**Geobabe ** and I just bought our first home a few weeks back, and after we got the interior stuff unpacked enough to get by, I turned my attention to the back yard. The previous owners had an addition put on the house in the rear, a very nice master bath, but they did not have the yard repaired or cleaned up after the construction was done. I have major league low and high spots, which coupled with the Georgia Red Clay in the soil, makes for really, really bad drainage. I have already gotten up the three areas of spilled concrete, but we still have tons of gravel in the yard, previously used to drive construction vehicles on. It is pretty well embedded in the ground in most parts, too.
I am having someone come in with a tractor or Bobcat to grade the yard, at which time we’ll seed and cover for grass, but I don’t want to have all this danged gravel either on or just below the surface. Lawnmower projectiles, and all, ya know? The rocks are maybe one inch or less across. I’d use a screen and sift the rocks out, but did I mention the Georgia Red Clay? It doesn’t break up into pieces smaller than the rocks very well.
I COULD use a screen with water to try to break it up, but did I mention the drainage problem?
Aside from taking the yard on by hand with a shovel, wheelbarrow, water hose, and framed screen and turning it into a swamp, are there any EASIER methods of getting all this gravel up?