Tilling Sod ?

[Mrwurm]

OK, same question, different place. The previous owner of my home (3 acres) never got a finish grade. The property is part of an old farm field. Bumps, furrows, ruts, etc. Previous owner just let grasses and weeds fill in. If I buy a tiller for the tractor will it grind up the turf well enough so that I can rake it smooth with my york rake (w/gauge wheels)? Will I have just a big mess of clumps? The turf is so bad it's tearing me up and my equipment. No, not that equipment. I mean my mower.

 

[Thomas]

You may want to consider someone w/a set of harrows or a small to a med size dozer to level the 3 acres,for it would be faster and cheaper.
The York rake can do a nice finish job once you figure out your settings,also draging a chain link fence.

 

[bgott]

If you bounce off that seat on a bump and land wrong you stand a very good chance of tearing up "that" equipment! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

 

[cedarranch]

I have been doing exactly what you described. You will have to make 2 passes. The first pass will leave clumps. The second pass will crumble the clumps and leave a smooth till. Set the depth of your till to be 2 inches below the sod root ball. In other words, it your root go 1 inch deep set the tiller to till 3 inches deep and make two passes. As for direction of till. If slope is not a concern, then till in the direction of the bumps/furrows. If you need to roll the slope to taylor the lawn then you will need to go as slow as possible since you maybe crossing bumps/furrows and this may cause uneven tilling if you go too fast.
HTH- David

 

[WVBill]

I too have been dealing with the same problem you have since I moved in. I think the bumps and furrows got here during construction of my house when the various trucks rolled over the ex-pasture that was muddy/soft from rain. (Yes, we did have rain here - long, long ago...).
There was also an area where I killed off a vole colony and their tunnels colapsed.


If I forget where the ruts are and don't slow down for them while mowing it's all I can do to hold on for the "8 second ride".

I've used a couple of methods to combat the ruts.

When my wife says "Honey, I want to put a garden spot over there." or "I want to plant a tree there." First I try to convince her that the dirt would be much better over there (where the rut is...). Failing that, I always peel up the sod in the new garden with my box scraper/FEL, So I lay the sod strips/chunks into the rut areas to fill them in. The other thing I've done is the till method david described.

Since I've not been trying to get golf course level lawn, I haven't tried to till the sod up finely enough to make it workable with my landscape rake. I'm just trying to take out the ruts enough to avoid a ruptured disk while I'm mowing.

 

[rdln]

Looks like we are neighbors at home and at work Jerry, maybe we can work something out, give me a call at work (6-4270). If you can get round-up sprayed on the three acres first that would solve a lot of clumpage.

 

[PaulInMi]

Im not too far from you guys also. If you need help let me know.

Paul

 

[Mrwurm]

Ok, will do Steve. I see in your profile that you have a 970. I'm going out to look at a used 870 tomorrow(saturday). If all goes well, I may soon have a power upgrade ! ! !

Paul, thanks for the offer. Now, all we have to do is wait for spring ! ! !

Jerry

 

[Golfgar4]

I agree with the roundup idea. A few years ago, my father-in-law needed to do the same thing. He had someone come in and go over the property with roundup in an atomizer. within a week everything was brown, and the landscaper came in and had it leveled in about a 1/2 day (approx. 3 acres). Not bad!