I love your style. Manual labor pays off later on in years. Im 88 years old and all the manual labor I have done in my Garden and still do daily has me running circles around men half my age. There is magic medicine in touching earth and plants daily. Carry On !!!!!!!!
Ah, thanks! Lovely to hear that you are still going strong with all your gardening. I completely agree with you, and hope I can say the same when I am 88!
@@REDGardens I like your channel. I thought to keep the bottom of the pile from going anaerobic, just put something like a step stool or side table on the bottom. So that an air pocket is there.
@@rachaelmorrow6669 I have tried using a pallet at the bottom of the compost, worked a bit, but didn't prevent the stuff in the middle going anaerobic - at least with the way i was loading it. I've changed that process now.
@Lucy Ferro Interesting. I used a bucket a few times to try to separate out the wood from the stones, but didn't really consider the fertility potential.
@Lucy FerroI have considered growing mushrooms, and one of my neighbours is well into them! I haven't gotten into it all yet as I already have too many projects ;-) Hopefully one day.
This is beyond perfect of a "how to" content. You saved everyone who does it for the first time even a month of work, both physical (shoveling, separating) and psychological (planning, improving). We're so grateful for your work. Thank you so much!!! Edit: I found one more use for this sifter - washing big batches of harvest. As you did with potatoes, but just hosing it down in the end.
This video is so well presented, I was amazed. We gardened hard from when I was 25 until I was 50. Then we moved to no garden, lawn or anything. Now at 68 I started again for the grandkids. I am clearing forest land. I am also growing on the roof with a solar powered water valve. I was about to build a sieve today, when I saw this video, I felt like it saved me huge amounts of time and effort.
@@REDGardens this was going to be my comment as well. Transportation of equipment/machinery needs to be done as efficiently as possible. Great video though with great learning opportunities.
Ah, thanks! When I started this project years ago, before I even considered RUclips, I thought that these gardens would be a community resource, with versions spread throughout the country.
Good ideas, sir. My own variation in a small garden is a sieve that fits on top of the wheelbarrow. But if I get to a bigger one like yours I think I will put the one of 4 legs with wheels at one end to make it easier to move around. Like the feathered gardeners you have.
Luv the way the chickens have given their seal of approval approve to the seive. The idea of it being mobile, and that one can move it to the next garden bed and sift directly is fantastic. Thankyou for sharing.
Idea for the sieve: still put it up sloping at a 45 degree angle, placing chains on each corner to vertical posts so whenever you put material, there is a swinging to and fro motion shaking the material automatically. Also adding used bicycle wheels and two axles so you can move it and two 2x4 handles at a 45 degree at the front allowing you to move it like a wheelbarrow. Finally, you could add multiple screens stacked to get very fine compost.
I’ve been wanting to get a multi layered system like that. I’m wondering the best way to have the lower layers. I feel like they need to be removable to easily sort through what is caught below.
What a great video. I love that you showed the progession as you worked through as your needs and ideas changed. My favorite parts were the funnel shape at the end and the use of the bucket. This video gave me the idea of adding on locking leg hinges so it could be stored upright and two or three overlays with different screen sizes that can be pegged onto the top of the largest holed screen. I'm definitely going to use the end of this video as a starting point for my sieve. I already have one on top of my compost bin, but realized I can't haul my bin, but I can certainly use my yard cart. Thanks again so much for a great video and the inspiration you've given me.
4:34 I have to thank you so much for this insight!! Even doing this at my small scale with a hand-sieve and a plastic plant pot full of pebbles and soil, it has helped so much to use the plant pot itself to rake the contents back and forth over the mesh of my sieve! Game changer! Thank you again, you have a made a very monotonous miserable task more bearable!
This has me thinking... this would be an excellent way to sift my soil over my beds to eliminate the nutsedge root networks that invade my area. Hmm... thinking. Thanks for such a thorough treatment of this too. My sieve is currently too small for such work but the one you built is simple enough to construct. Thanks so much!
Funny thing is just yesterday I was thinking of making a sieve for my compost pile. I'm a beginning gardener that has been at it off and on for nearly 20 years. During this pandemic, I've been watching all things gardening, and then this great video pops up into my feed. Great timing.
I built a soil sifter with 1/4 inch hardware cloth (poultry fencing) and it works well. However, I think I will make one with the 1/2 inch screen. If you don't have one, you should make one. The soil is amazing and will change gardening for you.
Hello, my name is Irene, I stumbled on to your channel looking for compost , What a great find ! Now I'm a brand new subscriber. I'm 65 yrs old and this year I started a permaculture food forrest . Now I will be using you for info, Like your style of teaching and making videos !!!
Love this idea. My soil is full of rocks like this and after 2 weeks on my hands and knees trying to remove the rocks from my gardens, this is something I will be trying very soon. Thank You
I've just started gardening and composting in earnest this year, and built a similar (smaller) screen to remove rocks form beds I'm working. This video has saved me ages of trial and error, and given me some new ideas. Really great content.
I have a similar sieve. Mine was originally built as a washstand for cleaning produce that was very dirty and that I was going to need to wash before canning or freezing. This year, my husband was impatiently filling new garden boxes and the compost he was using was full of large clumps. I wanted a way to sift it and break down the clumps. It worked great!! Thanks for the verification that I was on the right track. Happy gardening!
Genius, I just picked up 20 40 lb bags free compost from this city this weekend. Unfortunately it's full of rocks pieces of bark and other materials. I decided to repurpose a vegetable BBQ pan, to sift the soil. It would make life so much easier if I had your little device. It's amazing what you find in a public compost give back. I'm grateful for the opportunity to receive the free compost ., it helps quite a bit with the cost of container gardening. Thanks for the inspiring video. Happy planting.
