Ash Ideas, Tips & Guides

Gardening for Wildlife: 21 of the Best Trees and Shrubs with Winter Berries

Fire destroys, but it also purifies and enriches. For thousands of years, indigenous people used fire to manipulate the landscape. Burning was used to clear land for farming and settlement, maintain grasslands for forage and to aid in both hunting and gathering. We use it here at the South Carolina Botanical Garden to manage some of our habitats in the Natural Heritage Garden. In the Prairie Exhibit, fire is used to clear out woody plants that would ultimately shade out grasses. The ashes reinvigorate the soil with a nutrient dump. In the past, the resultant fresh new grasses would attract bison and other herbivores, which would then be hunted for meat and other materials. The Longleaf Pine Savannah Exhibit is also an example of a fire-maintained habitat. Burning consumes the leaf litter, enabling the longleaf pine seedlings to sprout; then, at most stages, they are fire-adapted and resistant. The suppression of fire throughout the United States rendered these habitats extremely rare.

Can cigar ash prove to be the secret ingredient your plants are missing? Will it be a good unconventional fertilizer? Time to find out!

From the Greek pyr, fire, probably with reference to fever, since the plant was used medicinally to assuage fever (Compositae). These hardy plants are admirable for a sunny border and last well as cut flowers. Long known as pyrethrum they are botanically classified under Chrysanthemum.

If your plants are showing signs of undernourishment despite all the favorable conditions, the soil’s acidity might be an underlying reason. Determine the soil pH as the first step, and then learn How to Change Your Soil pH, amending it with the right nutrients.

Today’s photos are from Phyllis Strohmeyer in northwestern New Jersey (Zone 6A).

Vacuum cleaners may seem like magic, but they're not designed to do it all. Most standard vacuums excel at cleaning up everyday dirt including dust, cobwebs, and crumbs, but they struggle against bigger messes that could clog their critical inner workings.

Designed to fit into tiny crevices and cracks, a patio weeder is a simple tool that will make neatening up your garden that little bit easier.

Sowing seeds doesn’t need to be a tricky business. Whether you are planting vegetable seeds such as chillies and tomatoes, or colourful sweet pea flowers or cornflowers, a dibber will help you out.

August has been a strange month and although in parts of the UK has been particularly wet, here in the no-mans land between the East and West Midlands we have had rain throughout the month, but not in any great quantity, and it has been warm rather than hot Looking back, I am guessing this the reason behind the almost overwhelming growth in the garden, growth of annuals, perennials, shrubs  – and WEEDS!

Autumn slowly settles in and the pretty flower gardens lose most of their charm. However, every cloud has a silver lining, which means it’s time to admire the pretty autumn foliage that trees offer. Did you know that the ancient Celtic druids used to worship trees?

Have you recently cut a tree in your garden and are now left with a stump to deal with? If so, you’re in luck, as in this post, you’ll learn of all the effective ways of removing a tree stump. These include using your hands, digging, burning, grinding or applying a chemical stump remover.

Is hardwood decking better than softwood? A common question anyone who plans to build a deck in their garden thinks about. Plenty of factors that concern both types of decking boards are equally essential to consider before making your final decision on which one will suit your needs better.

Q: We have a Malus (ornamental crab apple tree) in our back garden, which has grown from small to its present 20ft over 15 years. It buds and flowers nicely, but then turns a bit shabby. It doesn’t seem like a healthy tree. Can you help? We are debating whether we need to remove it and replace it. If it does need to be removed, what replacement would you suggest? CF, Co Kilkenny

Victorian gardeners seem to have coped very well with the winter conditions and were able to get seeds off to an early start. The climate was not too different 150 years ago to that which we endure today so how did Victorians cope. Seed was often sown earlier than we do now and the varieties of seed were no different except for some of our softer hybrids. ‘The answer lies in the soil’ and copious amounts of compost.

Common Ash trees row widely in the UK and other Ashes grow in Asia and America. Our Ash has dark almost black buds and some species have interesting flowers but it is as a tree the provided wood to make bows that the Ash is best known in Britain.

Malta, Gozo and Comino are Mediterranean island hot spots for early coastal flowers if these photos are anything to go by. Not a plant hunters paradise but a photographers opportunity to get some good shots.

Our series of tree reviews covers exotics and UK trees with a few specials thrown in. Each separate post covers;

The Rowan or Mountain Ash, Sorbus aucuparia is a member of the same family as the rose and is part of the large Sorbus genus (50+ distinctive species).  They are highly variable with several regional sub species. The trees can be quite singular in appearance when shaped by wind on high moors and mountains.

It is hard to picture how old this tree would be had it lived. Judging by the spread of it’s roots, which were over 12 feet in diameter, it would have been some sized tree.

Not what you would expect for a garden called ‘The Phoenix Garden’  in the middle of  Tottenham Court Road near Crown Point. It isn’t a phoenix from the ashes of a great fire or a WW11 bomb site at but was built on a disused car park in the 1980s. It may be part of an overflowing burial ground for St Giles-in-the-field church back in the 1600s and is reputed to be the last surviving Covent ‘Garden’. The entrance is located in St Giles Passage

Ash trees take lots and lots of goodness from the soil then die back or get turned into CO2 as firewood.

Commonly known as the Winter melon and Chinese watermelon, Ash gourd is native to Japan is found commonly throughout India. When touched, the fruit leaves an ash-like residue on hands. That’s the reason behind its interesting name! Here’s all you need to know about growing Ash gourd!

Who would have thought that a little green beetle – not even an inch long – would cause billions of dollars in damage and lead to the death of millions of trees? The emerald ash borer (EAB for short, Fig. 1) was first discovered in 2002 (but probably arrived in the late 1990s) near Detroit, MI, and is now present in most of eastern North America (current distribution map from APHIS:  https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/planthealth/plant-pest-and-disease-programs/pests-and-diseases/emerald-ash-borer The larvae (young) of this beetle feed on the phloem of ash trees (genus Fraxinus), and their feeding nearly always results in tree death. Oh, and not just one type of ash tree – all of them: white, green, blue, pumpkin…if it’s a Fraxinus species, it’s susceptible to EAB.

Westwood (below, right, in the lab) directs the Global Tree Conservation Program at the arboretum, which strives to save threatened trees from extinction through collaborations with botanical gardens and universities, and others in China, Europe, and Mexico, as well as throughout the U.S. She has a particular interest in oaks—including a number of American species in trouble—which we also talked about.Read along as you listen to the Nov. 6, 2017 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).emerald ash borer and threatened oaks,with morton’s dr. murphy westwoodQ. Before we get started on trees in trouble, I believe I read that in 2015, the Morton Arboretum had its first millionth annual visitor tally. Is that correct?A. That’s rig

Best way to use wood ash is to spread it on the garden beds. But you should do this with precaution of not exaggerating the doses as wood ash increases the pH level.

Most of us may not burn as much firewood as we used to anymore, but doing so will be a lot beneficial for our gardens! Because wood ash is a good source of potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, aluminum, boron, and many other beneficial plant elements.