Where Do You Chuck Your Stove Ash?

[5thelement]

I spread mine thinly on my rose beds and let the rain wash it straight into the soil, they produce excellent blooms. 
Any surplus goes straight into the compost heap for future use on the plot.

[porky]

3 hours ago, AHPP said:

I've often wondered whether it would be good for soaking up oil spills.

Supposed to be good for removing oil stains on drives but haven't tried it yet.

[Doug Tait]

4 hours ago, John Skinner said:

My immediate issue is how to get the 6cube of loose softwood thats being dumped around the front of the house next week (or maybe later this week) round to the far back of the house without freezing to death in the process 🥶 lol

 

Moving it will be your first heat from it!

[John Skinner]

1 minute ago, Doug Tait said:

 

Moving it will be your first heat from it!

 

Aye, you're not wrong there.

 

Using the old brown bin moving method, as it works better than the wheelbarrow and doesn't kill my back as much. Move it round the back, then throw it into the 4 pallet bays in the wood shed. Then what wont fit in there will have to go in the open wood store, and the remainder into two wheelie bins by the back door. Unless its snowing, in which case it'll all stay in the drive - lol 😂

[Steven P]

Smokeless fuels and ash.... a big difference what you buy, the ones I pick up from the garage / discount supermarket / big warehouse DIY store are just black ash, the 50kg sack from the local coal man is OK - ash pan emptied every day and a half with that, hourly with the others.

 

For me I have coal and logs, the coal ash has a lot of nasty stuff in it for the plants. I have a pile in the garden, generally used to fill in holes in the patio, though it is also quite good to throw on the road to get a bit of grip (not the drive since that gets walked into the house). Sawdust is also quite good to put on snow, adds grip.

 

 

Ash fires..... Cameron house hotel at Loch Lomond started when a night porter put some hot ashes in a cupboard

 

 

[Dazza95]

I scatter them on the lawn once they’ve cooled. 

[neiln]

They do contain potassium and other minerals good for plants, soft or hardwood ash that is, from sap wood, heart wood contains very little.  It's got a lot of lye, calcium oxide, so it is yes very alkaline and not good for plants like this.  Put it on your compost heap which is probably a bit acid, and wet so the water slaking the lye, and then over time the slaked lye reacting with co2 in the air, gets it to calcium carbonate and not so alkali. So after a month or three in the compost it's likely safe to spread on the garden.  I then take the compost with ash mix and some goes on flower beds, some top dresses the lawn.

 

The lye makes it good for cleaning oil spills, a car mechanic mate who works a few doors up gets sack fulls of sawchips and the odd sack of ash from me for this.

[gand]

It just gets chucked on the compost heap. Job done 

[peds]

Dust bath for the hens, scattered along the hedge, and tossed through the finished compost heap as it ages, not onto the active pile. I get the feeling that the creepy crawlies aren't keen on big loads of ash.

 

My bloody mother-in-law cleaned out the fireplace yesterday and removed the bed of ash from the hearth, not just the space underneath. She didn't quite hoover it, but almost. The fire is not burning happily today. Tomorrow I'm going to tip a load from the ash bucket back into the fireplace and tamp it down. 

[neiln]

weather like this, ash is good for spreading on snowy and icey paths