Had building work done that involved foundations digging. now I have a massive pile of earth I want to use to fill flower and veg beds, but it's got loads of stones and rubble in.
It's going to take weeks of work to sieve them all out with a hand sieve, which is rather not do.
Any smart ideas on a faster way of turning that heap into near stone free soil?
by davidwillans
29 Comments
Fill your beds with it as it is. Pick out any large stones on the surface when you are done. The ones underground will do no harm.
A bigger sieve is probably the easiest solution sadly.
Chicken wire or similar over the wheel barrow while you fill it is a way to start
or
Try and find some pallet collars off FB Marketplace or a local selling group. chicken wire over the top of that.
Maybe Hire a electric soil sieve
Use a soil riddle or look up how people have made their own on YouTube. It’s really back breaking work.
Might be easier to pick out the big bits and rake.
😅 No easy way….. Good luck
I second the electric sieve, save you alot of time and they arent too expensive to hire out.
It’ll improve the soil structure in my opinion!
I wouldn’t use it under a lawn; but there’s nothing wrong with this in your beds.
I purposefully added gravel, stones, and twigs into my borders along with manure.
Build a standing sieve table with fine mesh you can put wheel barrow under …. Shovel dirt onto table and shake
We’re going to need a bigger sieve…
Buy an old cement mixer. Cut big holes in the drum. Bolt chicken wire to the inside, over the holes. Bosh, home made sifter.
Or, if you don’t think you’ll ever need to do this again, just hire one for a long weekend.
Cattle grid/iron roll fencing over 3 wheel barrows and shovel
It’s a real riddle…
Get one of these if you can afford it. Saved me literally weeks of sifting
https://www.scheppach.co.uk/en-GB/Rotating-Soil-Sieve-RS400-Screening-Sifting-Adjustable-Drum-Easy-Clean/
soil sieve the drum style , works really good a bit of time and patience and it’s worth it
[https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/227052262417?chn=ps&_ul=GB&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-166974-033325-9&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=227052262417&targetid=2274951440814&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9193455&poi=&campaignid=22667085036&mkgroupid=179687004126&rlsatarget=pla-2274951440814&abcId=10352889&merchantid=5607150728&geoid=9193455&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22667085036&gbraid=0AAAAAD_Lr1ekzinyGjiTiCKOgrOgkZ8o7&gclid=Cj0KCQjw1ZjOBhCmARIsADDuFTBDOC2TjmVUuOQIkI8pcCFLlgGDLnmxOYpvDr_MvXunqSbqhHgs5CMaAhMLEALw_wcB](https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/227052262417?chn=ps&_ul=GB&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-166974-033325-9&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=227052262417&targetid=2274951440814&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9193455&poi=&campaignid=22667085036&mkgroupid=179687004126&rlsatarget=pla-2274951440814&abcId=10352889&merchantid=5607150728&geoid=9193455&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22667085036&gbraid=0AAAAAD_Lr1ekzinyGjiTiCKOgrOgkZ8o7&gclid=Cj0KCQjw1ZjOBhCmARIsADDuFTBDOC2TjmVUuOQIkI8pcCFLlgGDLnmxOYpvDr_MvXunqSbqhHgs5CMaAhMLEALw_wcB)
Possibly look into hiring a small rotary screen or trommel ?
I’ve seen people make hand sieving way faster by using the vibration from a massage gun.
Rotary Soil Sieve would be fast but are expensive
a cement mixer with a chicken wire cone contraption. wheelbarrow underneath. the stones will spin out into a different pile to the soil due to the angle. saves you clearing the sieve.
Big sheet of sturdy wire mesh with holes smaller than the stones you want to remove. Find a way to shake or vibrate it if possible.
Personally I’d enjoy finding a DIY way to do it, so would buy a cheap cement mixer off Facebook, weld on some supports and a tube of sturdy mesh, and then make an opening at the far end in the mixer barrel. That way you shovel soil into the mesh and it gets tumbled. Any soil farrs through early on, and any big bits make it to the far end and fall into a separate heap.
Or the easier option: learn to live with the stones and save days of work
Did this after we rebuilt our house. Built a frame that went over the wheel barrow covered in very fine chicken wire. The stones and rubbish ran down into the barrow, the soil / dust fell to the ground. Worked ok, but in hindsight it probably would have cost £500 and saved days of time to just get a grab lorry to take it away and get some decent topsoil.
But I was skint at the time and it was good exercise.
Now I’ve learned electric rotary sieves exist, I found my local tool library has one so I’m borrowed it for the weekend. Will probably pay my teenage son to get it done too. Thanks all.
I made myself a screen that would sit on a frame over my barrow. Cheap wood and some mesh to suit the size you want.
Has to be very dry or is a nightmare
Is a nightmare anyway
Will take ages – a shake does a bit but you need sturdy leather gloves and have to rub the stuff through the grid. You will have a stack of stones – filling a bucket every couple of minutes – where do you put them.
And when you finsh you will think – that needs doing again – stoney soil is stoney soil unless the grit was graded out.
If your garden is big enough, use this on the borders and buy a couple of tonnes of top-soil in.
Ah yes, I have a lot of experience in this. My method was:
– Dig up all the soil into builders bags.
– Buy a hand sieve and start sieving it into more builders bags.
– Wear out hand sieve after 2 bags. Buy new hand sieve after baulking at the price of electric ones.
– Break second hand sieve after 2 more bags. Buy another hand seive.
– Sieve rest of soil.
– Shovel it all back where it came from, level and sow grass.
Took me months. My arm ached all the time. I questioned my life choices during much of the project.
I’d recommend an electric sieve or learning to live with the stones. The bastards come back anyway.
You get that trampoline frame you’ve got in the back of the shot, you take the matt off and you attach chicken wire to the top start barrowing the soil on it and it’ll sieve the larger pieces, with the soil falling through. If you dont want to manually take the larger pieces off the frame take the legs off one side so its resting at a 30 degree angle and the stones will fall to the front as the soil passes through.
Based on the trampoline I’m guessing you have kids? Ask them to pick the stones and give them x amount for every y stones they pick.
[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rolling-Garden-Sifter-Heavy-Screen/dp/B0BB64L8TB](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rolling-Garden-Sifter-Heavy-Screen/dp/B0BB64L8TB)
Yeah will do when I get into it
No point in trying to clean the pebbles from it. I just cleared rubble (bricks, tiles, lumps of concrete) from a bed about the same size. The key was using a mattock to turn the soil. Takes hours. If you are going to move all this earth, then the other suggestions here to use a shaker deck etc is the right way, though that is only worth it f the social is actually good or if you have a big hole to fill. Otherwise it is better to bag it and get rid of it and buy some decent top soil.