Depending on the quantity and depending on your soil you may be creating more problems than you want to deal with. Wood ash is extremely alkaline and does have large numbers of nutrients like Phosphorus and Potash and Calcium Carbonate that can disrubt the normal levels of nutrients in your soil and/or can interfere with a plants ability to uptake other, essential, nutrients. For example excess P in a soil inhibits a plants ability to uptake Zinc, Iron, and Cobalt, all micronutrients but essential for healthy growth. Excess K can inhibit a plants abiltiy to uptake necessary Nitrogne and excess Calcium inhibits the uptake of necessary Magbesium. This is one of many reasons why testing your soil before adding this material is necessary.

I'll bet that ban is in place to keep students from having bonfires at house parties. Just a guess. We burned a huge (10 ft. tall, 20 ft. around) pile of brush at a rental house I was living in near the Clarke county line a few years ago with no problems. You can always put it at the curb and wait for the county to pick it up. Not to encourage rule breaking, but if it were me, I would wait for a non windy day after a good rain and then torch it. Since you are out in the boonies you shouldn't have any trouble. As long as you are burning responsibly (hose nearby, rakes, shovels, actively watching it, etc) I wouldn't expect more than a warning, at the most, if the law shows up. Honestly, I would hope that they have better things to do. Or you can get a barrel and burn it a little bit at a time.

Howdy, jepper! If you go to www.squarefootgardening.com, you will see that squarefooting has progressed beyond the funky fert and the "local soil" issues. Compost your crabgrass and kitchen greens for trace minerals, and ignore the yard dirt entirely. You will be *years* ahead of any "improvement" program! Also, let's all remember that bonemeal is no longer processed in a useful way--modern processing temps and methods pretty much destroy the nutrients. You could hot compost your fish heads, instead. You might consider cruising the Composting forum on this wonderful GardenWeb. (Warning--compostables collection can become addictive.)

Between mowing our lawn, and pruning our trees and hedges, my husband & I produce a lot of garden rubbish throughout the year, and have a good size garden [e.g. 200 feet x 30-40 feet. We only ever light up our bonfire once a year, and that is on bonfire night. All our grass cutting, as well as all recyclable household cuttings are put into our 2 large compose bins, and used to enrich our vegetable/ flower/ herb gardens. In our minds, there is absolutely no excuse for the excessive burning of rubbish all year around, but especially during the warmer months, when people must have their windows open. I suffer from a severe breathing disorder, that has been interfering with my heart lately. For someone like me it is worse than being in hell to have to be shut up in my home in 30+ weather, just because some inconsiderate moron chooses to burn their rubbish on the hottest day/ nights of the year! If more people get together and force their councils to submit bylaws to prohibit the constant burning of rubbish throughout the warmer months, then we could possibly make garden life a more pleasant experience for everyone. I would be willing to start a campaign in my area, and even try to get local people to sign a petition. If enough people call for a change in bonfire bylaws, then we may be able to make a difference. However, if you would prefer to just complain to the thin air, then the problem will never be resolved, and people like me, with serious health risks, will continue to suffer for it. As for the person that thinks they are doing us a favour by only burning rubbish every fortnight. If you have a dozen different neighbours burning rubbish every fortnight, but on different days, it is still way too much smoke! If WE can get by with only burning rubbish once a year, then we strongly feel that other's really do NOT need to burn rubbish every fortnight, or even every month! So why don't you people who like to run out to your garden every time you have something to burn, try thinking of someone else, besides yourself, for a change!