I have heard that adding wood ash to gardens can help balance out an acidic soil and add trace nutrients in (when used with care of course). My parents often take care of their unwanted leaves and sticks / branches that fall each year by burning a few piles of it. There is quite a pile of old ash down there where they last burned. However it was a couple of months ago since they last burned, and its rained quite a few times on the pile. So im curious if the stuff is totally useless now other than adding soil texture perhaps. It has no more odor left to it and looks more like potting soil now, with a similar texture.
Old wood ash for my garden bed?
I posted this on another forum for you. I'll let you know what they say...
ok thanks a ton :)
Check out these replies:
http://thebayougardener.com/smf/index.php?topic=23034.0;topicseen
ok so sounds like i could get away with putting a little bit in there, that garden bed first started out as an acidic clay soil. although it sounds like i was right in the first place about it being nothing more than addition to soil texture since its rained on it a lot. The ash pile consisted mostly of the raked leaves around here, i would say 80% leaves to 20% wood. our woods around here being mostly poplar, with some oak, and pine scattered here and there.