How do I Reclaim a Field ?

[s1120]

<font color=red>I'm doing the same thing on 2 acres. Just keeping it mowed below the reproduction height of the undesireable weeds has made a huge difference.</font color=red>

Thats what I have done to my land, and after 2 years I got real nice grass growing.

[Gary]

I dont need to take it down to soil, but I am worried about tire puncture with the small stumps. So your saying to mow everything as low as possible and then let nature due the rest over time ?
Thanks,
Gary

[Gary]

I would like to bring it back to grass in prep for planting apple trees and maybe a few rows of blueberries.
Thanks,
Gary

[looch]

If you use a rotary mower (brush cutter) on the small trees, it won't cut them off clean. It will hack and tear them so they'll look horrible, but they will end up rotting much more quickly.

[Dozernut]

Stonewall
Actually a small dozer will not compact the soil as badly as a tractor. The dozer spreads its weight out on its tracks, creating less pressure per square inch than the small foot print of a tractor. I can go through a muddy area with the dozer and basically float on the mud, yes it leaves tracks, but not ruts. The tractor, going through the same mud, leaves deep ruts that need repairing.

[MossRoad]

Yep [img]/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Lots less work, less chemicals, less disturbance of the soil and less expensive. You'll be surprised how fast grasses move in when the field is kept mowed to 6 inches or lower. Mow it every few weeks to keep new saplings from re-sprouting. Eventually they use up all of their energy trying to sprout new branches and croak.

[Buck]

Gary,

Here is a photo of an area that I am reclaiming. I first went over it with a tiller. Yesterday I used a box scraper remove the vegetative clumps.

This area was severely afflicted with ruts. So far this area cost me about 3-4 hours.

Buck

[Gary]

Hi Buck
Wow, looks real good. I don't think tilling will be an option for me for a while yet though. How did the scraper work ? I was thinking of a scarifier but I guess the box scaper will do a similar function.
Thanks,
Gary

[Buck]

Here is area that I reclaimed three weeks ago. In this case, I started with a box scraper with scarifiers to remove the sod, smoothed it without the scarifiers, placed the vegetative clumps in a pile for use somewhere else next year.

After breaking the soil with both the tiller and box scraper, I recommend using the box scraper over the tiller method. The tiller mixes the grass and weeds too well with the dirt, requiring that more dirt be placed aside.

If you use a plow, you may want to let the vegetative clumps rot in place for several months before leveling.

Buck

[Buck]

George,

Here is a small segment of some area that I reclaimed Aug. 2001. This land was practically impassable by foot when I started. I used only my FEL and a scaper.

Incidentally,
1) the pond was put in later - it's my neighbors.
2) you can see a drainage ditch that I put in last month. The ditch is about 100 ft. long and at this point is about two and a half feet deep. I used my scraper and was glad that the scraper was wider than my wheelbase.
3) Those dark bumps are stumps that I am burning.

I have had a lot of fun doing this. Your three to four acres may take a lot longer.

Buck