Photo courtesy of moonaimee at Flickr.com.
Wood ash is an excellent organic gardening material with a number of uses, and you need look no further than your fireplace or wood-burning stove to get it. Not only can you add wood ashes to your compost bin in limited quantities (no more than two gallons per 9 cubic meters of compost), it also makes a good amendment to acidic soils, offering an NPK ratio of about 0-6-3. Please note – charcoal ash should not be mixed with soil because it may contain some harmful chemicals.
In addition, you can use wood ashes as a perfectly natural physical barrier to slugs and crawling insects. Just lay down a line of ash around the plants you want to protect, and the creepy-crawlies won’t dare invade lest they scratch themselves on the ash and cause deadly damage.
Photo courtesy of LemonCadet at Flickr.com.
{ 0 comments… add one now }