Glad you liked my video and got something out of it. I find the sieve invaluable for filtering out undesired objuects form the compost. Today I found a household teaspoon - bent in half!
I have had several of those over the last 30 years. I moved a lot and leave them behind. Not planning to garden at the new place. That never works so I build another. I am 78 and gardening. I live alone so I don’t need the vegetables so my local food bank appreciates them. The guys who take them tell me that the clients really like them so here I am starting seeds and getting ready to try all the new methods I have learned this winter on You Tube. Thanks for your hard work!
I pretty much ended up with a horizontal sieve similar to the one you have, except fixed to a corner of my yard (using existing wooden fence for extra structural support). I also used 1/4 inch screen and made the screen frame hinged so I can easily dump the debris as needed. The hinges are also useful because can I lift and drop the screen repeatedly on the supporting structure to break up the finer clumps. Gonna try your bucket technique though!
my husband and I build a sieve earlier today! thanks for the video it was really helpful. we tried a modified version of this for our wheelbarrow. love these videos!
Just in general, I admire how your mind works! Thanks for sharing all you have learned. I have so many pebbles in soil to sort through, and this video gave me so many tips and ideas at a point where I have been feeling depressed about the scale of the task. The video itself is laid out in an intelligent and pleasing way! You are talented, sir 😁
Than you for sharing this, Bruce! It's inspiring how you keep improving your approach and always think of better ways to do any task. We'll definitely look into making a horizontal sieve like this!
Simple tool, so many uses. This has give me some great ideas. I will make a smaller one that fits over a tub. When my flower borders get very weedy and need remedial action, I like to lift out the plants in autumn, divide them and then I try and get every scrap of weed root out of the soil.
That was a really great video. I love seeing the experimental problem-solving process. Thank you for sharing that. I was thinking it might be cool to add wheels to one end of your sieve so you can roll it around like a wheelbarrow.
I made a compost sieve based on your design using scrap wood I had. The only thing I had to buy was a roll of wire mesh. My terrain is compressed and overgrown and it was taking ages to turn it into raised vegetable beds. The new sieve works fantastically and although it takes time to put through a bucket of soil my speed of work has increased significantly. It has turned a task that was difficult and discouraging into an easily doable task. Thank you.
Fantastic video! I love the way you went through the different variations of the build and uses for it. VERY informative and full of first hand experience!
I watched this video again, after a year, and wondered how I could forget to build this great devise. Made in Fall when I had all those leaves to work with too... sigh. It's on my to-do list now, so I won't forget! Thanks again, for a great video!
I have been looking online for a riddle, i'm so glad i found this video, I actually have access to the materials to make one of these at work, Cant believe i never even thought of making one. Thanks again. Great video
Niiiice. Been thinking about a contraption to do the same. Thought of one with a fulcrum and a lever with an attached crate at the end and use the lever to make an up and down motion and thus loosening clumps of grass and separate its roots. Gave up and now I saw your contraption, eheheh!
Thank you so much for sharing this idea and tool. Im gonna use this for sure. If you then place the compost piles at the end of your garden beds, then there isn't much transportation of the compost. Ofcourse you still need to turn it to achieve the best results. Its really cool seeing you trying to optimize the compost work - it is something im really interested in myself.
Thanks! Putting the compost close to the garden makes a lot of sense. In my case, I have 7 gardens (in that part of the project), so there is always going to be a lot of hauling material to and from the compost.
I had been looking at rotary sieves but this idea is so simple and yet brilliant. I have a very small plot so a version like yours with folding legs and only a 4 foot sieving grid would be fine. Love your little helpers too. cluck, cluck.
Good video my friend helped me build this in fall of 2018 to help replace my lawn but it’s angled. As I had this item for a while I also realized there are other ways to use it kudos to you.
I quite liked your video. I liked the way you showed me how you kept on making your system work better, and better. I will certainly use this great tips.
Brilliant new tool! Red, you are a genius. I'm going to make one but as a handicapped senior, i will need to put wheels on the far end and possibly on the near end as well in order to move it. They even make wheels that pivot so those might be better for moving the siever around. Thanks a million for sharing!
I am amazed. I didnt know that anyone but myself ever made a "sieve". My version was even simpler. 4 pieces of 2x4 some mesh nailed on, laid over a wheelbarrow. It gets questions from by- passing drivers, and neighbors. I grew up on a delta island. Apparently settlers barrowed in soil for decades. That was good soil but it was full of rocks and trees from miles away across a major river. I wanted that stuff separated. Genius that i am ( Not) I invented the sieve. As I said I thought I invented it. Looking here i am impressed by how far behind I am was. Shows the value of info access nowadays. I can't believe i didn't think of a narrowed end so i could tilt out the unwanted remnants. Greg
I think loads of people have 'invented' the same thing over the decades, as it is a logical solution to a need. The sharing of possible refinements is definitely a bonus though!
I’m a new subscriber. I can’t believe you don’t have more subs! You have great ideas and you convey them very clearly, plus you film and edit your videos to make it all very easy to watch. Looking forward to watching more of your channel. Cheers from California!
Thanks for that supportive comment! I'm glad you appreciate the effort I put into the videos and my work. in the gardens. I would love to have more subscribers, but I'm trying to be patient!
Good ideas. I've been shoveling compost into a hand held screen and then shaking it by hand --- a lot of work. I'll start thinking about how to use some of the ideas presented in the video.
