I want to even out my yard - what attachment to do it

[forceten]

We been here 10 years. 2 acres mostly flat. But when i say flat - no hills but lots of uneven bumps. We cut with a zero turn mower and over the years its been worse and worse. Bumpy damn ride as we cut. So much so in some areas that you could almost bounce out of your seat if going too fast.

Over the years of rain and puddles - that made larger puddles - then lakes. We filled in with top soil some of the larger lakes and that did the trick to get rid of all the lake areas when it rained heavy. But we still have a bumpy as hell property that seems to get a bit worse every year.

Now we could hire somebody to do it - but we wonder what it would take (besides time) to do it ourselves. We have a bx25d, we have a tiller, we have a landpride rake. We have access to our neighbors L series Kubota also that we borrow from time to time for bigger jobs.

Could we just till the entire lawn flat? Till and Rake? We would also be willing to buy a power rake if that would get the job done if that would work better - if one can be bought for the kubota. We have property in upstate NY (10 acres) where a power rake could come in handy also. We have lots of time so that isnt an issue - just not sure how to go about it.

 

[cerlawson]

Take the bull by the horns. Roto-till the whole thing and start over. Maybe do a section each yer.

 

[Corney]

Our yard was rough and every time we mowed we pulled a drag behind the riding tractor. It spread out the fills such as the ones in your pictures, drove out the moles and knocked down thier hills. The gophers somehow died of lead poisoning for some reason? Huh!

We also overseed and fertilize so it stools out and fills in the voids.

Our lawn is only coming into its second year and it's getting pretty smooth.

 

[Diydave]

I use one of these: https://youtu.be/os2rnm4tml0

Might be cheaper to rent one than buy one. The combination of a tracked machine, and a HR is day and night different, than mounting a HR on the back or front of a wheeled machine...

As far as prep goes, I'd take it a bite at a time, IN THE FALL, spray roundup around aug 20, 10 days later, till the lawn area killed, then have at it with the asv and the HR...

Reason for doing it in the fall, is because you won't have crabgrass to compete with.

Reason for taking it a bite at a time is that then you don't have to water it all at once...

 

[forceten]

So power rake better than a tiller? I assume a power rake we would have to remove the grass first? Roundup - or use our FEL with teeth and scrape it up......

If we did go the tiller route - Say we did a section at a time - we get a box blade to level out the tilled area?

 

[Changnam 59]

Tilling on its own does not really work.

It does a fine job of breaking up the soil but it does little in terms of moving the soil laterally.

 

[sheepfarmer]

Our yard was rough and every time we mowed we pulled a drag behind the riding tractor. It spread out the fills such as the ones in your pictures, drove out the moles and knocked down thier hills. The gophers somehow died of lead poisoning for some reason? Huh!

We also overseed and fertilize so it stools out and fills in the voids.

Our lawn is only coming into its second year and it's getting pretty smooth.

Corney, what kind of drag? I mow with the old Ingersoll, and it is mole city. A roller doesn't do anything....I never see the gophers, but I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't partying with the moles at night. I don't expect a beautiful lawn, between the horse and dog traffic, but it would be nice not to dull the blades too fast on the runs.

 

[Corney]

Corney, what kind of drag? I mow with the old Ingersoll, and it is mole city. A roller doesn't do anything....I never see the gophers, but I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't partying with the moles at night. I don't expect a beautiful lawn, between the horse and dog traffic, but it would be nice not to dull the blades too fast on the runs.

It really scientific, it's a chuck of channel iron edges down with a chunk of chain link fence dragging behind. My bride is charge of mowing with her 25th anniversary JD riding mower that she drives like she stole it! There is quite a ruckas going on but it seems to smooth out the yard. Grass may or may not be cut even but, OH WELL!

 

[sheepfarmer]

How heavy is the channel iron? Length? Picture? You may have hit the critical combo to knock down the moles. I have something similar that I concocted to drag my horse arena, and messed around with it for ages before I got it to pull right, but it is attached to a chink of wood and is too long to drag around the lawn.

 

[Dr Honda]

Take the bull by the horns. Roto-till the whole thing and start over. Maybe do a section each yer.

Yep... what he said.

roto-till.... seed... let grow a little... then roll.


Not easy, or fast... but that's the way to do it.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Gophers?

When I was kid on Long Island, we used M-80s and burning saltpeter/sugar mixes to kill 'em.

A friend of mine made up a tool using a 5 gallon propane can and a deep root feeder. He'd pump the tunnel full of propane and then light it off. After some rather destructive results, he realized that just the propane gas was doing the job.

Not what you want to do for a large area though. My tractor buddy in Ohio who's back yard is 45 acres, a good chunk of which is lawn, uses an HMR-17 in his Savage and within a minute or two of exploding a gopher, the raptors swoop in to pick up the pieces.

Ray

 

[alansz400]

I had a new septic put in 3 years ago and my whole front yard was trashed. I went from having the best yard in the neighborhood to the worst. The work was done in the fall and the guy that put the septic in filled in the ditches and the big holes and I worked on leveling out the rest. Planted a cover crop and let it sit until the next spring so the ground had time to settle. Getting all the low spots filled and keeping the water away from the house was a much harder job then I would have ever thought it would be. We spent way to many hours working on getting it perfect and it still has some low spots or high spots. Not trying to scare you away from doing it but like someone else said i would start with a small area and see how it goes first or get a dump truck load of good top soil and use the round side of the back blade to push the dirt around and fill the holes then roll it. Speaking of rolling I saw a big road roller on a high school football field last fall. Maybe look into renting one of those when you are done.

 

[ItBmine]

Like has been said, either till it up or get more soil to spread over it. I just put a new septic field in with my B. Box blade did a nice job.

 

[budpat105]

I keep looking at a land plane with scarifiers, there are some without scarifiers. These look good but may not loosen soil enough to plant. Anyone tried these?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[gkk2001]

I vote for spreading topsoil and dragging an 8 ft cross tie to level it into the depressions. Repeat as needed or roll with a heavy water filled roller to compact. Repeated over a couple years should help a lot.
This reduces tearing up all of what you do have, namely turf and may be the least costly.

 

[TalonX]

Might be cheaper to rent one than buy one. The combination of a tracked machine, and a HR is day and night different, than mounting a HR on the back or front of a wheeled machine...

I was all gung-ho to buy a 3 point hitch attached power rake until I saw the $8k price tag Maybe if I decide that I should become a landscaper I could justify it!

 

[Diydave]

I was all gung-ho to buy a 3 point hitch attached power rake until I saw the $8k price tag Maybe if I decide that I should become a landscaper I could justify it!

Mine was about 5 grand, when I bought it from the dealer. It was a demo unit, and had a couple hours on it. But it is invaluable, in my business. What it doesn't rake out, it buries. Unfortunately, that goes for Fios and cable TV lines, invisible dog fences, too

 

[Corney]

Corney, what kind of drag? I mow with the old Ingersoll, and it is mole city. A roller doesn't do anything....I never see the gophers, but I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't partying with the moles at night. I don't expect a beautiful lawn, between the horse and dog traffic, but it would be nice not to dull the blades too fast on the runs.

This is my high etc lawn leveller that I pull with my riding mower.l it's upside down for full illustration in this picture.

 

[Corney]

This is my other high tech drag implement that is to heavy for the lawn tractor but is used in unison with the oth drag to really level the lawn out behind the Kubota.

The moles don't like when you knock down thier hills and are very vunerable to cats which help my production as well.

 

[sheepfarmer]

Thanks Corney, that gives me an idea of what size hunk of metal to look for. My wood piece is too light.