Few of us are blessed with the perfect soil for our lawns and gardens. If yours is the rocky variety, here’s a great solution:

• Take a section of metal hardware cloth (available at home centers with 1/2″ or 1/4″ holes) and cut a section slightly larger than your wheelbarrow.
• Attach the metal cloth to a 2″ x 2″ board with staples on one side.
• Stretch the metal cloth over the wheelbarrow so that the 2×2 is tight against one side and staple another 2×2 opposite the first.
• The two boards will keep the hardware cloth stretched out so you can shovel in rocky soil to sift out rocks.

This trick also works with granulated fertilizer to screen out the lumps before they go into your spreader.

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One Comment on “Soil Sifter”

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1. Rick Says:
   November 16th, 2008 at 4:03 pm

   I am sifting the soil of my front yard.
   I took the running gear from a childs wagon and a 5 foot by two foot section wire shelving and made a sifting application. I covered the shelving with 1/2 ” wire mesh.

   This allows me to easily move the tool across the yard always fiiling the last void created from the digging and sifting. I use a flat nosed shovel and pull the gravel to the rear of the tool. When it is heavy with gravel, I pull it out to the concrete drive and dump it. Clean up the gravel in one shot later. It is the same principle as the video but more time saving and you do not have to shovel the dirt as high as a wheel barrow. I used ½” screen wire because I am not concerned with small pebbles in the soil and moist soil can be worked through.

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