fertility balance.
======
Only add wood ash to the compost heap occasionally (every 15cm/6in of material), as heavier use risks high levels of alkalinity and soluble salts which could damage plants and soil.

If applying wood ash directly to soils, do this in winter and rake or dig it in. This will allow the compounds in the ash which could scorch plants to react with the moist soil and be rendered harmless before spring sowing or planting.
======
Wood ash can be spread directly on soil in the vegetable garden in late winter at a rate of 50-70g per sq m (1.7-2.4oz per sq yd); **My comment: that's basically grab a handfull and spread around where you are standing, it don't seem to take much at all with this !!**

======


So it appears a little goes a LONG way with this and it's fairly easy to over do it. It also appears that using ash from my pallets is probably not a very good idea either,at least for food crops.

Aaron

I sprinkle little wood ash even on my non acidic soil. if I see bugs I sprinkle some on the leaves too (not on the flowers!). never had issues and bugs hate it.

 

[Sally PB]

So it appears a little goes a LONG way with this and it's fairly easy to over do it. It also appears that using ash from my pallets is probably not a very good idea either,at least for food crops.

Here's my experience with wood ash on my garden.

We burn a lot of wood, so we get buckets of ash over the winter. Almost all of it is from oak or maple; sassafras or elm occasionally, pine for kindling, so not often.

One year, I went out with a bucket and used a cottage cheese container as a scoop. I sprinkled it around until the bucket was almost empty, or so I thought. I tipped the bucket and dumped it over about 20' of area. Well, there was a lot more ash than I thought, and it ended up pretty thick.

I did this in the middle of winter and planted alfalfa in that area in the spring. You could see exactly where I had dumped too much ash. And where I emptied the bucket, the alfalfa barely grew.

I haven't put ash on the garden since then. I dump it out in the woods or the field. I thought with all the oak leaves I use that the soil would be very acidic. Nope. Not sure why, but it isn't.

When I mix my own potting soil, I use about 1 cottage cheese container worth of ash to add some minerals.

 

[CaroleW]

I need to till up some area too. I dont have a tiller but I have a fence post digger that's a friggin animal, and you can easily renneck that to be my Polock Garden Grinder . Ive done stupider things with other more dangerous tools that worked in the past sooo.... besides I do believe I promised ya'all a video of the thing subbing for a tiller so I need to make that.

I also need to take a good hard look into the bees to make sure they are doing well for the winter, one last spray if I need for mites and possibly set up the feeders for them but so far, the spanish needle and some other stuff is still chuggin along cause it's not been hard frost yet.. It's so nice out, almost the 80s and I got so much stuff to do OUT,but I also have so much stuff Ive been neglecting that I have to do IN side as well.

Does anyone have any teenagers they are tired of their crap? I'll rent them from you for a few weeks. You get R and R, I whip their asses, put them to work and straighten their attitudes out for you, and they get my garden ready for spring time. a win win whine situation

Aaron

I don't know if you have a chicken tractor or an environment to keep them safe from predators in a chicken tractor but they like to clear and till...

 

[Sequel]

I would kill DH if he got us matching 100+k trucks like they do on tv.

I did buy myself a 12 quart stainless stock pot tho! Needed an in between size. I give out my jam to people, I don’t do presents. Took me years to talk my family out of that ‘you give me a gift card & I’ll give you one’. Thankfully. DHs family plays that game & I refuse to be a part of it. Have a jam. Lol

I do the very same thing! Now they all look forward to the jam!