Fran Farmer wrote:
On 20/06/2015 11:32 AM, Terry Coombs wrote:
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 .

I have read from someone whose gardening prowess I admire, that
Peaonys LOVE wood ash in a very big way. I've only started giving
mine a regular does of ashes though quite recently so can't vouch for
the veracity of that claim.

The peonies I planted didn't come up ... but it wasnt like I bought them , a
friend gave us a few pieces of root that we found while we were digging up
other stuff . I don't think those came up either . But that's alright ,
we've got 2 kinds of Iris , roses , tulips , gladiolus , and the roses for
perennials , plus some marigolds and whatever bee-friendly plants that
actually come up - some of them also perennials . Oh , and I almost forgot
all the daffodils , there are 4 different kinds out there .

--
Snag