Quite a lot of us gardeners are guilty of growing, growing, growing season after season without fully replenishing the minerals which are taken out every season by the products/flowers/vegetables which we grow.
However, there are other things we can use to re-mineralise our soil and the best we have found is glacial or basalt rock dust. Basalt or glacial rock dust is a mix of finely ground rocks of different types which were formed many millions of years ago, and which when added to our soil release beneficial minerals which in turn provide you with healthier, larger and a more prolific growth of plants and vegetables.
Probably you are lucky enough to have a stables near you where you can pick up some horse manure now and then? Most stables are happy to give the stuff away as it saves them the trouble, but if you are my wife then she certainly doesn't want bags of smelly horse muck in the car, so that's a no no for many of us.
We tend to use Basalt Rock Dust because that contains more minerals per kilo than glacial dust for the same cost, and OK, it doesn't bulk up your soil but it is far more beneficial to it than a truck full of horse manure.
The rock dust which I bought came mixed, and by that I mean that roughly half of it was dust and the rest was Basalt grit. I bought 50 kilos (2 x 25 k) from an aggregate specialist and this is how it looks. Obviously the grit is no good to me or my garden so I sieved the lot and got roughly 25 kilos of actual dust which is usable.
What does basalt rock dust cost?
We appreciate that this product has to be shipped to individuals around the country and as this is a heavy product the shipping costs are nigh on as much as the rock dust itself.
Well OK, I collected mine - a 30 mile round trip - and the 50 kilos cost me a shade over £8 without adding in travel costs or the time it took to sieve it all.That was OK for me because I have the time but I can well imagine that most busy people would prefer to just buy it and slap it on their gardens without the hassle that I went through.
We have studied this market quite closely and find that prices vary so much that there is no norm. We have found on Amazon that a 5 kilo bag will cost you £11.99 + free shipping whilst a 20 Kilo bag will cost around £16.99, again with free shipping, and those are the best prices we have come up with to date as a great many companies selling basalt rock dust charge £15 per 20 kilo bag + shipping costs.
To be completely open with anyone reading this, we have yet to set a cost inclusive of shipping because we still have to get bag prices and quotes from couriers though as soon as we have those we shall start to sell at a very competitive price and at present are considering £15 inc shipping per 20 kilo bag with correspondingly low prices for lesser quantities.
If you are in the market for some Basalt rock dust at the best possible price then I strongly suggest that you give all the aggregate and mineral companies a call and see what they can do for you because basically rock dust is more or less a waste product as far as they are concerned and the cost of it is mainly in the bagging and transportation.