8 Ways to use a Compost Sieve

A compost sieve is a essential piece of equipment for any garden or farm, helping to make sure unwanted material doesn’t get added to the soil. The large sieve I built ended up being used in a number of different ways, and for some unanticipated purposes, becoming one of the more useful pieces of equipment in the gardens.

[grumpsyb]

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.

[ivyandroses]

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

[tnekkc]

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.

[EZEvans]

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.

[helenavan]

Your chickens are part of your process team very helpful.

[TheUntypicals]

You can also use it as a wash station, place potatoes and other root vegetables and get the hose out

[terryc]

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.

[ScottHead]

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!

[Chris-unul]

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.

[timcarrington]

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.

[jeffreydustin]

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.

[tkorkunckaya]

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.

[MO-chni]

We need one of these guys in every small community

[msfoto]

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.

[L_Martin]

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!

[sandraharris]

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.

[gillianbc]

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.

[MYPERMACULTUREGARDEN]

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 !!!

[chrisholbourn]

This is a keeper. Ingenious. Thanks for doing the hard graft so the rest of us can learn from your experience. Another great video.

[gregre]

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