Power rakes -vs- tillers for a nice lawn

[beenthere]

I think you will be best off to get it plowed first.
Neither a tiller or for sure, a Harley Rake are going to work well in weeds, rocks, clay, and grass. You want to turn this grass and weeds over with a plow. Possibly the teeth on a box blade can do that plow work for you, after you mow it well and burn or remove the grass/weed debris.

Then, after the ground is worked up and spread (like with a box blade), the Harley rake will prepare a good seedbed and scoot the rocks and other heavy clods to the side. And as mentioned, a tiller may work up the plowed ground but will not remove the rocks or clods.

Wish you well.

 

[mach]

Sounds like great advice.
Thanks,
Mach

 

[GreatWhitehunter]

Since I actually own a harley rake I'll comment. I live in Rocky NE and had decomposed granite that was badly compacted and not draining well. I find that using the box blade with scarifiers down (or a scarifier only works real well also). To break up the dirt well, then run the rake in the pulveriving mode. The put one end plate on and angle the rake. The rake should be set high during this pass. The harley breaks up the clods of material better than anything else. The harley rake carbide really have no issues with rocks at all.
I'm now raking yards commercially and I'm having super results.

Matt

 

[Lawnjocky]

Since no one has mentioned it I will. You should consider a pulverizer. Woods Equipment Company - 48'' & 60'' Standard-Duty Pulverizers - 20A Series
It will loosen the soil, gather up rocks, level and grade, mix soil, and prepare a seed bed.
I also have a power rake, box blade and a tiller. For making a yard the pulverizer will do everything those other tools do but just not as well. That is not a bad thing. I have installed many lawns with just the pulverizer. There are several brands and you can buy one new for under $2000. And if you watch there are always used ones for sale. Considering how simple the tool is I would get a used one and then resale it later.

 

[JMER817]

I used to install lawns on the side. Used every type of equipment. If you can rent a power rake this is the way to go...here is a pic of a completed job.

 

[littlejohn2009]

You want to put the irrigation in after you have tilled and smoothed everything. For an instant lawn, just around the house, Each pallet is about 500 sq ft, and 20 pallets will produce 10,000 sq ft. Right now, the pallets go for $90.00, so 20 pallets would cost about $1800. Just flag the sprinkler heads, and 2 or 3 people could be able to put down 20 pallets in a weekend. Have you noticed how we like to spend other peoples money

using turf....is a huge bonus, in a drier area. Not to mention you can use it fairly soon....I did it once and I think it was worth it then.

 

[jas67]

Tilling,smoothing with a landplane and seeding should get you very good results for the lawn.

Soil differs from place to place, but for my hard-packed shale & clay, I added compost, tilled it, and then dragged it with a pallet with about 300 lbs of weight on it to re-compact it (necessary after tiller, because tilling makes it "fluffy"). I did this in Sept. and seeded with some kinda of contractor-mix seed that is supposed to be an all purpose, grows in sun, grows in shade mix. It came up within a few weeks thinly, and now that spring is hear it is coming up nice and thick --- looks great!

 

[jenkinsph]

jas67,
I agree soil varies place to place, even on ones own property. I stress using a landplane because it does such a great job with small mounds and depressions to smooth out the lawn. An old style drag spike tooth harrow will work if you make enough passes but the landplane is made to do this specific job and does it well.

I have a small roller that I pull to firm up the seedbed and am working on a better setup for this right now. I planted fescue last August and it is looking pretty good too.

Glad the yard is working out for you as well.