Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Soil Sifter

I told you I would share my homemade soil sifter in my 'Gitter Done' garden post. It was super simple to build.



First build a frame of 2 x 4's to fit the size of your wheel barrow.  Mine is a little narrower than my wheel barrow is wide, but it works fine.  Because I was using scraps that I had, I only used blocks in the corners, but one of them has split and had to be repaired.  I'd recommend a full frame all the way around.

Then cut two 2 x 6's to screw to the ends.  These will sit down over the top of your wheelbarrow to hold the screen from moving around.



As you can see in the pictures, your frame needs to be just long enough so these side pieces will fit snugly to the front and back of the wheel barrow.  Once your frame is built, cut some 1/4 inch hardware cloth (I believe that is what this screen looking stuff is called.  It's very heavy duty.  Cut it about 1inch larger than your frame all the way around.  Turn under 1 inch (as if you were hemming), then hammer in heavy duty bent staples.  I don't know what they are called,  I don't think a staple gun would work, unless you can get one that does very heavy duty staples.  You can get these at the hardware and they are very strong.

I love this sifter for sifting out roots and other junk from my soil when I renovate a flower bed.  It works nicely to sift sticks from compost too.  The soil is so nice and aerated when you are done.  Add in some compost as you are going and you will have the best garden soil you can imagine!  Your flowers will absolutely go nuts and will stand up and salute you!

 

3 comments:

  1. Great idea Deborah!! I will have to get the hubby to make me one by this fall!

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  2. My brother used to work for a greenhouse and so I use bulb crates the same way!!

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  3. You made some respectable points there. I looked on the internet for the issue and found most people will go along with your website. Soil Remediation NJ

    ReplyDelete

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