How To Use Wood Ashes In The Garden – And Why They Work?
January 20, 2023
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If you have a wood-burning stove, fireplace, or fire pit at home, don’t toss away the resulting ashes! You might be surprised to learn that wood ashes can actually offer many benefits to your garden, especially if you think your garden is suffering from poor soil quality.
It’s not often that avid gardeners experience perfect soil conditions. For soil that is too acidic, adding ash to your garden can help to neutralize it safely. While many people add lime into their soil for this reason, you can simply add about four times more ash. Plus, it’s free!
Before adding ash to your soil, it’s a good idea to do a pH test so you know exactly what you’re working with. You can buy a testing kit for soil at most home and garden stores. If your test results come back as having soil with a pH level lower than 6.5, you can safely add ashes to lessen the acidity.
Ash contains a wide variety of minerals, most notably calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, and potassium. Adding this material to soil that is too high in acidity will help to neutralize it, and create soil that is full of nutrients. In turn, your plants will grow healthier and faster (especially if you have a veggie garden!).
All you need to do is sprinkle a light layer of ash into your soil, using a garden rake to mix it together. If your garden is full of plants that love acidic soil conditions, you won’t want to add anything that will neutralize it. However, adding ash to your overly acidic soil is a safe, free, and effective way to improve soil quality. Happy gardening!