Land Plane / Land Leveler to smooth out lawn???

[GreatWhitehunter]

Rent a Harley rake and be done with it. The Harley will bust up the grass clods which make a more nutrient rich soil. You should be able to work the driveway with the Harley also.

Matt

 

[Deerherd]

If I get rutted up areas I use my disc first then the land plane. Great way to maintain dirt roads/trails.

 

[jenkinsph]

Jenkins, what do you use to till. Also was the lawn in front of the house virgin soil or previous lawn? If previous lawn did you spray anything to kill off the old grass prior to tilling?

I use my JD 4520 and 673 tiller for most jobs and will also use a 1072 S tine cultivator to help break up larger areas.

The lawn area was previously an overgrown lot that sat for about 30 years with trees and brush. There was a good deal of erosion problems with a ditch forming about 3 ' deep. Cleared the trees and brush, dug up the stumps and buried the debris with 2' of cover.

First time I planted the grass in April I got a near perfect crop of weeds. My neighbor who is an agronomist for NRCS looked at it and said to let them grow and wait until August/September. I then tilled the weeds under and replanted, this time I set up sprinklers to keep it watered. No weed killer needed the grass came up and it was too late in the year for the weeds to come back. The grass grew from September through May and was thick enough to choke out the weeds. Timing and watering are very important I have learned to get good results.

The fields in the pictures above were old apple orchards that needed the stumps removed and then laser leveled for proper slope to irrigate. Tilled these deep, leveled with a box blade and used the land plane to aid in smoothing. I had these fields ready to plant for September 1st but waited until we had a good forecast for rain. Planted Sept 9th and we had plenty of rain from the 11th through the end of the month. No weed killer needed,

 

[Gordon Gould]

Some nice work there Steve !!!

 

[streamin]

I have the same problem with ruts and stuff but the heavy box blade just rides over the weeds/clumps as mentioned. I was looking for a disc, is that a good option? What about a regular tiller? I only want to buy one more implement here. I don't know if the Harley rake would work on my big ruts.

 

[jenkinsph]

Some nice work there Steve !!!

Thanks Gordon

 

[Fallon]

I have the same problem with ruts and stuff but the heavy box blade just rides over the weeds/clumps as mentioned. I was looking for a disc, is that a good option? What about a regular tiller? I only want to buy one more implement here. I don't know if the Harley rake would work on my big ruts.

A tiller & disk do more or less the same thing. A disk is a LOT faster, but some of that is negated by the need to do multiple passes. A light tiller will dig a bit better than a light disk in hard ground.

Unless you are going to be tilling over 5-10 acres regularly, I'd go with the tiller. Its more maneuverable & flexible. A disk needs room to maneuver & a full head of steam built to properly fling & mix dirt. Everybody can use a tiller on a garden, most can't use a disk.

I don't see a scenario that a tiller would work in that a Harley rake would when trying to smooth stuff unless those are really deep ruts. In that scenario pick up a cheap subsoiler to rip things up then let the tiller or Harley do its thing. A Harley rake is designed to smooth/level & clean/filter dirt. A tiller will do both, but not as well as a Harley.

 

[streamin]

A tiller & disk do more or less the same thing. A disk is a LOT faster, but some of that is negated by the need to do multiple passes. A light tiller will dig a bit better than a light disk in hard ground.

Unless you are going to be tilling over 5-10 acres regularly, I'd go with the tiller. Its more maneuverable & flexible. A disk needs room to maneuver & a full head of steam built to properly fling & mix dirt. Everybody can use a tiller on a garden, most can't use a disk.

I don't see a scenario that a tiller would work in that a Harley rake would when trying to smooth stuff unless those are really deep ruts. In that scenario pick up a cheap subsoiler to rip things up then let the tiller or Harley do its thing. A Harley rake is designed to smooth/level & clean/filter dirt. A tiller will do both, but not as well as a Harley.

Great explanation, thankyou!

 

[gphil12873]

I'm in the same boat. My yard rough and got mounds all over. I burnt it off this past weekend and I'm going to disc up about a acre at a time. Let it sit through a rain then disc a few more times till I get it good and soft. Then I been getting some 18 wheeler tires and going to make me a tire drag and reseed it about May or June.

 

[torinfleming]

Hi, I am in the exact same situation here in Ireland except I picked up a small B6000 Kubota with front loader without understanding the limits to the ccw pto and different spindles. Would you recommend a land leveler and does anyone have a suggested drawing plan to fit this small Kubota? 4' would prob be plenty for the 14 HP!
Sorry for hijacking the thread just the exact same problem!
Thanks guys