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Sieving soil
Jordan Carter
Posts: 81
Hi everyone, I recently posted another thread about general clearing allotments, but these questions are more specific to sieving soil, so I hope it's ok to create another thread. I'm not sure which type of soil I have, but from research I do believe it's clay. It's very difficult to work (plot has been unused for quite a while) and it's very stony, I gather that this will improve drainage. I'm looking at sieving the soil to remove the roots as it's a lot quicker than removing them by hand. I understand that this may risk compacting the soil. Therefore, would it be ok to sieve to remove the roots, but return the majority of the stones back to the soil? P.S. - For some reason it won't let me attach any photos, so please find photos attached from another thread of mine. Can anyone confirm the type of soil from looking at the photos? I should note that the soil has already been dug out using a mattock. Thanks for any help!
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It wont hurt if the stones come out when you sieve, believe me there will be many more further down!
I personally wouldnt break my back sieving all the soil as its a really hard task to do, although you will tone up very quickly! I would only worry about having very fine soil for carrots.
With everything else, dig over, lay muck on it ( as thickly as possible) then leave it over winter, when you come to dig/plant in spring, the worms will have done all the work for you
Fair play to you with all the sieving- i always hated it!
yes you can sieve to remove the roots, but its back breaking and you'll always miss some roots.
Best bet is to cover the area you want clearing with a double layer of corrugated cardboard and cover with organic matter (manure, compost, leaf litter, grass lawn mowings, straw etc.) and in the spring the weeds will be dead (mostly) and the worms in the ground will have pulled some of the organic matter into the ground.
All you'll have to do is a little digging to plant stuff and you're away
Sieving all the soil on an allotment, to a depth of say 1 foot, would be a massive job, I wouldn't do it, but I am very lazy!
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Hi Jordan, I sieved the soil my new raised veg bed (3m x1m) and oh my goodness what a back breaking tedious job, even for such a small area, I regretted ever starting it. Small stones and roots fell through the quarter inch, so had to use an eighth of inch riddle too.
My two riddles hang inside the garden shed looking decorative, and long may they stay there.
Hi Treehugger, I've tried this method underneath my maple where I had a small area dug over with a few random shrubs in it. I cleaned it all up but the grass and weeds were so compacted in and around the roots that I decided to layer cardboard on top after I'd got out what I could. I then put a thick layer of chipped bark on the top. It seems to have done the trick but the only problem I'm having with it now is the birds they have scrapped up the bark and also started to shred the cardboard so not only do I have to keep clearing up the bark off the lawn but also chase shreds of papery cardboard around. But I think in theory it's a great idea.
Wow! I didn't quite realise how expensive horse manure was! £75 for 900L! My allotment is 113 square meters, would this be enough?
There is a plum tree, apple tree and pear tree on the plot at the moment and they are all doing very well, is it necessary to add these extras or would I be ok planting straight into the soil next year?
I manure everything, every year (hope that dosent sound too weird!) It dosent just add nutrients, it encorages worms and other creatures which make the soil healthy, i may be alone here but i dont think you can over do it