ROCK DUSTING SOON

(Music: ROCKY RACCOON, Lennon-McCartney) (info./disclaimers) (glossary) (index) (gardening guide)

Now somewhere in the Black Forest hills of Germany
Acid rain was killing trees fast
But in a few places, the trees seemed to thrive
These were places you could drive

It was next to road cuts
Where rock trucks had dumped their loads

Where fine rock dust from all that gravel spread there
Had blown far and wide

Rock dusting soon
Would be a great boon
To forests struggling for survival
In a world of chemicals
Rock-dust minerals
Would experience a stunning revival

In soils, we now know
Minerals feed microbes
Who turn rock into fertile topsoil
It's thousands of years of work
On a typical small rock
Unless that rock's already powder

This remineralization
Requires glaciation
That's why we think Ice Ages happen
Unless we intrude
And do what glaciers would do
To revive land that's mineral-barren

N-P-K was once hot
But increasingly it's not
As we start to know soil ecosystems -- ah

Da da da da da da da da da
Da da da da da dad a da da
Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da
Da da do do – n – do do do
Do -- do do do do do do do do
Do -- do do do do do do do do
Do -- do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do
Da da do do do do do do

Now rock dusting's done
On many gardens and farms
They say once in five years suffices
Vegetables grow with ease
Resist pests, decay, and disease
Are tastier and more nutritious

Ah -- now rock dusting soon
Could be a great boon
Though it pollutes and requires fossil energy
It's a byproduct I'm told
And hand-crushing would get old
And we may develop greener technology

Oh yeah yeah
Do do do do do do do do do
Do -- do do do do do do do do
Do -- do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do
Do do do do - n – do do do
Do do do do do do do do -- come on rock dust -- oh
Do do do do do do do do -- come on rock dust -- oh
Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do
The story of rock dust, use it soon

Comments: Pear had just finished reading Secrets of the Soil by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird when he wrote this one. N-P-K refers to Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium, mainstays of the reductionist chemical approach to soil science that led to chemical agriculture. Luckily that misunderstanding of soil chemistry and soil life has now been superceded, though it still informs most agricultural practice. But the Beetless don't want just another "answer to everything" (rock dust) to replace the outdated one (N-P-K). They still have questions about its genesis. In fact, some rock dust is a byproduct of already-occurring rock crushing, while some is a separate, primary product. Regardless of origin, it requires transportation to its place of use (see CARRY THAT CRATE).

 
Excerpted from The Beetless' Gardening Book: An Organic Gardening Songbook/Guidebook, copyright 1997 by Chris Roth (info./disclaimers) (glossary) (index) (gardening guide)