I my own newer experience in trying to prepare the ground, this is an amazing idea. Thank you for sharing! I wonder if in these few years between you've come up with a newer version? I'll look through videos and see if I can find if so❤
Love seeing your sieve! We make screens for use with heavy equipment and it's great to see there is a good use for a screen even with a shovel. Something that helps break up the wet clumps could be the addition of the vibrator, but I do like the technique you did with the bucket to break up the clumps.
Without even watching the video, I love the compost sieve leaned up against the tree. I'm totally going to lean my sieve up against a tree and give that a shot!
@@REDGardens Of course, then I watched the video...and I see that the optimal approach gets a little more complicated! Painful as compost sieving is, I guess the anticipation of actually using the compost drives me to push through the pain. ;-)
Excellent! Thank you so much for your work and desire to help others. This, with some minor modifications, will help me so very much as I begin my own journey into small scale home farming or Crofting as its known by here in the Scottish Highlands. Great work! 👍
I use plastic vegetable crates in all kinds of sizes. Really a strain on the back as I shake them around, but I only have small garden so it's doable. And I also use them for a variety of sifting. I see your chickens appreciate your efforts as well! Good job!
I have a few vegetable crates that come in handy at times for sieving, and as you say are useful in a small garden. That is one thing i didn't really mention in the video, that I have a large volume of compost, and really big gardening area, so it makes more sense to build a bigger sieve.
absolutely outstanding... i was contemplating a motorized drum setup but i like your system better. i especially like the sifting over the bed... this will work very well for me. excellent progressive application of the scientific method and iterative design improvement. thanks for sharing 🙂
This is why I haven't decided to compost so many people make it complicated thanks to this video i have hope i produce a lot of trash and most of it i know can be composted and want to start to cut back on how much waste we put out im going to start composting using your techniques somewhat and see what my garden enjoys as I'm new to gardening as well but I want to make it more affordable and in my opinion composting is the way to go soil cost a lot but if you can compost i feel it can cut the cost i love growing and always looking for cheaper ways anyway thank you for this video and your time
Brilliant video. I bought a rotary sieve which pushes stuff through a smaller mesh. It really helps with production of good compost from all kinds of messy heaps. Your idea looks great and i am going to try building one. Thank you.
This was incredibly useful. I am going to make one of those sifters myself. The horizontal use of it is amazing. This looks so much easier than using a small sifter in a 5-gallon bucket.
Great video. Thank you for sharing. We currently have a much smaller screen and the screening is done as a separate step before collecting screened compost into a wheeled barrel to put in the beds. I love your idea of cutting out that step and screen into the beds directly. It’ll definitely be a time saver. Hubby and I were debating about the height being too high, but I can see how this makes the screening using the bucket less of a back breaking task. Thanks for sharing your experiments. You’ve given us some great tips.
Thanks. Glad you found some useful ideas from you explorations. You might have noticed that the legs on the screen were lengthened to bring it up to that higher height. At first I thought I didn't want to lift the material so high, but then realised that it required a lot more strain on the back bending, so I raised it.
As always, I like your pragmatic approach. I also use a sieve but mine is smaller and has a smaller gauge mesh so I produce really fine soil, almost completely free of stones.
Nice video explaining the work and the challenges of sieving through the compost pile. I also use a screen that I can put over a wheelbarrow and sieve it manually. It's back breaking work for a huge pile and I am looking into building a sloped one like yours.
Can't seem to get enough about compost these last few weeks. This was a particularly honest & enjoyable account of how to approach the task of composting. I've made sieves of several sizes using different mesh sizes and they are just hand held types which I fill and then shake to and fro. I have recently seen a RUclips video which advises against sieving compost too fine as you end up with a more dense and compacted soil. The preference is for adding coarse compost to the soil so that the soil has an open breathable texture created by large bits of matter...makes very good sense. One thing that struck me in this video was the unnecessary amount of stones and plastic. It seems that not everybody that adds to the community compost knows what materials should go in a compost pile. A compost pile is, in the main, composed of organic material but I have read of others who add soil, others who add worms, some add ammonium sulphate or urea fertiliser to kick start the decomposition, others who add urine and so on. My best compost so far has been the (relatively) neglected leaf pile from last year. The only thing I did was to turn it a few times and hey presto...beautiul black rich leaf mould for the garden.
Thanks for the comment. I hadn't heard about the possible issue with having too fine of compost - sounds interesting, but for now I end up with coarser compost by default. I think a lot of the stones in my compost come in with the roots of plants, and when I am adding soil (which usually is when I cut out grass and weeds from the paths of the gardens, which would naturally be palace where stones would end up) so in a way, the compost helps to very slowly remove stones from my gardens. The plastic is an issue. I think a lot of it is inadvertent, as I also find cutlery, peelers, etc. The local hostel is also a fairly big contributor to the compost, and with so many guests from all over the place using the kitchen it is kind of inevitable that mixed waste would get in the compost. I am slowly training my neighbours, and hope the most of them will see this video and perhaps take more care.
I have been using a similar sieve for many years in my garden and never thought of some of the uses you have so thanks for the ideas. my main use is for my compost pile. I compost all my paper trash threw my pile including junk mail and its a lot easier to dump it in as is and then sieve out all the little plastic windows from the envelopes than to try cutting them out before hand. love your Chanel and hope all is well. that post script left me a little worried for you.
I have done that too, letting plastic go through the compost system to clean off and separate the plastic from the paper. It works well, so long as I have the sieve, but I do wonder if there is any leaching into the compost. Thanks for your concern. I was more dramatic than I had intended be about the fire. All good with me, now that I am back up and running. Working on a video about it all now, and hope to upload it today or tomorrow.
