Soil sifting ideas

[skeetermonkey]

A box.  A couple of sifter ideas.  Some are heavy duty.  I like the water tank one.  Cat litter sifters.  More heavy duty, but some good advice: Don't sift wet soil.  An article with instructions on how to make a soil sifting box.    Sid the soil sifter.  (Clever.)

Comments

[pecunium]

Having made/used such things. I can share a few lessons of hard won experience.

You only need one size. Two is the most. Each size requires sifting all the dirt another time.

Use solid wood. Use really solid staples (and more than you think you need).

Run battens around the outside.

Use a Urethane varnish, and store it out of the sun.

Have something to chuck the spoil into. Don't let it be too large, and empty before it gets too full.

If possible have a use for some of the spoil. A pile of rocks makes it easier to do hose-end flooding without making a pit (though you still have erosion channels, but a hand-rake will fix those).

The one with handles on the side (as an integral part of the side-panel, looks the best design.

[don_fitch]

All excellent suggestions (possibly except the varnish -- with reasonable storage care, an unfinished wood frame should last for at least fifty years). I might add that heavier-wire hardware cloth doesn't need to be replaced as often as the lighter (& cheaper, & more common) kind. And that for most soils and uses a mesh smaller than one-inch -- certainly anything less than 1/2-inch -- is overkill. (Okay, I do use 1/4 inch mesh for seed-starting mix in pony-packs or small pots (and even a 99-cent-strore kitchen sieve to apply the covering for the smaller seeds), but that's a small-batch thing that doesn't need a frame.)