Remineralizing your land.

Here is the garden in an early stage. We laid down about 800 sq. ft. of cardboard and at this stage we have all our compost, clippings from fall clean up around the yard, organic cow manure and stone dust. We ended up getting two large loads of leaves, part maple, part oak and part unknown all partially chopped. Thank goodness for the leaves. We now have about 2 feet of mulch with straw on top.
I started hearing about adding minerals to your soil by spreading rock dust a couple of years ago. For more information take a look at www.remineralize.org website. Lots of research and resources there.
We had two tons of stone dust (the local name) delivered after I picked up a sample and did the sediment test. We took some of the sample, added water in a jar, shook it up and let it settle. The particle size varies from fine dust to ~1/8" size pieces. We plan on spreading over the whole property. Yes, shovel full by shovel full. The idea is that the minerals add trace nutrients for plant and soil health. One theory is that if we could re-mineralize the world, we could stop global warming. I cannot spread that much dust, so I will work on making my little area give back to the earth.
The good news is that you do not have to do this every year, with the variance in particle size, and the amount we are spreading (2 tons for a .21 acre lot), we should not have to do this again for many years. The minerals slowly get broken down and used over the years. I am watching for results in the established flower and shrub areas since we will have some history by next spring.
This garden is temporary, as we will be redesigning the whole yard into a forest garden and sun availability will be changing as we go. I plan on converting at least as big an area next fall by sheet mulching. There is also the driveway to remove and replant, trees to remove, invasive ground covers to eradicate and the list goes on. I find it hard to think in 5-10-25 years and beyond. But one area at a time!