A cord of hardwood produces roughly 5 to 10 gallons of wood ash. Here are a few ways that you could recycle your ash. You can read the ideas below or we also posted a YouTube video (scroll to bottom of this page) that shows some of these examples in action.
Woodstove cleaner. Mix some ash with some water and create a paste. It becomes an abrasive cleaner to clean your window. It works surprisingly well
Cleaning oil spills. Ash can absorb oil spills just like kitty litter can. My husband does all of our car work in our garage, and we sometimes get oil spills on the ground, we have been using some cheap cat litter, but why not use what we have on hand and what is for free? By sprinkling wood ash onto an oil spill, it will absorb the oil and allow for an easy cleanup with an outdoor broom and dustpan.
Repairing ruts in driveway. We use ash in ruts in our driveway and it hardens up like concrete!
Eliminate odors in fridge or freezer. I use baking soda to absorb odors in my fridge, but I just found out that putting a cup or so of ash in a bowl or even a mason jar towards the back will do the same trick as the baking soda.
Natural ice melt. Did you know you can use ash as a way to melt ice on your driveway or walkway? There are natural minerals in the wood ash that help melt ice. Just be careful if you put it close to your house when entering, it would easily come into your house from your shoes.
Fertilize gardens. If you create a circle of wood ash around your crops this will prevent slugs and snails from crossing into your plant beds. Or dump a bucket on your garden
Dust bath for poultry. I have so much sand here on our homestead, but I just found out that ash helps treat fleas and other insects, it’s perfect for helping poultry relieve themselves of parasites. Chickens naturally dust bath to help clean their feathers of pesky bugs but give your girls an extra boost by adding some ash to their dust area.
Kerry W. Mann, Jr. moved to a 20-acre homestead in 2015, where he and his family use modern technology, including YouTube and Instructables, to learn new skills and teach homestead projects.
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