Best way to smooth a lawn

[SandburRanch]

Your concrete might work if you can get the leading edge to cut the high areas and fill the lows before it packs it back. But I would still pull it on an angle so it tends to shear high areas.

 

[Jules083]

Your concrete might work if you can get the leading edge to cut the high areas and fill the lows before it packs it back. But I would still pull it on an angle so it tends to shear high areas.

The 'cutting edge' if you can call it that is chipped and rounded from decades of abuse. There's a chain that hooks to each end and a hook welded to a bolt that goes in the drawbar, so it's angle adjustable to a point.

You guys are probably right, just use what I have and hope for the best. Even though everyone just killed my excuse to buy a new toy. :laughing:

 

[moored4]

Long story short this spring I'm going to have about an acre of lawn that will need smoothed, seeded, and strawed. This is a farm, not a neighborhood, so my goal is to just get it good enough to be able to mow quickly without bouncing out of the seat and to not scalp half of the yard with my 72" deck.
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I won't be rushed for time at all, but I don't want to **** around all month and beat the **** out of the small tractor trying do the job. I would think that the small one will do a better job, assuming that it can actually do the job.
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The areas that are already seeded but rough I'll probably dump a few buckets of dirt around then just drag it around a bit. The unseeded area will need a lot of attention, I'm guessing just keep running over it until it's right. I'm planning on using the blade after I'm finished to touch up the driveway, probably run through it every spring or something. There are a lot of hills and high spots here, smaller equipment would be an advantage.

QUOTE]

I going out on a limb here and assuming that at some point your going to have livestock on this larger piece of ground.
I would till/disk the entire 1 acre and all of the high spots in the bigger area and then drag it with a home made tire drag, several long rail road ties chanied togeather, Or spend the less than 1K$ on a linked field drag,one side is aggresive the other side not so aggressive. That will get it smooth and fairly level for a country home and the field drag can be used later to break up the manure piles left there by your live yard art. The field drag can also be used to do your seeding bed prep. Good luck on what ever you do and post pictures, LOTS OF PICTURES!

 

[Jules083]

I going out on a limb here and assuming that at some point your going to have livestock on this larger piece of ground.
I would till/disk the entire 1 acre and all of the high spots in the bigger area and then drag it with a home made tire drag, several long rail road ties chanied togeather, Or spend the less than 1K$ on a linked field drag,one side is aggresive the other side not so aggressive. That will get it smooth and fairly level for a country home and the field drag can be used later to break up the manure piles left there by your live yard art. The field drag can also be used to do your seeding bed prep. Good luck on what ever you do and post pictures, LOTS OF PICTURES!

No livestock here. It's not really a 'larger piece of ground' but just a total area surrounding barns, the house, stuff like that. A good portion of the area gets regularly driven on for feeding livestock, moving equipment, parking some equipment in the summer, etc. That's kind of why it takes so long to mow, there's ruts and depressions all over the place. I finally got a mower big enough to do it quickly but I can't run it as fast as I'd like because of how rough the ground is.

That's why I was thinking box blade, there are high spots in the already seeded areas that need knocked down pretty far, and quite a few holes that are 8" deep and maybe 2' around. Imagine mowing a hay field, that's about what it's like.

 

[jenkinsph]

No livestock here. It's not really a 'larger piece of ground' but just a total area surrounding barns, the house, stuff like that. A good portion of the area gets regularly driven on for feeding livestock, moving equipment, parking some equipment in the summer, etc. That's kind of why it takes so long to mow, there's ruts and depressions all over the place. I finally got a mower big enough to do it quickly but I can't run it as fast as I'd like because of how rough the ground is.

That's why I was thinking box blade, there are high spots in the already seeded areas that need knocked down pretty far, and quite a few holes that are 8" deep and maybe 2' around. Imagine mowing a hay field, that's about what it's like.

I do this type of work all the time, nothing a landplane can't handle. Look at these with rippers built in.


Grading Scrapers | Land Pride

 

[Jules083]

I do this type of work all the time, nothing a landplane can't handle. Look at these with rippers built in.


Grading Scrapers | Land Pride

That looks like the right idea to me. Are they any good with hard packed dirt where grass has been growing for years? I'm thinking I'd get the bigger one and use the real tractor probably.

The closest dealer is 8 miles from me, I'll take a ride up there next day off and see if anything is in stock to look at first hand.

 

[jenkinsph]

These landplanes will cut off mounds and fill depressions better than you may think. Mine is about 950 lbs with the blades set flush with the skids, this works well for lawn preparation. I also have my blades set straight as I prefer not to move the soil from one side to the other but really haven't seen where that is an issue for most jobs.

The land plane will give you the smoothest results flattening your lawn area. I will till the ground in most cases then plane everything smooth you could disc it first instead. Using your disc and the landplane I don't see the need for grading with a dozer.

 

[sammyslab]

Although our lawn is already established; I use a core aerator every year over the entire lawn at least 2 or 3 passes. Like Jules083, I have a homemade drag but mine is made from a piece of steel catwalk that is 3' wide by 5' long. I put weights on the drag and pull around the lawn after coring. The drag moves the cores around and breaks them up but mostly depositing them in the lowest areas of the lawn. If I do this every year, I can keep the lawn very smooth. It actually doesn't take very long either.
Good luck!!

 

[Halftrack]

My 2 cents worth. The neighbor and I reworked our lawns a few years back. Used a 5.5 foot disc 3 times and on the third pass chained a framework of flat 2x10s bolted together with 3 cross members to drag the soil. Framework was about 6 ft wide and the longer the better, 12 ft plus. The middle cross member had a little angle in it to move the dirt sideways. Either the front, middle or back board is cutting and moving soil to where you need it. We finished with it and unbolted the boards and used them elsewhere. If your dozer operator is good and most are, he will probably correct 95 % of the problem, but if he is cutting and pushing sod, it may not be very pretty. May be the cheap way out but it worked for us. good luck!!!!

 

[Jules083]

If your dozer operator is good and most are, he will probably correct 95 % of the problem

He's very good. He smoothed out a section where a chicken coop was last year, I just threw some grass seed over it, picked out the big rocks, and started mowing. It's too rough to have a whole yard though, you still have to watch where you go and take your time in that section.

I want to be able to fly in the mower, that's why I want it right. I hate spending half of the day cutting grass, I'd rather spend some time getting everything smooth than have to go slow every time for the rest of my life.