Gettin' glass outa top soil?

[Anonymous Poster]

Gettin\' glass outa top soil?

Hi,

I have a pile of top soil that I skimmed off some ground near my pond. Trouble is, apparently that area was a dump for glass and garbage back in the old days when there was no garbage collection.

My plan is to take a loader bucket at at time and spread it out where I need it, then use a hand rake and sift out as much of the glass as possible before planting grass seed...

Is there a simpler way? I guess not, but better to ask in advance rather than find out later!

Bill in Pgh, PA.

 

[AndyF]

Re: Gettin\' glass outa top soil?

If the soil is fairly dry and you have a helper you can try running it through a sieve before spreading it. Make a sieve about the size of your loader bucket and set it up on top of a pair of sawhorses or some other framework to keep it off the ground. As you dump the bucket onto the sieve have your helper shake the sieve so that the soil will fall through. Depending upon the size of the glass shards you are running into, rabbit fencing with a 1X1 mesh could be a good size wire for the sieve. When you get a good size pile under your saw horses, move the sawhorses down a few feet. At the end of the day you should have a nice long pile of nicely screened topsoil.

 

[bgott]

Re: Gettin\' glass outa top soil?

Dig a deep hole and bury the dirt that has the glass. Put clean dirt on top.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Gettin\' glass outa top soil?

Hi again,

I like the screen idea...if I could only find a helper to shake it all day! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif...who knows, maybe I will be able to. That would give me some nice, easy spreading top soil.

The whole pile of top soil has some glass mixed in. Need the soil, can't bury that! Actually, I even hesitated to bury the glass that I already picked up while working the tractor in that area (picked up for fear of it puncturing my rear tires). I will probably Either decide to bury it, or put the broken glass out for the trash collector a bit at a time...

Bill

 

[beenthere]

Re: Gettin\' glass outa top soil?

I had something similar, and used the screen idea. However, I used 1/2" hardware cloth (metal wires welded about every 1/2" square). I then tacked it to a wood frame that held it at an angle of about 30 - 40 degrees. I just shoveled the dirt onto the screen and let it 'slide' down over the openings. The result was very good screened soil that could be used. If there are small pieces of glass that make it through the screen, probably will not do much harm to tires (doubt I would trust walking through it with bare feet though). Just another thought.