I came for ideas on a sieve for extracting soil from a bottom layer of leaves that have been decomposing for a couple of years. You gave me some good ideas and I thank you. My one experience with trying to do an outdoor compost pit was horrible. After a time of making contributions, I went to "turn it" for lack of the correct phrase, and what I found was a massive roach and other bugs factory. Alfred Hitchcock would have been frightened. How do you manage insects growing in the compost? (I live in south Texas where some winters, it doesn't freeze at all.)
Thanks for showing the stages of use of the elevated sifter. I'll probably make one, having chicken fence in my collection. It's a good idea. Instead of making more stands, you could make frames of 1 × 3 that fit inside the existing frame, that hold different gauge(?) screens. Hole saw holes for lightening. I'll make some wooden wheels and make an axle from a hickory sapling- it has to be cylinder only where the wheel rolls. Vegetable oil lubrication.
After sifting my compost i feed it to my worms to make castings. It has more beneficial microbes than just compost and helps to protect the plants from some pests.
I’m starting a new garden in Florida and the clumps of grass holding the sandy soil are pretty thick and heavy. I will need to make one of these obviously if I intend to expand. Thanks for going through the experience process make it much easier for us noobs.
This is the coolest thing I’ve seen you do. I live in the desert with a tiny, very shallow garden bed that has been torture trying to clear the stones from. This contraption might come in really handy for me on a much smaller scale.
Yay! Absolutely love your channel Bruce! Your videos are the most scientific and educational I've ever found for gardening. My partner and I found your channel about a month ago, watched all your videos already and have been checking back each day this week hoping for a new one. We've also started trying to garden and grow food for the first time. :)
@@REDGardens haha, I am back again to this video! We've since moved to a home with a larger but very neglected growing space and it is time to sieve out many rocks. Thought I'd get a refresher because i remembered this video having some excellent tips for this task. We've moved a long way and are in a climate much like yours now too which is very exciting both because i think it's a good one to grow the most commonly sought after produce and because we will be able to further implement your findings as it is now a closer analogue to what we are growing in
Thank you so much for this amazingly detailed video! I have a tiny space and I think I am going to try and create a small sieve that can have a table top set on top for when not composting to be used for potting and storage!
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
I love your style.
Manual labor pays off later on in years.
Im 88 years old and all the manual labor I have done in my
Garden and still do daily has me running circles around men half my age. There is magic medicine in touching earth and plants daily.
Carry On !!!!!!!!
Ah, thanks! Lovely to hear that you are still going strong with all your gardening. I completely agree with you, and hope I can say the same when I am 88!
@@REDGardens I like your channel. I thought to keep the bottom of the pile from going anaerobic, just put something like a step stool or side table on the bottom. So that an air pocket is there.
@@rachaelmorrow6669 I have tried using a pallet at the bottom of the compost, worked a bit, but didn't prevent the stuff in the middle going anaerobic - at least with the way i was loading it. I've changed that process now.
@Lucy Ferro Interesting. I used a bucket a few times to try to separate out the wood from the stones, but didn't really consider the fertility potential.
@Lucy FerroI have considered growing mushrooms, and one of my neighbours is well into them! I haven't gotten into it all yet as I already have too many projects ;-) Hopefully one day.
This is beyond perfect of a "how to" content. You saved everyone who does it for the first time even a month of work, both physical (shoveling, separating) and psychological (planning, improving). We're so grateful for your work. Thank you so much!!!
Edit: I found one more use for this sifter - washing big batches of harvest. As you did with potatoes, but just hosing it down in the end.
This video is so well presented, I was amazed. We gardened hard from when I was 25 until I was 50. Then we moved to no garden, lawn or anything. Now at 68 I started again for the grandkids. I am clearing forest land. I am also growing on the roof with a solar powered water valve. I was about to build a sieve today, when I saw this video, I felt like it saved me huge amounts of time and effort.
Thanks! Glad you found my video in time to be useful. Best of luck with your growing!
Why I like your videos most is that you do not say you can do this do that. Instead you share and show your experience, way of doing. Thanks.
Put wheels on one end, this will make it easier to move around the garden. Great idea and I plan to make one myself. Cheers mate.
Wheels would help. Hope your sieve works out well.
Can’t believe this was done the moment it was put horizontally.
@@REDGardens this was going to be my comment as well. Transportation of equipment/machinery needs to be done as efficiently as possible. Great video though with great learning opportunities.
If wheels on one end don't work out, look at ski feet.
@@REDGardens would definitely save your back for a small investment in some all terrain cart tires
What a thoughtful and entertaining style you have. It is unusual to find a person that can deliver information so clearly and with such consideration.
EZEvans1 Thanks!
You can also use it as a wash station, place potatoes and other root vegetables and get the hose out
good idea.
it will work well for drying onions and garlic, have been doing that for a few years, also drying stevia leaves.
We need one of these guys in every small community
Ah, thanks! When I started this project years ago, before I even considered RUclips, I thought that these gardens would be a community resource, with versions spread throughout the country.
Good ideas, sir. My own variation in a small garden is a sieve that fits on top of the wheelbarrow. But if I get to a bigger one like yours I think I will put the one of 4 legs with wheels at one end to make it easier to move around. Like the feathered gardeners you have.
Luv the way the chickens have given their seal of approval approve to the seive. The idea of it being mobile, and that one can move it to the next garden bed and sift directly is fantastic. Thankyou for sharing.
Thanks! The chickens did like it when I was working with the sieve.
