Never use any high alkaline material like wood ashes or lime on your lawn or garden without a recent soil test first!
Usually most soils east of the Mississippi, tend to be acidic while western states tend to be alkaline. Of course there are always exceptions.
As mentioned, regardless of your native soil structure and pH, composting neutralizes and balances all highly acidic and highly alkaline organic materials, if it is mixed with lots of extra greens and browns, in a highly aerobic composting process.
Check this out too:
http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/orga ... 29354.html
Happy Gardening!