Removing stones from a garden involves loosening the soil and gathering the stones or covering them with new material. Based on the provided reference, here's how to tackle small stones:
To remove small stones from your garden, you can either use mechanical means to bring them to the surface for collection or choose the simpler option of covering them up with topsoil.
Method 1: Rotavating and Raking
For small stones, a practical approach is to use a rotavator followed by raking.
- Step 1: Rotavate the area. A rotavator is a machine that tills or turns the soil, which helps to loosen it and bring buried stones closer to the surface.
- Step 2: Rake the stones up. Once the soil is loosened, use a rake to gather the stones that have surfaced.
- Optional: Wash and bag pebbles. If the stones are smaller pebbles, you could wash and bag them up for potential future use in other areas of the garden or projects.
This method actively removes the stones from the soil, creating a clearer planting area.
Method 2: Covering with Topsoil
A more straightforward, albeit less active, method for dealing with stones is to simply cover them.
- Action: Apply topsoil. The "lazy option," according to the reference, is to buy a couple of tons of top soil and put it over the top of the existing stony soil.
This creates a new layer of usable soil above the stones, effectively burying them out of the way.
These methods, as outlined in the reference, provide different approaches suitable for removing or managing small stones in a garden space.