Idea for the sieve: still put it up sloping at a 45 degree angle, placing chains on each corner to vertical posts so whenever you put material, there is a swinging to and fro motion shaking the material automatically. Also adding used bicycle wheels and two axles so you can move it and two 2x4 handles at a 45 degree at the front allowing you to move it like a wheelbarrow. Finally, you could add multiple screens stacked to get very fine compost.
I’ve been wanting to get a multi layered system like that.
I’m wondering the best way to have the lower layers.
I feel like they need to be removable to easily sort through what is caught below.
Yes, wheels!
What a great video. I love that you showed the progession as you worked through as your needs and ideas changed. My favorite parts were the funnel shape at the end and the use of the bucket. This video gave me the idea of adding on locking leg hinges so it could be stored upright and two or three overlays with different screen sizes that can be pegged onto the top of the largest holed screen. I'm definitely going to use the end of this video as a starting point for my sieve. I already have one on top of my compost bin, but realized I can't haul my bin, but I can certainly use my yard cart. Thanks again so much for a great video and the inspiration you've given me.
4:34 I have to thank you so much for this insight!! Even doing this at my small scale with a hand-sieve and a plastic plant pot full of pebbles and soil, it has helped so much to use the plant pot itself to rake the contents back and forth over the mesh of my sieve! Game changer! Thank you again, you have a made a very monotonous miserable task more bearable!
Glad my experience and video was useful in your own efforts.
This has me thinking... this would be an excellent way to sift my soil over my beds to eliminate the nutsedge root networks that invade my area. Hmm... thinking. Thanks for such a thorough treatment of this too. My sieve is currently too small for such work but the one you built is simple enough to construct. Thanks so much!
I find it really useful to remove scutch/couch grass root networks.
Funny thing is just yesterday I was thinking of making a sieve for my compost pile. I'm a beginning gardener that has been at it off and on for nearly 20 years. During this pandemic, I've been watching all things gardening, and then this great video pops up into my feed. Great timing.
I heard that a milk crate works well.
Glad you found my video! Good luck with the gardening!
Your chickens are part of your process team very helpful.
Yeah, they are!
I built a soil sifter with 1/4 inch hardware cloth (poultry fencing) and it works well. However, I think I will make one with the 1/2 inch screen.
If you don't have one, you should make one. The soil is amazing and will change gardening for you.
Hello, my name is Irene, I stumbled on to your channel looking for compost , What a great find ! Now I'm a brand new subscriber. I'm 65 yrs old and this year I started a permaculture food forrest . Now I will be using you for info, Like your style of teaching and making videos !!!
Glad you found my channel, and even better that you appreciate my work! Thanks.
This is a keeper. Ingenious. Thanks for doing the hard graft so the rest of us can learn from your experience. Another great video.
Glad you appreciate my efforts!
Love this idea. My soil is full of rocks like this and after 2 weeks on my hands and knees trying to remove the rocks from my gardens, this is something I will be trying very soon. Thank You
I've just started gardening and composting in earnest this year, and built a similar (smaller) screen to remove rocks form beds I'm working. This video has saved me ages of trial and error, and given me some new ideas. Really great content.
I have a similar sieve. Mine was originally built as a washstand for cleaning produce that was very dirty and that I was going to need to wash before canning or freezing. This year, my husband was impatiently filling new garden boxes and the compost he was using was full of large clumps. I wanted a way to sift it and break down the clumps. It worked great!! Thanks for the verification that I was on the right track. Happy gardening!
Genius, I just picked up 20 40 lb bags free compost from this city this weekend. Unfortunately it's full of rocks pieces of bark and other materials. I decided to repurpose a vegetable BBQ pan, to sift the soil. It would make life so much easier if I had your little device. It's amazing what you find in a public compost give back. I'm grateful for the opportunity to receive the free compost ., it helps quite a bit with the cost of container gardening. Thanks for the inspiring video. Happy planting.
Glad you liked my video and got something out of it. I find the sieve invaluable for filtering out undesired objuects form the compost. Today I found a household teaspoon - bent in half!
I have had several of those over the last 30 years. I moved a lot and leave them behind. Not planning to garden at the new place. That never works so I build another. I am 78 and gardening. I live alone so I don’t need the vegetables so my local food bank appreciates them. The guys who take them tell me that the clients really like them so here I am starting seeds and getting ready to try all the new methods I have learned this winter on You Tube. Thanks for your hard work!
Thanks for sharing. I love it when people continue to grow and end up giving away excellent vegetables. May you have another really productive season!
So very helpful to see the evolution of your sieve designs. Thank you again.
Chickens appreciated it too!
I pretty much ended up with a horizontal sieve similar to the one you have, except fixed to a corner of my yard (using existing wooden fence for extra structural support). I also used 1/4 inch screen and made the screen frame hinged so I can easily dump the debris as needed. The hinges are also useful because can I lift and drop the screen repeatedly on the supporting structure to break up the finer clumps. Gonna try your bucket technique though!
my husband and I build a sieve earlier today! thanks for the video it was really helpful. we tried a modified version of this for our wheelbarrow. love these videos!
Would like to see your modified sive.Cheers
One of the best and most helpful gardening videos I’ve seen in a while. Thank you!
Wow, thanks!
Perfect example of iterative development and incremental improvement. Thanks for the great video. I may make myself one very similar.
Thanks. Hope it works really well for you.
Thank you for sharing. Jumping straight to the end of your iterative improvement process will save me a lot of time!
