Fran Farmer wrote:
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.

Kewl ! We also heat with wood , and I usually put the ashes into the compost
pile . Some were spread on the rose garden in late spring .

--
Snag