The First Step to Successful Farming

A topsoil screener works by separating good, clean soil from rocks, gravel and twigs. The unfiltered soil is poured over a screen that rests above a set of grinding wheels. This screen is repeatedly shaken by a motor attached to an hydraulic system. Anything that is small enough to fit through the mesh of the screen will fall down below to be ground even smaller. Once the soil is ground it falls onto a conveyor belt and is carried away to fall into a container to be used later. The unwanted particles, other than stones, that are too big to fit through the mesh are great for tossing on the compost pile away from the planting area. The stones are great for building rock gardens and other landscaping projects.

A portable version can be made to do the same work on a smaller plot of land. The soil can be shoveled onto a homemade screen, typically comprised of a wooden frame with a wire mesh screen stretched over it and nailed into place. This assembly is laid across the top of a wheel barrow. Then the screen is manually shaken and any debris smaller than the holes in the screen fall into the barrow to be used as clean topsoil while the rest is removed from the top of the screen and hauled away to be discarded.

Topsoil screening can also be done by hand, although it can be a very tiresome and difficult job if too much land area is involved. The soil is shoveled from the ground and placed into a wheel barrow where it can be sorted by hand picking the rocks, large pebbles, sticks and other debris from the pile. What is left is then returned to the plot of land to be used for planting. This process can also be completed down on the hands and knees in the soil, simply sifting the dirt through the hands and picking out the debris.