Lol
Just in general, I admire how your mind works! Thanks for sharing all you have learned. I have so many pebbles in soil to sort through, and this video gave me so many tips and ideas at a point where I have been feeling depressed about the scale of the task. The video itself is laid out in an intelligent and pleasing way! You are talented, sir 😁
🙂
Than you for sharing this, Bruce! It's inspiring how you keep improving your approach and always think of better ways to do any task. We'll definitely look into making a horizontal sieve like this!
Thanks. Hope your exploration with making a sieve works out well for you.
Simple tool, so many uses. This has give me some great ideas. I will make a smaller one that fits over a tub. When my flower borders get very weedy and need remedial action, I like to lift out the plants in autumn, divide them and then I try and get every scrap of weed root out of the soil.
One that fits over a tub would be very useful, especially for remedial work that you mention.
That was a really great video. I love seeing the experimental problem-solving process. Thank you for sharing that.
I was thinking it might be cool to add wheels to one end of your sieve so you can roll it around like a wheelbarrow.
I made a compost sieve based on your design using scrap wood I had. The only thing I had to buy was a roll of wire mesh. My terrain is compressed and overgrown and it was taking ages to turn it into raised vegetable beds. The new sieve works fantastically and although it takes time to put through a bucket of soil my speed of work has increased significantly. It has turned a task that was difficult and discouraging into an easily doable task. Thank you.
Wow, that is so great to hear. Thanks for letting me know.
I built my sifter based on your design. It's been great! Keep up the good work
Wow, that's quick. Glad it works for you.
Fantastic video! I love the way you went through the different variations of the build and uses for it. VERY informative and full of first hand experience!
I watched this video again, after a year, and wondered how I could forget to build this great devise. Made in Fall when I had all those leaves to work with too... sigh. It's on my to-do list now, so I won't forget! Thanks again, for a great video!
I have been looking online for a riddle, i'm so glad i found this video, I actually have access to the materials to make one of these at work, Cant believe i never even thought of making one. Thanks again. Great video
Glad it was helpful!
Now that's working-smart. I like how you improved productivity using a basic tool. Tanx for sharing your experience & learnings.
Thanks!
Niiiice. Been thinking about a contraption to do the same. Thought of one with a fulcrum and a lever with an attached crate at the end and use the lever to make an up and down motion and thus loosening clumps of grass and separate its roots. Gave up and now I saw your contraption, eheheh!
I love that you include all the little steps along your progress.
Glad you appreciate that part of my videos. I think it is important stuff to include.
Honestly this channel is bloody brillient
:)
Like your style! I appreciate how you go through the process of augmenting to fit your needs.
Great to hear that some people value my approach to these things!
Thank you so much for sharing this idea and tool. Im gonna use this for sure. If you then place the compost piles at the end of your garden beds, then there isn't much transportation of the compost. Ofcourse you still need to turn it to achieve the best results. Its really cool seeing you trying to optimize the compost work - it is something im really interested in myself.
Thanks! Putting the compost close to the garden makes a lot of sense. In my case, I have 7 gardens (in that part of the project), so there is always going to be a lot of hauling material to and from the compost.
I had been looking at rotary sieves but this idea is so simple and yet brilliant.
I have a very small plot so a version like yours with folding legs and only a 4 foot sieving grid would be fine.
Love your little helpers too. cluck, cluck.
Cool. Glad you found the idea useful. Hope it works for you.
Good video my friend helped me build this in fall of 2018 to help replace my lawn but it’s angled. As I had this item for a while I also realized there are other ways to use it kudos to you.
Thanks. I do find it interesting how often tools get used for other things.
I quite liked your video. I liked the way you showed me how you kept on making your system work better, and better. I will certainly use this great tips.
Brilliant new tool! Red, you are a genius. I'm going to make one but as a handicapped senior, i will need to put wheels on the far end and possibly on the near end as well in order to move it. They even make wheels that pivot so those might be better for moving the siever around. Thanks a million for sharing!
Thanks. Good idea about the wheels.
Great ideas. My husband made one that fits perfectly on the wheelbarrow, very helpful. We use it on both compost and topsoil.
I was recently thinking I needed on to fit on my wheelbarrow!
I am amazed. I didnt know that anyone but myself ever made a "sieve".
My version was even simpler. 4 pieces of 2x4 some mesh nailed on, laid over a wheelbarrow.
It gets questions from by- passing drivers, and neighbors.
I grew up on a delta island. Apparently settlers barrowed in soil for decades. That was good soil but it was full of rocks and trees from miles away across a major river.
I wanted that stuff separated.
Genius that i am ( Not) I invented the sieve.
As I said I thought I invented it.
Looking here i am impressed by how far behind I am was. Shows the value of info access nowadays. I can't believe i didn't think of a narrowed end so i could tilt out the unwanted remnants.
Greg
I think loads of people have 'invented' the same thing over the decades, as it is a logical solution to a need. The sharing of possible refinements is definitely a bonus though!
I’m a new subscriber. I can’t believe you don’t have more subs! You have great ideas and you convey them very clearly, plus you film and edit your videos to make it all very easy to watch. Looking forward to watching more of your channel. Cheers from California!
Thanks for that supportive comment! I'm glad you appreciate the effort I put into the videos and my work. in the gardens. I would love to have more subscribers, but I'm trying to be patient!
Great video, simple and straight to the points with minutes of pontification like other videos have.
Thanks for showing your thought process on the additional uses of the sieve.
Glad you appreciate my work!
Your video was one of the best edited and narrative videos I have seen. Keep making videos just like this... Short and to the point!
Good ideas. I've been shoveling compost into a hand held screen and then shaking it by hand --- a lot of work. I'll start thinking about how to use some of the ideas presented in the video.
