Making Woodash

A few weeks ago (when it wasn't raining), I spent the afternoon making wood ash. Wood ash is particularly great for onions. It can be a good source of potassium - the nutrient that helps fruit and flower production. It has a liming effect so is particularly good for very acidic soils. I often use it as a mulch and if I have a lot, I also add a layer to the compost heap as a general soil improver. I usually make mine using our chiminea, but if we have a lot of material to burn then we will have a bonfire and I collect the wood ash up into bags afterwards. We happen to have a lot of wood around the garden from all the tree felling we have done. It is best to use dry wood because it burns easier and is a bit less smoky. I try to use wood that has been seasoned - left to dry out, for a year or so. I begin with a small amount of twigs and any dry kindling type materials, I also make sure I have a decent stack of different sized sticks and wood pieces so that I can keep feeding the fire.


However, as useful as wood ash can be in the garden, it should be used sparingly as creating too much alkalinity in the soil can damage plants. Wood ash can also cause scab in potatoes.
I love being able to recycle things from around the garden and put them back into the earth, it's good putting nutrients into the soil when I know where they have come from in the first place.
What do you recycle around the garden?

A Sunny Afternoon At The Beach

Since we moved to Brighton, one of my favourite things to do on a sunny day is stroll along the seafront and sit and watch the world go by and the waves roll in. Our favourite beach is Rottingdean, it's quiet and scenic, it has an olde world charm AND best of all, if you're lucky you'll find some sand to sit on and not just pebbles. We spent Friday afternoon sitting on the sand, soaking up the rays and watching the world go by. (There was more world going by than my photos suggest!)

The beach is a great day out, our niece and nephew love it, running about, hunting for crabs and making sand castles keeps them amused for hours. I like wondering along the shoreline hunting for shells or pieces of driftwood to use in the house or garden. I have also been known to collect bag-fulls of seaweed for the garden. It makes a great addition to the compost heap, or you can use it to mulch around plants while it slowly releases nutrients back into the soil. Again, collecting seaweed is that it is totally free and great for the garden.

Best of all, a trip to the beach can feel like you've been transported to somewhere completely different and far flung, but it's completely free.