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If you burn firewood, you have wood ashes. Don’t throw them out! There are many surprising ways to use ashes around the home and garden. Here are five practical ideas.
Each cord of firewood you burn will leave you with about 20 pounds of ashes or more, depending on your fuel source, heating appliance, and wood-burning skill.
Instead of putting them out with the trash, use your ashes in and around your home and garden!
Wood ash is a readily available source of potassium, calcium, and magnesium, which are essential for plant health. It’s a common way to increase your soil pH.
However, it is very important to know when to use wood ash and when NOT to use wood ash.
The answer to that question comes down to: What is your soil pH? Get a free soil test. (See how to take a soil test.) Soils in the pH range of 6.0 to 7.0 is optimal for most lawns and garden plants. Note: Select plants prefer a soil with a lower pH (acidic) and certain plants grow better in soil with a higher pH (alkaline).
When to Add Wood Ash
Add if your soil pH is too low (falling below 6.5). This reduces magnesium and calcium availability. For example, tomato blossom end rot is caused by a lack of calcium in the soil.
When Not to Add Wood Ash
Do not add wood ash if your soil is already alkaline, with a pH greater than 7.0. In alkaline soil, wood ash will hurt your plants and even kill them. Many plants can not take up nutrients if the soil pH gets too high. Trees will have yellow leaves (chlorosis), and some vegetables and fruit trees will also suffer. Elemental sulfur is used to lower soil pH.
If your soil is already in the optimal range (6.0 to 7.0), you do not want to mess with the pH.
Don’t apply ashes around acid-loving plants such as blueberries, rhododendrons, azaleas, and holly since wood ash will raise the pH and make the soil less desirable to those plants.
How to Use Wood Ash in the Garden
Wood ash is similar to lime (ground limestone or calcium carbonate), which also increases soil pH. However, unlike limestone, which can take 6 months or more to change soil pH, wood ash is water-soluble and changes the soil pH rapidly. Apply roughly twice as much ash by weight as the recommendation for limestone.
Soils already in the optimal pH range of 6.0 to 7.0 can handle 20 pounds, or one 5-gallon pail, of hardwood ashes per 1,000 square feet annually without raising the pH unduly. Do not apply more than 20 pounds, as high rates of wood ashes may cause short-term salt injury. Be careful when adding wood ash to your garden.
Wear eye protection, gloves, and a dust mask, and broadcast the ashes evenly on a dry, windless day. Mix them into the soil thoroughly before planting. Hose off any ashes that settle on actively growing plants to prevent burning the foliage.
More Ways to Use Wood Ash
Our ancestors learned to make lye, a caustic cleaning agent, at least 5,000 years ago by running water through wood ash, eventually learning to combine it with animal fats and water to make soap. Early Americans used ashes or homemade lye water for scrubbing wood floors, laundering clothes and bed linens, and soaking fresh-killed hogs to help remove the hair. For centuries, potters and ceramicists have used wood ashes to create beautiful glazes. Take a look.
Here are a few more suggestions for modern use:
2. Repel Slugs
Wood ashes sprinkled lightly around susceptible plants irritate slugs’ moist bodies and repel them. The repellent effect disappears after rain or irrigation dissolves the ashes. See other ways to deter slugs.
3. Melt Ice and Provide Winter Traction
When spread on walks and driveways, wood ashes will melt ice and provide traction. They don’t work quite as well as salt, and they can be messy if you don’t take steps to prevent the ashes from getting tracked into the house. But they’re free, and they won’t damage animal paws or paved surfaces.
4. Reduce or Remove Oil Stains
As a desiccant, wood ashes are very good at pulling liquids from other materials, including hard-to-clean surfaces such as asphalt, stone, and cement. Sprinkle wood ashes on the stain, and they will absorb any surface liquids. For tougher stains, sprinkle on wood ashes and then use an old rag to scrub the stain.
5. Clean Glass and Metal
It may be hard to believe, but hardwood ashes make fast work of grease, grime, and tarnish on glass, silverware, ovenware, grills, and glass stovetops, as well as gummy residues left by stickers and labels.
Dip a damp cloth in wood ashes or make a thick paste of ashes and a little water, scrub lightly with a cotton cloth, and rinse away with plain water and another cloth. Wear gloves for these scrubbing tasks to avoid caustic burns.
Be Safe!
As with all aspects of wood heating, use vigilance and common sense in handling and managing the ashes. Store them in a covered metal container set on dirt or concrete a few feet in all directions from any combustible surface.
Even though the ashes may appear cold, buried embers may remain live for days, even weeks.
Do you know any other uses for wood ashes? Let us know in the comments!
Margaret Boyles is a longtime contributor to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. She wrote for UNH Cooperative Extension, managed NH Outside, and contributes to various media covering environmental and human health issues. Read More from Margaret Boyles
I was wondering if it is safe to use ash from my woodstove insert in which I poured creosote remover over hot coals? Should I just throw away the ash? We use our woodstove for heat so it’s necessary to use creosote remover to keep it clear. Thank you
While it really depends on what the creosote remover product is made of, it is probably best to err on the side of caution and dispose of the ash that was created when you used the creosote remover. Save ash for use in the garden from when you just burned wood in your woodstove.
I'm just now seeing this article and now I'm worried about my pink lemonade blueberries, I replanted them to a sunnier spot and put a little bit of ashes and coffee grounds around them after replanting. What can I do? I hope I haven't hurt my berries. Any ideas?
Just read this article and thought I'd try it on a baked on ring on my glasstop stove. Kettle was left to boil and boiled dry! After it all cooled down, he pried the kettle off and tried to scrub the detritus with brillo...Did no further damage to stovetop but wounded his ego and burned the kettle. Now I have an electric one with an automatic shut off.... For a year that burnt on metallic ring has been there and nothing has worked. After reading, I got a microfiber cloth, wet it and dipped it into the cold ashes of our woodstove and voila! Have of the ring came off after about a minute of scrubbing and stovetop glistens where it was dull before. Now it's his turn to scrub. thank you for this article.
Wood ashes on a wad of damp newspaper will clean the creosote from stove or fireplace glass. Just scrub the glass, rinse with a wet paper towel & shine the glass. Brilliant!