This guys approach to gardening is awesome
I my own newer experience in trying to prepare the ground, this is an amazing idea. Thank you for sharing! I wonder if in these few years between you've come up with a newer version? I'll look through videos and see if I can find if so❤
I still use a version of the sieve, but mainly use it horizontally these days. I find that better for the rougher stuff.
Love seeing your sieve! We make screens for use with heavy equipment and it's great to see there is a good use for a screen even with a shovel. Something that helps break up the wet clumps could be the addition of the vibrator, but I do like the technique you did with the bucket to break up the clumps.
Thanks for the video. I have been filling raised beds I just built with soil from other parts of my land and I needed a sieve video. Gratitude
Cool.
Without even watching the video, I love the compost sieve leaned up against the tree. I'm totally going to lean my sieve up against a tree and give that a shot!
Cool. Hope it works well for you.
@@REDGardens Of course, then I watched the video...and I see that the optimal approach gets a little more complicated! Painful as compost sieving is, I guess the anticipation of actually using the compost drives me to push through the pain. ;-)
@@MorganBrown Lol. Well, the 'optimal' approach seems to depend on the material, and the person using it!
I enjoyed your video and the style that you took in making it. I'll keep watching for you of them.
Awesome, thank you!
Excellent! Thank you so much for your work and desire to help others. This, with some minor modifications, will help me so very much as I begin my own journey into small scale home farming or Crofting as its known by here in the Scottish Highlands. Great work! 👍
Thanks. Glad you found it useful, and good luck with your journey!
I use plastic vegetable crates in all kinds of sizes. Really a strain on the back as I shake them around, but I only have small garden so it's doable. And I also use them for a variety of sifting. I see your chickens appreciate your efforts as well! Good job!
I have a few vegetable crates that come in handy at times for sieving, and as you say are useful in a small garden. That is one thing i didn't really mention in the video, that I have a large volume of compost, and really big gardening area, so it makes more sense to build a bigger sieve.
absolutely outstanding... i was contemplating a motorized drum setup but i like your system better. i especially like the sifting over the bed... this will work very well for me. excellent progressive application of the scientific method and iterative design improvement. thanks for sharing 🙂
Thank you for this video. The wheels in my head are turnin ! New gardener and subscriber here, Have an amazing day
Thank you! You too!
This is why I haven't decided to compost so many people make it complicated thanks to this video i have hope i produce a lot of trash and most of it i know can be composted and want to start to cut back on how much waste we put out im going to start composting using your techniques somewhat and see what my garden enjoys as I'm new to gardening as well but I want to make it more affordable and in my opinion composting is the way to go soil cost a lot but if you can compost i feel it can cut the cost i love growing and always looking for cheaper ways anyway thank you for this video and your time
Brilliant video. I bought a rotary sieve which pushes stuff through a smaller mesh. It really helps with production of good compost from all kinds of messy heaps. Your idea looks great and i am going to try building one. Thank you.
Thanks. I have been thinking of getting one of those rotary sieves for fine/light amounts of compost.
I love your show. Youre so unassuming. So natural. And you give us TONS of good info.
Thanks!
A most excellent video of the progress of a tool. Well done!
Bravo, Red. Simplicity and flexibility of design. Good work here.
Your style in imparting knowledge is excellent!
Thanks!
We use one every year. Great tool for the garden.
Yes indeed!
This was incredibly useful. I am going to make one of those sifters myself. The horizontal use of it is amazing. This looks so much easier than using a small sifter in a 5-gallon bucket.
Great video. Thank you for sharing. We currently have a much smaller screen and the screening is done as a separate step before collecting screened compost into a wheeled barrel to put in the beds. I love your idea of cutting out that step and screen into the beds directly. It’ll definitely be a time saver. Hubby and I were debating about the height being too high, but I can see how this makes the screening using the bucket less of a back breaking task. Thanks for sharing your experiments. You’ve given us some great tips.
Thanks. Glad you found some useful ideas from you explorations. You might have noticed that the legs on the screen were lengthened to bring it up to that higher height. At first I thought I didn't want to lift the material so high, but then realised that it required a lot more strain on the back bending, so I raised it.
As always, I like your pragmatic approach. I also use a sieve but mine is smaller and has a smaller gauge mesh so I produce really fine soil, almost completely free of stones.
Thanks. I want to build one with much finer mesh.
Thank you very much this is totally my style and I love your thoroughness!
Thanks.
Nice video explaining the work and the challenges of sieving through the compost pile. I also use a screen that I can put over a wheelbarrow and sieve it manually. It's back breaking work for a huge pile and I am looking into building a sloped one like yours.
Anything that can avoid the back breaking work!
Can't seem to get enough about compost these last few weeks. This was a particularly honest & enjoyable account of how to approach the task of composting. I've made sieves of several sizes using different mesh sizes and they are just hand held types which I fill and then shake to and fro. I have recently seen a RUclips video which advises against sieving compost too fine as you end up with a more dense and compacted soil. The preference is for adding coarse compost to the soil so that the soil has an open breathable texture created by large bits of matter...makes very good sense.
One thing that struck me in this video was the unnecessary amount of stones and plastic. It seems that not everybody that adds to the community compost knows what materials should go in a compost pile. A compost pile is, in the main, composed of organic material but I have read of others who add soil, others who add worms, some add ammonium sulphate or urea fertiliser to kick start the decomposition, others who add urine and so on.
My best compost so far has been the (relatively) neglected leaf pile from last year. The only thing I did was to turn it a few times and hey presto...beautiul black rich leaf mould for the garden.
