Meh. If you throw them off to the side they just swim back in. Takes em awhile but there's basically an endless supply.

Seriously, I don't think anything bigger than an inch is going to help with drainage, but the small stuff isn't going to hurt your veggies. I'd take out the taters when you run into them. After a few years it will be pretty clean.

I often work with a local farmer and in some of the fields the tiller jumps like a bronco constantly there are so many rocks of all sizes. Anything under 6 inches is not bothered with, and many bigger than that stay in the beds and rows. Crops don't much care about rocks if they are getting what they need from soil, they are more of a problem for our cultivation equipment.

I grew up in upstate NY, in the vicinity of Ashokan Reservoir, not too far from Kingston. The farm fields there are surrounded by forest, and in the forest will be a windrow, maybe 6 feet wide, and at least a foot thick, of rocks that have been pulled from the field, since cultivation began around 1600. There are still rocks in the fields, the frost pushes them up to the surface every spring, just not so many as there once were...

I had no idea that frost pushed them up (although it makes sense). I guess I'll pull them out if I find 'em, but I won't go looking for them. Although I was able to make a nice border around the bed of my Japanese Maple with the ones I've already dug out...

1600, Eric?

Actually, I was not around in 1600. But the Hudson River was one of the first rivers in North America to have been explored by Europeans, and there are some really old European settlements in New Paltz, Kingston, and Hurley. I think the Dutch were first, but the French were right in there and the English showed up next. Some of the historic sites are dated before 1700, but I don't recall exactly when the oldest structure was put up.

I agree with others who have said that the rocks probably aren't bothering your plants - but I can imagine that they may bother you when you dig. That said, you probably don't need the tool I've linked to below ... but others reading this thread might want to know about it!

Here is a link that might be useful: Nice tool for gathering rocks.

When I first began to garden in this reclaimed forest I kept a few 3 gallon buckets around to collect rocks. I removed everything larger than about 1" diameter. Most are now gone, after 16 years except in a newer bed I'm now replanting so I'm finding large potato size rocks down a shovel depth. Must get out the bucket again.

Most vegetables are not all that deep rooted so you may not care to try to remove all the rocks. If you are growing long carrots you definitely will need to screen. I used a 1/2" screen for part of my garden but it's a lot of work and I eventually took the easier way of just picking rocks as they appeared.

HI I am usually an occasional lurker. This one got me off my high rock

OH man, You guys have soil to go along with your rocks. Lucky ducks! I have to bring in soil and build up on the limestone and caliche. There's a bit of leaf mulch mixed with rocks under the trees.

That tool looks really nice. Here , it would barely scratch a furrow. I need pick axe and then we just get sparks. A Jack hammer is a garden tool here.

If I were a pioneer, I would be a dead one. They all are down in the valley where the Wagon train road was. People who traveled it would take a break at the one house who had a dirt and a field and get water and food in return for work removing rocks. He was a German with great walls of limestone rock around his fields that are still there. I live where the indians made arrow heads from flint on my hill.Rock removal is Just hopeless.

lcpw, i might be looking for that tool! It looks perfect for what I need it for, especially if I till first to loosen everything up.

Wanton, that sounds bad. And apparently most of the rest of Texas is either sand or expanding clay. Why did we fight a war to keep the place?

The swimming holes are to die for. My area has its charms LIKE A WARM WINTER. Charms with a hard edge. I do love rock also. Our rock is softer than your rock, bless its heart.

And don't forget those dinosaur tracks in the stream bed near Wild Rose, and South by SouthWest, down in Austin. Texas Rocks! It just needs a little rain now and then...

Yes, limestone makes for great spring water. The swimming holes at the various springs in central florida are great for the same reason.

" It can also be used to catapult the stones some distance. "

Yessiree Bob, that's the tool I need! Now I have this picture in my head of rocks flying willy nilly over the fence........

actually it wouldn't be too useful here, as my little rocks are tater sized - the bigger ones are like watermelons. I despair of ever getting them in one spot or doing anything useful like making paths with them - there are just too many. I garden on a spot that once was landfill, and between the rocks and the hardpan they're stuck in, the only solution here is raised beds.