As you know, through winter we heat our home and cook using a woodstove , so we produce lots of wood ash as a result. Our current woodstove has a very clever design where the ash tray can be pulled out and emptied easily, this makes cleaning much more pleasant than when you have to scoop out all the ash. We have to clean out the ash tray every couple of days if we have the woodstove burning every day. A bucket of wood ash We don't see the ash as a waste product though. Wood ash is all the mineral matter remaining from the wood that was burnt, so its great for adding minerals to garden soil. It usually also contains some unburnt carbon (biochar). I spread the ash through the garden and tip it into the compost as well. Wood ash is good for chickens to dust bath with , so I put it in their nesting boxes with a layer of wood shavings. Spreading wood ash on the garden - I just hose it into the soil I thought it would be simple to find out ...