Tools for removing stones

[Muststopeating]

Help please!

I have spent this year slowly building out new beds/borders.

I live in an old mill that has had countless new buildings over the years and a lot of the rubble has clearly just been dumped.

One bed in particular is more like quarry mining than gardening.

I am working my way through it very very slowly as it is about 20m long by 2-3m deep. It was previously in a part of the garden that you couldn't see but now my massive extension windows look directly onto it.

This year I cleared a patch that's roughly 3m x 3m but it was days of back breaking work.

If it were just weeds then I'd cover it and leave it for a year, but it's the stones that are the problem. Everything from massive boulders (which I prefer) to tiny chuckie sized stones.

Is there any tool that would make it even a little bit easier to clear than picking out all these tiny stones by hand? Getting in a digger and digging it out/replacing with new soil/compost isn't an option but hiring something electric or buying new tools definitely is.

I have googled with no joy... So I'm hoping the wise world of MN may have a miracle option for me!

I plant to the conditions, so would just plant stuff that likes rocky soil!

We bought an old cottage, and an outbuilding had previously been demolished and all the stones (some small, many huge) had been half buried, along with weed suppressing membrane and chunky gravel on top of that. Needless to say it was extremely weedy (membrane doesn't stop ruthless weeds) and of course you couldn't dig through it. It was a huge area too. We're getting on, and it would have killed us! We got a gardener in to assess and he sent along two hardworking young men who cleared the lot, dug it all over and added new topsoil. It wasn't horrendously expensive, they did a good job, and the cost of hiring equipment probably would have been more. Plus they saved us a lot of aches and pains. Your area could probably be done in a day. I would get some quotes, there are lots of jobbing gardeners around.

You could add more stones and turn it into a beautiful rockery 🤣

I would echo FizzingAda
Unfortunately what you're dealing with is a manual task, you need to dig, extract, dig, extract and then refill with good quality topsoil and compost.
I would set aside the stones to create a feature or terracing.

Would any of the rocks/rubble be of use for building low rustic walls or the stones for paths? It sounds like you are in a period property, so that sort of thing would probably go well.

As I feared... Sounds like it's a grit my teeth and crack on job.

I am absolutely keeping all of the bigger stones. We have plenty of space and do have a new dry stone dyke in mind (DH would build it). At the moment I use a lot of them to make the borders. Might change that long term but it's quick and convenient at the moment.

@FizzingAda thanks. I have thought about bringing in some help. This year we had other priorities for any spare money but maybe next.

I remember someone on here mentioning a tool they used to lever out stones. It was specifically for the job. Wouldn't help me with the small stones but would save the tools I have from getting quite so battered wrestling out some of the bigger/more buried stones. Any ideas? Can't find the thread to save myself.

I’ve given up clearing stones from my garden, it’s a pointless task as more appear all the time! I heavily apply homemade compost and leaf mould, empty flowerpots onto the borders and keep them bulked up. It seems to work well, everything is flourishing.

I have a gravel driveway and over the years the leaves from the sycamore opposite breakdown into compost and then I get lots of weeds and grass growing. I have started to build a trommel like this

It might work for you?

Do you have a crowbar? And a pickaxe?

Set a lower limit on the size of stone you’ll remove.

practice no-dig gardening as far as you can

My last garden was pure stone, my favourite tool which I don't know the name of was a very long pointy metal stick (about 6 ft long). It was quite heavy, and I would plop it into the ground next to a big stone and use it as a lever.

But that was just to use them/clear the ground for building, all planting was done on raised beds (built with the stone).

Sorry. Mad week at work and completely forgot I'd posted.

@MereDintofPandiculation I do favour no dig... There is just too much to do and not enough time to be properly digging over all these beds. But I've always worried about the stones... Will they not cause problems if I don't remove them?

Would be delighted to be told it really doesn't matter and use @JenniferJupiterVenusandMars approach of just topping up instead!

Roots happily grow round stones, even quite big ones, if they have some decent soil around them, so just adding organic matter is definitely enough, no need to remove stones.

The only reason to remove stones before planting is if you are going to use agricultural machinery on a field, stones wreak havoc on them.

We bought like a riddling machine to sort a heap of mainly chunks of chalk and soil, but still a lot of work, lift out the biggest bits shovel the rest in the machine (a bit at a time) it rotates and the soil drops through the grid and you tip the stones out into a bucket/wheel barrow. At least you don't have to manually separate all the stones. You might be able to hire a machine?

This sort of thing'

Same! Where do they all come from? I have so many that I can just take them up, but as soon as it rains or there is frost there is another batch to take their place.

I tell myself it helps the drainage 😂

I feel your pain OP! I have a rather low fi version of @plumtreebroke‘s approach. When planting a new plant I dig a huge hole, then rather than just back filling it I use a large garden sieve to filter the soil back in. If I’m feeling really lazy I fill the sieve with the stony soil I’ve dug out, set it over the hole, and rinse it over with a watering can of water, so the soil rinses through to the hole, leaving the stones in the sieve. I always have to add a lot of well rotted manure or compost to back fill the hole completely as I take out so many stones there isn’t enough soil to backfill with! I take buckets and buckets of stones out this way, and slowly, slowly the soil is improving. Yes it’s still a pain, but feels vaguely less painful than picking out all the stones by hand! Its less overwhelming too, as I can improve the soil in the borders bit by bit as each plant goes in.

our garden is full of fist-sized fragments of tarmac from when it was previously a car-park. plus broken glass. I just pick out the big bits as I come across them but leave most. plants don't care about stones smaller than a fist - they just grow around them. Add lots of mulch and topsoil and ignore the stones.

I second the idea of working with the stones - have a look at Dan Pearson’s Delos garden at Sissinghurst for inspo. John Little (greenroofco on instagram) plants into all sorts of rocky waste material with great results. Crowbar or mattock for levering boulders out.

Well this has given me more confidence to ignore them. I always manage to get the boulders out one way or another but have killed a few tools in the process...but my god is it satisfying when they leave a big hole that I can fill with good quality stuff.

I don't even mind digging the big (anything first sized plus) out but it was trying to pick out all the gravel sized ones that was driving me demented/taking up all my time.

Will crack on with proper no dig on the remainder of the new borders I'm making and by ignoring the stones I might even get these beds finished this year!!!

(Meanwhile if someone could remove my access to Thompson & Morgan my bank balance would be eternally grateful).

A riddler? Put in wodge of soil, shakey shakey, throw away stones left behind

(Meanwhile if someone could remove my access to Thompson & Morgan my bank balance would be eternally grateful). Many other suppliers are available some of whom would have much less effect on your bank balance. Or you could try growing from seed - look at Chiltern for seeds of perennials, shrubs and trees.

A riddler? Put in wodge of soil, shakey shakey, throw away stones left behind Ok for a tub of soil for pots, not feasible for a whole flower bed.