shazzbat wrote:
"Chris Hogg" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 2 Jun 2005 10:50:29 +0000 (UTC), " Jeanne Stockdale"
wrote:

We have just had our chimney swept (real coal fire, not smokeless
fuel) and the sweep has left us a bag of soot.

Is there any way this can be used on the garden?

Jeanne

Although widely used as a soil additive and fertiliser in the past
(note the publication dates on the handbooks mentioned elsewhere
in
this thread), ISTR that coal soot can/does contain heavy metal
residues, so perhaps you should keep it away from your veggies.


My dad used to say that it didn't do the garden much good, but it
didn't do much harm either. He was adamant that the practice of
putting it on the garden was a get-out for chimney sweeps so they
didn't have to bother with its disposal. They would say "want the
soot for yer garden missis?" and people would think he was doing
them a favour.

There is the sulphur problem: I believe some coal has a high sulphur
content. This would be an ally against fungi and some pests, but I'm
not sure how much good it does the soil -- too much would be bad, but
I don't know how much is too much.

Passing the windswept thinly-grassed hillsides in a former
coal-mining area in the school trip coach, I suggested reclaiming it
might be the next challenge for a very progressive farmer friend, and
he commented in negative tones that the ground must be full of
sulphur. He's the kind of bloke you listen to. (I nodded wisely; but
twenty years younger, and I'd love a crack at it myself: I reckon
several generations of sheep and some hedges and trees would sort it
out in the end).

--
Mike.