On 19/06/2015 11:31 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
I often end up with a pile of charcoal from burning brush piles . I'd like
to incorporate some of it into the soil in the wife's rose garden and into
my food garden . How fine does it need to be ? Are chunks somewhat smaller
than a briquet OK , or do I need to pulverize it before working it into the
soil ? Most of it is already pretty small , around teaspoon sized , with
some fines and some bigger chunks .

It, and the very fine ash, are both wonderful resources and never used
to be wasted in times past before humans climbed on the manufactured
chemical merry-go-round and when they still knew the value of real
manure and other natural products.

In winter we heat our house with wood and use a wood burning stove for
cookign on and heating our water. ALL the wood ash and carbon chunks
can be spread round the garden just as they come from the ash pan. The
only restriction is that you sprinkle it round like you were putting
icing sugar ('confectioners sugar' in USian) on he top of a cake and
don't ever put it on thickly.

I do sometimes sieve out the carbon chunks using a garden sieve so that
I can use them to lay over soil in the Spring to (hopefully) result in
warmer soil earlier by having the black carbon to the top of the soil.
I'm not sure if it works but that's my theory and it sure hasn't done
any harm so far.