I find it so embarrassing when someone I think I've never laid eyes on comes up and greets me by name. It's usually because they're out of context. How can you recognize someone you played against in a tennis tournament once when she's all decked out at a party? Or figure out who that man with such a familiar face nodding to you at the library is when you've only seen him wearing his white jacket behind the counter at the drugstore?
I had just such an experience at the supermarket the other day. Someone stopped me in the produce aisle, wanting to know which plants he should sprinkle the ashes from his stove on. When I finally figured out who the gentleman was, I promised to send him an email with the answer.
Since most of us accumulate ashes from our wood stoves or fireplaces during these cold nights, I thought you might also like to know which plants enjoy such attention. Wood ash is a great fertilizer. It's our reward for coping with smoky windows and the mess created as we shovel all those ashes into a bucket every couple of weeks. A cord of wood can turn into about 20 pounds of ashes, enough to fill a five gallon bucket.
None of the Taylor
photo albums included
a single one that would
be appropriate for this
column. Why would any-
one take a picture of
someone shoveling
ashes out of the wood
stove? I think it took me
eight or nine tries before
I got the camera to take
this one. By then I was
so fed up I decided it would
have to do, poor as it is.
Although nitrogen is the most important nutrient plants use, potassium and phosphorous, the two found in wood ash, are second and third in importance. Phosphorus provides plants with strong growth and a good root system. Without it, they will have stunted growth and poor fruit. Potassium strengthens stems, the reason it is good for long-legged delphiniums and heavy-headed peonies.
More than 50% of wood ash is calcium, which has the same properties as lime. Since most New England soil tends to be acidic, adding wood ashes will improve its pH. Do you know what pH stands for? It's the potential of hydrogen, the colorless, highly flammable gas that blew up the Hindenburg in World War II. Most dirigibles use helium, but the United States didn't allow the export of this gas during the war, so the Germans used hydrogen, with rather disastrous results.
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. Some plants, such as lettuce, spinach, carrots, beets, broccoli, cucumbers and Swiss Chard like lots of it, while the acid loving plants like radishes, potatoes, tomatoes, watermelons, most perennials and evergreen shrubs, definitely don't.
The scale that measures the pH of your soil isn't like your bathroom scale. It goes from 0 to 14, ascending from very acidic, or sour soil, to alkaline or swseet soil, but unlike the scale measuring pounds and ounces, the pH scale is logarithmic like the Richter scale that measure the seismic vibrations of an earthquake. Each step of the scale is multiplied by 10.
A pH of 7.0 is neutral, but adding too much wood ash to your soil if it's already pretty neutral, can easily raise the pH to 8.0, so "sweet" that no plant will be happy growing in it. Most lime-loving plants are happiest with a pH of 7.0 or 7.5. Acid lovers, azaleas, laurel, rhododendrons and all the berries, from raspberries to blueberries, like a pH anywhere from 4.0 to 6.0, so it's best to sprinkle ashes on your soil a little at a time. Like adding salt to your soup, it's easier to add more later than it is to try and take out the excess.
Always pick a damp, windless day when you spread your ashes. Otherwise you'll end up looking as gray and gritty as a three-day-old snow bank in Manhatten. I usually choose one of those balmy afternoons in March when getting outside is a must. I dole out ashes to a few perennials and gently sprinkle a cup around the lilacs, the clematis vines and the areas of the vegetable garden where I plan to plant my lime-lovers. If I still have ashes left over, I fill a plastic garbage bag, poke a few holes in the bottom and let the ashes drift over the lawn as I stroll up and down enjoying that marvelous first taste of spring.
