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A budding gardener may be surprised to learn that there is such an essential garden implement called a garden sieve - because he or she may have always associated the word sieve with cooking. The process associated with the use of the garden sieve is filtering. The word sieve is a general term for a tool used to separate or filter unwanted particles.
Garden sieves filter your soil to remove unwanted particles or debris such as leaves, weeds, stones, and clumps thereby maximizing the growth of your plants. It separates the good soil from one that has been contaminated with wastes to give your plants the environment that will maximize its growth. Garden sieves also sort finished compost from larger pieces that are unfinished.
Types of Garden Sieves
Garden sieves or soil sieves are either hand-held or rotary. They are either made of wood, stainless steel, or powder coated metal with mesh screens that actually do the filtering. The mesh can either be fine or coarse.
A garden sieve with a coarse mesh is ideal for removing stones from soil and cleaning it from such small bulbs as potatoes. The finer meshes are better suited to sifting compost and the preparation of seed beds. The standard wooden garden sieve or stainless steel garden sieve is 18” in diameter and is available in six mesh sizes: 1/8",1/4",3/8",1/2",3/4" and 1" while sieves with coarser mesh comes in 3/8", ½", 3/4" and 1". Hand-held sieves are usually round in form but there are rectangular ones that can be placed atop wheel barrows for ease in moving around.
When garden sieves are used as soil sieves, it separates coarse sand, fine sand, silt, and clay fractions from a soil sample. Depending upon the proportions of these soil samples, the soil can be classified as loam, fine sandy loam, clay, and so on.
A rotary garden sieve is a valuable garden device that enables you to sift soil and obtain one that is excellent and smooth -with a lot of ease. Just take some materials from your composting source, turn or rotate the handle; and use the resulting filtered compost as garden mulch or for potting.
Garden Sieves Prices
Generally, garden sieves are reasonably priced. However, prices vary, depending on its materials. Generally, stainless steel garden sieves are costlier than wooden sieves or sieves made from powder-coated steel. There are hand-crafted wooden garden sieves which may be more pricy than the regular wooden garden sieve. There are generic ones and there are branded ones, and the prices are certainly different.
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Author Bio Box: Patricia Wainwright
Get all the facts about soil and fertilizer management and gardening information at GreenThumbArticles.com!
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