If you are burning wood in your fireplace or wood stove you can recycle the ash this spring! Since wood ash is derived from plant material, it contains most of the 13 essential nutrients that the soil must supply for plant growth. When wood burns, nitrogen and sulfur are lost as gases, and calcium, potassium, magnesium and trace elements remain.
The value that your ash will have for your garden, trees, and certain shrubs is all determined by the type wood that you are burning. A quick way to measure what you think your ash is worth is that hardwoods produce three times more ash per cord than softwoods, and five times as much nutrients are present in the hardwood ash.
Before applying the ash from your winter season to your lawn and plants do some research on the proper amount to apply!
