What types of outdoor garden plants “like” wood ashes added to their soil?
Putting ashes on garden soil that has been well maintained will make it more basic. We use a pH scale to represent this factor in our environment. The scale goes from acid-0 to basic-14 with 7 being neutral. You can read a simple explanation of this at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_pH Now for your question. I put my wood ashes primarily on my asparagus plants–at least one or two bucket loads per winter. I also use hardwood sawdust as mulch on my asparagus. The wood ashes make the soil more basic and provide several nutrients the asparagus likes. The sawdust tempers the change in pH a bit–sawdust makes the soil more acidic– and provides organic content to my sandy soil to hold moisture. You can put too many ashes on your asparagus. It is a good practice to have your garden soil analyzed every so often. Most plants prefer a pH from neutral to slightly acidic–the opposite of asparagus. Here is a chart
