I heard the suggestion today that I grow Ash trees on oe waste land to use for firewood. Is this as good an idea as it sounds? I have about 1/5 of an acre of pretty rough ground that grows brambles and a fair few annual weeds of various kinds. The soil isn't very good at all, definitely no use for a veg garden or anything like that, so it's mostly been left alone.
Growing trees would be better for privacy, and it'd make good use of something that's just left to nature right now. Thoughts?
Growing Ash for firewood
Re: Growing Ash for firewood
Check out the reality of what you already have there - bramble *leaves* are edible, the young ones at any rate, and the berries are .... berries 
And I wonder what your weeds are? Plenty of them are edible too.
But you're right in principle, a crop of trees makes use of rough ground. But ash ... it's under huge pressure in the UK, from disease https://www.rhs.org.uk/disease/ash-dieback. Maybe another, fast growing tree? Hazel, rowan. I googled "fast growing trees uk for firewood" and willow seems to be the star, followed by eucalyptus and beech.
It's a great opportunity!
And I wonder what your weeds are? Plenty of them are edible too.But you're right in principle, a crop of trees makes use of rough ground. But ash ... it's under huge pressure in the UK, from disease https://www.rhs.org.uk/disease/ash-dieback. Maybe another, fast growing tree? Hazel, rowan. I googled "fast growing trees uk for firewood" and willow seems to be the star, followed by eucalyptus and beech.
It's a great opportunity!
Re: Growing Ash for firewood
Our last house had some lovely mature ash trees that self seeded all the time and I let them grow on but way way too slow to use for firewood.
I think the perceived wisdom is an acre of willow or Hazel a year for a typical family and you need five acres to cycle through.
i .e. you plant an acre this year, an acre next year etc then start harvesting to season & burn in 5 years time.
I think the perceived wisdom is an acre of willow or Hazel a year for a typical family and you need five acres to cycle through.
i .e. you plant an acre this year, an acre next year etc then start harvesting to season & burn in 5 years time.
Re: Growing Ash for firewood
Fold bramble leaves in half, underside out. There is a row of spikes there. Remove these before eating. You can also eat the green pith inside the stems.
Re land use, firewood and/or edible weeds. There are dozens of weeds that are edible. I did a thread listing the top 100 wild plants in the UK, with a note of which are edible.
viewtopic.php?p=221136
Re land use, firewood and/or edible weeds. There are dozens of weeds that are edible. I did a thread listing the top 100 wild plants in the UK, with a note of which are edible.
viewtopic.php?p=221136
Re: Growing Ash for firewood
I wonder why the land is no good for veggies , unless it has pollution on it you can grow on it , first off turn the land over get a rotavator in there unless it has loads of building rubble in there then i would level it and then put raised beds in line the rasied beds with something that lets water soak though but keeps weeds out we used a heavy membrane in ours , make sure to leave the beds a wheelbarrow apart that way well you get the idea then get a whacker and run that between the beds to firm the ground now either membrane it and gravel or membran and slab or bark chip what ever you like , fill the raised beds with horse manure the first 12inch i made mine 2 foot high with a cap round to sit on when weeding and planting make the beds no bigger than 8ft x 4ft as 4 ft means you can reach in from both sides easy to the middle ,
You can grow a huge amount in raised beds and if you make covers for the bed out od 3 x 2 and then fix polycarbonate sheet on that the greenhouse type 4mm cheap you can slide the covers on in winter for winter crops and also i forgot to say you must drill holes in the top capping to fit the blue water pipe in over the bed to make hoosp for netting to keep moggies out and stop the birds getting your strawberries if you do them .
to grow tree for firewood you need a lot of space as someone said plant acre year one then year 2 and so on and you would be looking at 5 years min i would say before you get a log worth burning , our eucalyptus was a tiny little thing when we put it in now it is 8 years on and just big enough to harvest but think once chopped you are finished no tree no more wood you would need acres to rotate
just a small part of our garden we now have a large patch of open ground to for spuds and lots of bee attraction flowers lol , grow strawberries and lettuce if nothing else you will be the love of the family , don't use chemical and then taste a real strawberry and a lettuce that i a lettuce not chemicals
You can grow a huge amount in raised beds and if you make covers for the bed out od 3 x 2 and then fix polycarbonate sheet on that the greenhouse type 4mm cheap you can slide the covers on in winter for winter crops and also i forgot to say you must drill holes in the top capping to fit the blue water pipe in over the bed to make hoosp for netting to keep moggies out and stop the birds getting your strawberries if you do them .
