burn cans

[pop goes the weasel]

Where we live we are able to burn our paper that we don't recycle some way. My question is when the barrel gets full is it ok to ut the ashes on the garden or will this take nutrients out of the soil? I have seen people do this but I didn't want to chance ruining our garden for this year. we have it pretty well the way we want it.

[Grainlady]

Not everything in the garden will benefit from ashes, which are commonly from hardwood, not trash. Applications of a LITTLE wood ash to asparagus will make them "happy", but most plants like pH from neutral to slightly acidic. Give your Cooperative Extension (County Extension Office) a call for more information.

When I was a kid growing up in the 50's and 60's, EVERYONE had a burn barrel. I'd also say things have changed in the world enough to try and avoid burning at all costs.

"Uncontrolled combustion such as burning of household waste is expected to become the largest quantified source of dioxin emissions to the environment."

In this day and age with all the bleached paper, plastic packaging and plastic products, I don't consider burning ANYTHING but a hazzardous thing. Even paper contains dyes, coatings, pigments, chlorine, that can form even more chemicals when burned and are released into the air.

[rosey7415]

i have a firepit. a number of people have told us that the ashes were good for the garden. i never did it yet, though. i am sure there are more knowledgeable gardeners on here that will know for sure.

[old_lady_in_the_shoe]

I have a burn barrel and we dump our ashes out along the fence line...we usually dumb sort of heavy and this helps to "keep the weeds down" on the fence row. We burn wood too and do this with the hardwood ashes too. I have scattered them out lightly in the garden every other year, but only lightly... you can also put them into your compost pile. If nothing else, you can dig a hole in the ground and bury them .

[RetiredVeryEarly]

Ashes from wood are usually beneficial in small quantity unless you have alkaline soil already. Ashes from burning anything else should not be put into a garden where you grow food. Too many metal dyes and plastic coatings and things. Why burn the paper instead of recycling it? Plain black and white newspaper can be used as mulch to smother weeds in a garden, but colored paper especially magazine paper tends to have a lot of crud in it, heavy metals for the coloring specifically. Better to put the paper in a pile and let it rot than burn it and release the smoke from who knows what. Burning trash creates a lot of pollution. My own neighbors do it and we live right by the recycling collection center! I find this baffling.

[dogmatix]

Mix them into your compost pile. That's what we do.

[pop goes the weasel]

Our garbage haulers are particular about what we put in the trash. Just nonburn items and non toxic thigns of course. The stuff we burn is mostly old recipts that we don't want to put in the garden because of the ink and dyes or stuff with personal info on them, Thanks for the suggestions