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STONES...
DAN WILSON
Posts: 128
Stones - Im creating a raised bed with some excess soil and manure I have - it has some stones in it - Northamptonshire ironstone and I just need to know what is the reasonable size stones to leave in - I have a sieve but that removes all! Its also a very time consuming job - however I will make time if its a worth it?
Any idea what size to leave in and wont cause an issue? Surely some are good for drainage?
Cheers
Dan
0
Posts
I'm in the Peak District and forever digging up chunks of the local sandstone, from very small to huge chunks. My pragmatic approach is to remove anything that will be a nuisance and anything large enough to use elsewhere in the garden. There were originally farm buildings by the house and there were two earth and rock dams that we had much reduced in size. I have built dry stone walls for terracing, a rock garden with satisfyingly large rocks, stepping stone paths, and used smaller pieces to infill the centre of walls and to provide firm footing in boggy parts of the garden. I have stone mowing edges to beds and also dug up a complete brown glazed sink and a large part of an even older carved stone one. All the result of my excavations! Stone can be very useful stuff, but some does help drainage, so I leave bits where they won't cause problems for plants or for digging. There still seems to be plenty of soil left, though we do get some washed down from higher up the hill!
you could make a frame and put some 2" / 50mm chicken wire onto it.
Improvised sieve , but will only catch the really big stuff?
I've seen these made up in rural India and they work fine.
Thanks all. Hostafan - great minds! I already have an improvised sieve made from an old pallet with the middle cut out and the chicken wire you describe for my compost - I hang it on the kiddies swing when they arnt looking and sieve away! Its just quite hard work as my raised beds are 5 meters long a foot deep and 1.5 meters wide! Need some porridge!
Be worth it in the end Dan.
As Roy Cropper said in Coronation Street:
" if you fail to prepare: you should prepare to fail"
ps love the mix of metric and imperial Dan.
Cheeky! I know what a foot is - I just don't know what 5 meters is in feet, without using remnants of brain cells!