to grow tree for firewood you need a lot of space as someone said plant acre year one then year 2 and so on and you would be looking at 5 years min i would say before you get a log worth burning , our eucalyptus was a tiny little thing when we put it in now it is 8 years on and just big enough to harvest but think once chopped you are finished no tree no more wood you would need acres to rotate
Last edited by steptoe on Sat Oct 29, 2022 6:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Growing Ash for firewood
A bit more then five acres, the traditional way to grow firewood is Coppice and that works best on a seven to 20 year cycle (depending on how big you want your timber).Nurseandy wrote: ↑Sat Oct 29, 2022 3:35 pm Our last house had some lovely mature ash trees that self seeded all the time and I let them grow on but way way too slow to use for firewood.
I think the perceived wisdom is an acre of willow or Hazel a year for a typical family and you need five acres to cycle through.
i .e. you plant an acre this year, an acre next year etc then start harvesting to season & burn in 5 years time.
Modern 'Energy Wood' production uses a much shorter cycle, but its to produce twiggy biomass rather then stovewood.
If you've got a 1/5th on an acre and you want to grow trees can I suggest orchard rather then copse.
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Re: Growing Ash for firewood
Some interesting points raised, thank you.
I was under the impression that willow was bad for firewood, as it contained too much moisture. I haven't really looked very closely into growing it, based on that. I do have some willows elsewhere in the garden for privacy, a variety that forms quite a thick stands. It'd be easy enough to propagate them if they'd be suitable.
I did find this site that suggests a method: https://www.thewillowbank.com/grow-your-own-firewood/ I'll have to look into it more closely.
According to some quick googling, it seems that willow dries quickly, but also burns quickly. I was thinking Ash because it doesn't need seasoning, or very little.
I was under the impression that willow was bad for firewood, as it contained too much moisture. I haven't really looked very closely into growing it, based on that. I do have some willows elsewhere in the garden for privacy, a variety that forms quite a thick stands. It'd be easy enough to propagate them if they'd be suitable.
I did find this site that suggests a method: https://www.thewillowbank.com/grow-your-own-firewood/ I'll have to look into it more closely.
According to some quick googling, it seems that willow dries quickly, but also burns quickly. I was thinking Ash because it doesn't need seasoning, or very little.
Re: Growing Ash for firewood
Willow will dry out,and burn. If you are maturing it,make sure it’s off the floor,as it will re- sprout.Even as a log! 
Ash is ok,so is hazel too. If you burn wood - and we do - then it’s a case of what you can get.
If you don’t need that patch of ground,and it helps with security too,then go for it. If varietys of wood are already there,then so much the better ,as it saves effort.As I get older,I look for the easy ways these days.
Ash is ok,so is hazel too. If you burn wood - and we do - then it’s a case of what you can get. If you don’t need that patch of ground,and it helps with security too,then go for it. If varietys of wood are already there,then so much the better ,as it saves effort.As I get older,I look for the easy ways these days.
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Re: Growing Ash for firewood
And remember that coppicing is hugely valuable, even if the plot is small enough that you can only do one or two trees a year. The point about coppicing is that the tree doesn't need to re-grow the root system, it can put all its energy into growing its branches. Jolly useful Or pollarding, if you expect there to be grazing animals round about.
Or pollarding, if you expect there to be grazing animals round about.Re: Growing Ash for firewood
Planting trees is always a positive even if because of the time involved you don't see the benefits yourself personally.
As an additional snippet I can recall watching something like countryfile where they visited an ash plantation. Their experiments were in the early stages but what they were finding was that mixing in a lot of bio-char around the root system of saplings seemed to make them far more resistant to disease such as ash die back.
As an additional snippet I can recall watching something like countryfile where they visited an ash plantation. Their experiments were in the early stages but what they were finding was that mixing in a lot of bio-char around the root system of saplings seemed to make them far more resistant to disease such as ash die back.