Want to learn how to enhance your garden naturally? The answer is all around you….literally. Add local rocks & soil to your garden to improve soil health and see your crops flourishing in no time.
This is an excerpt The Regenerative Grower’s Guide to Garden Amendments by Nigel Palmer. It has been adapted to the web.
Using Local Rocks & Soil In Your Garden
Minerals can be found in the rocks and soils of all kinds. You can find calcium and magnesium in a limestone quarry. Silicon and manganese are found in a basalt quarries. Paramagnetic materials come from granite or basalt quarries. Calcium and sulfur comes from gypsum. Boron is obtained from borax. And silicon is extracted from diatomaceous Earth.
Another source of local minerals is the silts which accumulate on riverbanks following spring flooding, and the muck that surrounds swamps and bogs.
Local Rocks & Soil: Rock Dusts
There are many types of rock formations. Basalts are rich in trace minerals and can be used as a mineralizer for soils. The dusts of granite and basalt from quarried rocks may also possess paramagnetic characteristics. The magnetic susceptibility and health of microorganisms and the energy flow between plants and soil is affected by soil’s paramagnetic properties.
Rock Formations Identification
Refer to a map of the local geological survey for information on rock formations. These maps are not those used by hikers to show roads, elevation, and rivers. They are geological survey map that identifies the minerals beneath the surface of the ground. These maps will allow you to identify the different types of rock formations. If you compare this data with the soil analysis results, it will be possible to determine whether the rocks are rich in minerals that the garden needs.
Finding Rock Quarries
After identifying the rock quarries, you can then identify the rock formations. The dusty fine particles that are produced when rocks are crushed is a waste product. The dust is usually available for free at quarries.
In order to market their products, quarries often analyze the crushed rocks. This information is typically provided on request.
Analyze the materials available if analysis isn’t available before using them for your soil or in a recipe. It’s important to determine that a particular rock dust contains appropriate minerals for your soil and plants before application.
Mineral Composition
Another source of soil mineral composition information is the Element Concentrations in Soils and Other Surficial Materials of the Conterminous United States. This resource can be used to identify general soil mineral distributions for many minerals in any part of the United States. The maps show the mineral composition of soil at the state-level.
You can find bedrock geological surveys maps of your area from the United States Geological Survey. These sources can help you evaluate the general rock formations of your locality and the minerals in the soil. This information combined with the location and type of quarries in your locality will allow you to identify the mineral types available in your region. It is important to have a good understanding of the soil composition in that region.
Visit a Quarry
Informative and fun is visiting a quarry and asking questions about the composition of the rock mined, as well as the availability of dusts. Once the composition of minerals is understood Comparing the results of a soil analysis allows you to make informed decisions regarding your application and need.
The soil must digest the rock dust before it can be assimilated. To facilitate digestion, rock dusts can be added to compost piles and IMO #3 piles when preparing IMO 4.
When to Apply Rock Dust
Apply rock dust to soil multiple times in small amounts from late fall to early spring. Before or after mulching, sprinkle rock dust on the area to be mulched.
The application of a biological amendement, organic carbon sources, and rock dusts at once is an excellent strategy, as it provides the soil with biology and the food and housing that the biology needs, which, in turn, will improve the digestion and assimilation of the dust into the soil solution.
Local Rocks & Soil: Silts and Clays
Silts and clays from local bogs, swamps, ponds, and streams that flood in the spring provide minerals and enhance the soil’s exchange capacity. Remember to check who owns the land and if there are any laws that prohibit removal. This practice can be sustainable if it is done in small quantities.
Silts and Clays: An Analysis
This analysis will help you determine the minerals present in this material and ensure that there are no unwanted elements, such as heavy metallics. It’s easy to add clay or silt to a garden, but it is difficult to remove.
It’s a good idea to collect samples of silt or clay and send them to a lab for analysis. The results of the tests can help you make an informed decision about how and if to use the material.
Long-Term Mineralization
Silts and clays are used for long-term mineralization and for building a soil’s cation exchange capacity. Apply the material in the late fall to early spring to the soil, or add it to a compost heap.
You can add small amounts of silt, clay, or other mineral-rich soil to your planting holes or when spreading mulch. The same as described above for rock dusts. it’s a good practice to use biological amendments in conjunction with silts and clays.
Recommended Reading
Use soil amendments to improve the quality of your soil
Focus on soil remediation with Fungi