Thanks for the comment. I hadn't heard about the possible issue with having too fine of compost - sounds interesting, but for now I end up with coarser compost by default.
I think a lot of the stones in my compost come in with the roots of plants, and when I am adding soil (which usually is when I cut out grass and weeds from the paths of the gardens, which would naturally be palace where stones would end up) so in a way, the compost helps to very slowly remove stones from my gardens.
The plastic is an issue. I think a lot of it is inadvertent, as I also find cutlery, peelers, etc. The local hostel is also a fairly big contributor to the compost, and with so many guests from all over the place using the kitchen it is kind of inevitable that mixed waste would get in the compost. I am slowly training my neighbours, and hope the most of them will see this video and perhaps take more care.
@@REDGardens Thanks for replying so soon. Looking forward to watching your other vids.
sifting the compost over the beds is GENIOUS!
Thanks! It i strange how these ideas just come to you occasionally.
Best garden invention ever! I'm going to build one and introduce it to my allotment! 👍
Go for it! Hope it works well for you.
thanks for the procedure of the screening work. I thought that i was too much thinking for small but it turns out huge physical engagement work.
Glad you got something out of my video.
I have been using a similar sieve for many years in my garden and never thought of some of the uses you have so thanks for the ideas.
my main use is for my compost pile.
I compost all my paper trash threw my pile including junk mail and its a lot easier to dump it in as is and then sieve out all the little plastic windows from the envelopes than to try cutting them out before hand.
love your Chanel and hope all is well. that post script left me a little worried for you.
I have done that too, letting plastic go through the compost system to clean off and separate the plastic from the paper. It works well, so long as I have the sieve, but I do wonder if there is any leaching into the compost.
Thanks for your concern. I was more dramatic than I had intended be about the fire. All good with me, now that I am back up and running. Working on a video about it all now, and hope to upload it today or tomorrow.
I came for ideas on a sieve for extracting soil from a bottom layer of leaves that have been decomposing for a couple of years. You gave me some good ideas and I thank you. My one experience with trying to do an outdoor compost pit was horrible. After a time of making contributions, I went to "turn it" for lack of the correct phrase, and what I found was a massive roach and other bugs factory. Alfred Hitchcock would have been frightened. How do you manage insects growing in the compost? (I live in south Texas where some winters, it doesn't freeze at all.)
Thanks for showing the stages of use of the elevated sifter. I'll probably make one, having chicken fence in my collection.
It's a good idea.
Instead of making more stands, you could make frames of
1 × 3 that fit inside the existing frame, that hold different gauge(?) screens. Hole saw holes for lightening.
I'll make some wooden wheels and make an axle from a hickory sapling- it has to be cylinder only where the wheel rolls. Vegetable oil lubrication.
I'm gonna try this out in my gardens. Great idea. Thank you for your ingenuity.
I love your video. I watched to gain more knowledge on gardening. Your video is very informative. I have learned a lot. Thank you for posting
Excellent. Glad you found it valuable!
After sifting my compost i feed it to my worms to make castings. It has more beneficial microbes than just compost and helps to protect the plants from some pests.
Great idea. I will be implementing this in my garden when I return to the Philippines.
Cool. Hope it works for you!
Great ideas and thank you for sharing ! You saved me a bunch of time I would have lost experimenting.
I’m starting a new garden in Florida and the clumps of grass holding the sandy soil are pretty thick and heavy. I will need to make one of these obviously if I intend to expand. Thanks for going through the experience process make it much easier for us noobs.
Good luck with the new garden!
This is the coolest thing I’ve seen you do. I live in the desert with a tiny, very shallow garden bed that has been torture trying to clear the stones from. This contraption might come in really handy for me on a much smaller scale.
Wow, thanks! Hope you find a way of improving your soil, and a sieve might work.
I'm so glad this was on my recommendation, I'm having this problem with my compost and the other ideas that you shared are truly inspiring.
I thought the same
Clever and an excellently delivered narrative of your insights and experiences. Thank you. 👍
😀
Thank you again! I love your movable sieve/table idea. The best ideas are common property according to Epicurus, this should be!
Cool, glad you like it!
One of the best videos about compost. Thank you!
Cool, glad you liked it!
Yay! Absolutely love your channel Bruce! Your videos are the most scientific and educational I've ever found for gardening. My partner and I found your channel about a month ago, watched all your videos already and have been checking back each day this week hoping for a new one. We've also started trying to garden and grow food for the first time. :)
Thanks for that really supportive comment! Really glad that you found my channel.
@@REDGardens haha, I am back again to this video! We've since moved to a home with a larger but very neglected growing space and it is time to sieve out many rocks. Thought I'd get a refresher because i remembered this video having some excellent tips for this task. We've moved a long way and are in a climate much like yours now too which is very exciting both because i think it's a good one to grow the most commonly sought after produce and because we will be able to further implement your findings as it is now a closer analogue to what we are growing in
Thank you so much for this amazingly detailed video! I have a tiny space and I think I am going to try and create a small sieve that can have a table top set on top for when not composting to be used for potting and storage!
Glad you got something out of my video.
Brilliant! Works for me too.
I’m going to build one off those tomorrow for my allotment plot looks great you did a good job what a useful tool 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Great idea Bruce. When I make this I'll fix wheels to one end for maneuverability. Thanks
A set of wheels would work well.
Good job. This is what I need to know about the sieving.Thanks a lot.
Glad it was helpful!
All of your videos are a testament to be efficient... awesome an thank you, I can definitely learn from you... blessings from Texas
Thank you, all the way over there in Texas!