I don’t know about you, but during the winter, I just cannot get warm without a fire! Every time I build a new fire something must be done with the ashes from the previous one.  We try to recycle as much as we can, and I just abhor waste. What can we do with those wood ashes?

A great way to use them is to apply them to the garden. Before we do that, we must decide which garden area would benefit from wood ashes. Ashes from hardwood trees make great soil amendment for certain types of plants. They contain nutrients like phosphorus, potassium, and other elements that will promote bloom and strengthen roots on plants such as lilacs, rosemary, and peonies, as well as certain vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, and collards. Don’t use ashes from charcoal fires or from treated lumber, because they contain chemicals that would be harmful to plants.

The addition of wood ashes can be of great help to you when growing plants that prefer alkaline soil, especially if you have acid soil like we do in Georgia. The wood ashes will sweeten the soil, making it less acidic. You must be careful where you deposit the wood ashes, because plants like blueberries, camellias, azaleas, and rhododendrons all need acid soil, and will perish if you apply wood ashes around them.

To find out what kind of soil you have, you can take a soil sample to your local County Extension Service for evaluation. For a small fee, they will send it off for testing. For more information, just call your local county extension office.

Also, as with most fertilizers, a little wood ash goes a long way.  Apply no more than 20 pounds per 1000 square feet per year. Plus, wood ashes should never be applied too close to tender roots of newly planted seedlings, so it’s best to apply them to the soil well in advance of planting time. (Fall would be great!) Wood ashes are also beneficial to lawns if applied very sparingly and watered in well.

In addition to soil benefits, wood ashes make a good natural slug repellent---just encircle the vulnerable plant with a ring of ashes and the snail/slug will not cross the line!  Since ashes won’t be as plentiful next summer when snails are munching, you might want to save some for later in a galvanized bucket.

Planarian: Eater of Earthworms and Enemy of the Garden

When rearranging containers at the greenhouse recently, I ran across something unusually icky--a planarian. 

Land Planarian

Planaria are non-parasitic flatworms existing in most parts of the world. Some live in ponds, while others are terrestrial and can be found under flower pots or in other moist places. You've probably seen a planarian before, but might have mistaken it for a slimier than usual earthworm. 

A land planarian is long, flat, and either gray or brown with several black stripes running the length of the body. A planarian can be extremely long. I have seem them almost a foot in length. And, once again, this creature is not native to Georgia, but is thought to be originally from China. 

Planarians have been found in the United States since about 1901. Planarians just love greenhouses, because they provide everything a planarian needs to survive: moisture, humidity, and something to eat. Planarians appear to be dispersed with plants--we might unknowingly bring one home  in a plant we purchased. 

Planarians have a mouth that also serves as an anus. How gross is that?! 

Where might you find a planarian? They like places that are dark and moist, so look beneath container plants, boards, or rocks. If you're lucky enough to experience a heavy rain, they might even be seen on the soil surface, especially under shrubs. If you have a worm bed, look for a planarian attached to an earthworm.

High humidity is vital to the survival of a planarian, and they are seen most often in spring and fall. 

Planarians move about by gliding on a stream of mucus, and if they find themselves up on the leaves of a plant, they can lower themselves using a stream of that mucus. Yuk! They leave a shiny slime trail like that of a snail. You might be thinking, yes, this is grossly interesting, but what does all this have to do with gardening?

Planarians are cannibals and will eat each other. They will also eat slugs, which could be a help to the gardener. Perhaps this is the grossest fact yet--a planarian can even use some of its own tissue for food if necessary.

But what concerns me is that planarians eat earthworms! The earthworm is a gardener's good friend, and I want to protect all my earthworms. A planarian infestation is devastating to a worm bed and reportedly is capable of destroying the earthworm population of an entire farm. 

I won't describe how the planarian turns the earthworm into food, because that's even more yucky than what I've written so far. 

You should not try to destroy this pest by mashing it, since it will regrow from small parts of itself. So if you chop up a planarian, you'll be multiplying it. In the past I've just tossed them into the garbage can, but experts recommend melting them with a spray of orange oil.