Good evening
As the proud owner of a wood stove >1, there is a certain amount of wood ash that I have to handle.
Until now, I filtered the ash to eliminate anything looking odd and as well a staples that keep together crates for fruit: I work at a place where worn out crates are piling up and they are quite efficient in our wood stove, in the morning.
The ashes, together with that of oak- and ash wood then go either – in small volumes – into the compost or I scatter it under the trees and bushes of our hedges.
My question is: Do you think I could just quit filtering the ashes? The staples should rust and decay. But I cannot estimate an amount of metal or its oxides that the soil can condone.
I know people who do not care, and never hesitated to use the ashes in their vegetable garden and elsewhere, directly as they retrieved it from their stoves.
Having composed this article with the help of a German-English dictionary, I wonder now, if it was worth the effort. ;) You will tell me.
Cheerio
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1) meaning we emit the same CO2 that our trees had the time to accumulate during their life time, not the one that you dig out from the depths of coalmines or oil wells – not the topic of this post