permaculture

[Robyn Francis <erda@nor.com.au>]

There's many uses for wood beyond sparing garden applications - here's a few
of the things I use it for.

Wood ash is the main cleaning agent I use in the home - I sift out the fine
white ash for cleaning sinks, stove top and oven, pots and pans, any
stainless steel surfaces, grease, oil etc  I often make up batches lightly
fragranced with an antiseptic essential oil (lemon myrtle's my favourite)
and pack nicely as gifts for friends who don't have access to wood ash as a
natural cleaner - they love it and invariably ask for more when it runs out.

I also use wood ash to cure my olives as a substitute for salt for the first
2-3 soakings to reduce the saltiness of salt-brine treatment.

I keep a jar of the sifted ash mixed with a little fine sand for washing
hands, especially for when I've been handling oily or sticky things. I mix a
little fine wood ash and sand into my "gardeners soap" as well.

BTW does anyone know proportions for making the correct strength Lye from
wood ash for soap making. I make an annual batch of soap and would prefer to
make my own lye from wood ash rather than caustic soda.

I also use wood ash for storing things - keeps bugs out of stored seed, and
roll my Jerusalem artichokes in ash before I put them into clamp storage
etc.

In the garden it can be used as snail barriers but use sparingly. Pumpkins
can handle a bit more wood ash than most other veg.

Ciao

Robyn

On 18/12/06 7:06 AM, "Karen Kellogg" <garuda2@comcast.net> wrote:

> So, any suggestions on what to do with the wood ashes?  Pick one spot
> and designate it as the 'ash dump'?  Get them off the property? To
> where?
> The soil only needs a tad, we don't want to breathe them or have them
> in our water,  not in the compost... Is it safe to use them to dampen
> plant growth, say along a fence line that is hard to mow?
> 
> Karen
> 
> 
> On Dec 17, 2006, at 8:08 AM, Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:
> 
>> john norton wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi
>>> Be careful if using wood ash as a soil amendment. The
>>> burning can form polycyclic aromatiic hydrocarboms
>>> PAHs in the ash, which can be acutely toxic to plants
>>> and people and they can be carcinogenic.
>> 
>> If at all, only use small amounts of wood ashes in
>> gardens. A friend years ago put all the ashes from his wood stove
>> on his large garden
>> year after year. The soil became poisoned and very little would
>> grow in it. It took him years to get it back to normal.
>> 
>> Never add wood ashes or any pH mediating product to a compost pile.
>> The bacteria in compost regulate pH themselves;
>> if you override this with ashes or lime the pile will cease to
>> function normally and you will end up with poor compost.
> 
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