Smoothing without removing all vegetation?

   / Smoothing without removing all vegetation? #1  

Chris_T

Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2006
Messages
35
Location
Saskatchewan, Canada
Tractor
JD2305
I read the threads about smoothing out pastures, but I have a slightly different question because I’m considering a similar project, but don’t want to go all the way to bare earth.

My wife and I recently built a house on 11 acres. The land had been sitting for a couple years, but previous to that it was part of a hayfield. Because of a significant amount of alfalfa it is also home to numerous pocket gophers who’ve sent up little mounds of earth for years leaving the ground fairly lumpy and bumpy.

We’ll probably take several years to bring everything around to the way we want it, but in the short term we’d like to smooth the ground BUT without eliminating too much of the existing vegetation. I don’t mind a moderate level of disturbance, but I don’t want to eliminate everything. We’re fairly windy and very fine-sandy soil and we don’t want to live in perpetual sandstorm. Several options come to mind and I’d like input or additional ideas.

We could use a homemade drag similar to what one might use on exposed earth (telephone pole/I-beam/etc. with a chain-link skirt), but my thinking is that in order to smooth things enough it would eliminate too much of the vegetation and do so randomly in patches.

A second possibility would be a drag harrows (spike or tines) which would break up the lumps and bumps, but might also be too aggressive

A third thought was similar to the harrows: landscape rake with gauge wheels set very shallow, possible removing alternate teeth.

Other ideas?

If we were to go with the second two possibilities we might have the advantage of a consistent level of vegetation removal that could be mitigated by over-seeding. (At present I’m thinking over-seeding grasses in the alfalfa-heavy areas which seem to be greener and more productive – presumably because of nitrogen-fixation – and a clover or sweet clover with the appropriate symbiotic innoculant in the areas that look like they could benefit from an N-fixer)

Any and all ideas are welcome!

Chris
 
   / Smoothing without removing all vegetation? #2  
A 3 point box blade sounds like a good tool for that application?--Ken Sweet
 
   / Smoothing without removing all vegetation? #4  
For 11 acres, I'd hire somebody with a big tractor and a big heavy disc harrow. You need WEIGHT to cut all those hummocks down to level, and a 15 foot or bigger wheel disc has WEIGHT. Cross-disking will chop the high spots and fill the low spots, killing the annual (undesired) vegetation in the process. Follow the disking immediately with overseeding and lime/fertilizer. The best time to do this is in the spring, when you can count on rain as soon as possible after disking. There will be lots of exposed roots belonging to perennial (desired) grasses, and a good rain after disking will get them to re-root. Timely rain will also set the new seed and dissolve the lime/fertilizer.

When disked adequately, it will initially look almost like bare ground (from a distance). But a day or two after the first rain, things start greening up almost overnight. In a few weeks - assuming rain - you'll hardly be able to tell it had just been worked over.

//greg//
 
   / Smoothing without removing all vegetation? #5  
sweettractors said:
A 3 point box blade sounds like a good tool for that application?--Ken Sweet

box blade (set to float) would be the ideal tool. i've also had success using an old bed spring towed behind the ATV.

good luck.
pf
 
   / Smoothing without removing all vegetation?
  • Thread Starter
#6  
Thanks for the input everyone. Keep it coming.

Ken: maybe I'm missing something, but I'm confused how the box blade would help, unless the top link is lengthened and it's being used to back-blade.

DV: How does the pulverizer deal with existing vegetation? I also saw the Befco overseeder, which would seem to be useful.

Greg: What you mentioned sounds exactly what I want to do after one or two seasons. For the back half (fairly sparse, weedy) I'd like to spend a couple years getting more organic material on the ground to disc-in (clover). At the moment I'm thinking about a treatment that will allow me to run the tractor over the entire area without feeling that I'm driving on cobblestones! That, and let me do a little playing under the guise of 'work'.
 
   / Smoothing without removing all vegetation? #7  
Chris_T said:
Thanks for the input everyone. Keep it coming.

Ken: maybe I'm missing something, but I'm confused how the box blade would help, unless the top link is lengthened and it's being used to back-blade.

DV: How does the pulverizer deal with existing vegetation? I also saw the Befco overseeder, which would seem to be useful.

Greg: What you mentioned sounds exactly what I want to do after one or two seasons. For the back half (fairly sparse, weedy) I'd like to spend a couple years getting more organic material on the ground to disc-in (clover). At the moment I'm thinking about a treatment that will allow me to run the tractor over the entire area without feeling that I'm driving on cobblestones! That, and let me do a little playing under the guise of 'work'.

The teeth on the box blade would help knock down the high spots and then level out, reseed and cultipack those spots.--Ken Sweet
 
   / Smoothing without removing all vegetation? #8  
I had a lawn that was riddled with ferral pig ruts and pocket gopher mounds. I used my back blade that I made gauge wheels for. I was able to shave as little turf as I wanted while smoothing all the piles. I also incorporated some fill I had. Works good.
Cheers!
 
   / Smoothing without removing all vegetation? #9  
What about a roller? I have seen some pretty good size cast iron ones you can pull behind a tractor. It would probably work best after a good long rainstorm or if the ground was very moist for whatever reason. Good Luck.
 
   / Smoothing without removing all vegetation? #10  
Chris_T said:
Thanks for the input everyone. Keep it coming.

Ken: maybe I'm missing something, but I'm confused how the box blade would help, unless the top link is lengthened and it's being used to back-blade.

DV: How does the pulverizer deal with existing vegetation? I also saw the Befco overseeder, which would seem to be useful.

Greg: What you mentioned sounds exactly what I want to do after one or two seasons. For the back half (fairly sparse, weedy) I'd like to spend a couple years getting more organic material on the ground to disc-in (clover). At the moment I'm thinking about a treatment that will allow me to run the tractor over the entire area without feeling that I'm driving on cobblestones! That, and let me do a little playing under the guise of 'work'.



It will deal with it well as long as it is not tall and thick wire grass. I have used it on existing lawns and as long as the soil is miost it will get into the ground good. the only thing just like what you will have with the box blade is there will be piles of vegitation to either fan out with a drag or scoop up with a loader. The nice thing about it is that it will drag out the mounds just like a box blade but you will have about 2-3 inches of tilled soil that is ready for seeding. With the box blade you will have to attach another implement to obtain 2-3 inches of tilled soil. Once you seed it you can you set the third arm out so that just the spike roller touches to pack in the seed and make a smooth grade. I have a friend that tried his yard with a box blade. Now my pulverfizer takes a missing every now and agian:) He will not do it any other way
 
 
 
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