Attachment recommendations

[Lacal]

O.K. here is the house I'm buying which has been vacant for over a year. It has five acres of Arizona desert with hints of having been landscaped once upon a time. I'm wondering just what implements I should be looking at for the TYM tractor I'm planning on buying. My plans are to landscape around the house, build a new backyard retreat, and plant some fruit trees and a good size garden. The driveway is crushed stone, but needs to be restored with maybe additional stone.

 

[mred]

Ok I'll bite knowing nothing about Arizona plant species, how about a backhoe for irrigation installation and tree planting along with removal of unwanted species, a bucket to move "soil", and gravel around and maybe a rake with drop down blade for driveway maintenance.

 

[Lacal]

mred - thanks. Being new and probably having read 50% of all the threads I never knew there were so many different attachments. I have learned more about Mesquite trees and their removal than from the locals I have talked to thanks to this site. Your recommendations sound basic which makes sense to this newbie. I have figured I can rent the posthole digger since I only have about 1,000 feet of fence. I hope to clear/clean around a lot of the Mesquites in the front area and hope to plant a lot of native grass and wildflowers.

 

[J_J]

Box blade, bush hog, forks/grapple. Rear remotes. Zero-scape it with lava rock, mulch, and natural elements, some large rocks, and plants/trees. There are probably some people from your area that will give some good advice .

 

[bigtiller]

Since you are in the middle of what the locals call the "monsoon" season, I would start with a big bottle of round-up to get some of the sticky brush killed off.

 

[bjr]

The first thing I'd wanna know is "is there enough water available to irrigate with?" If not then DON't disturb any more soil than absoloutly nessary. Like one of the other guys said use weed killer then just zero scape with as little greenery as you can. I've heard horror stories about trying to support big lawns and trees with little or no water. Anything disturbed going to blow away on you with the first good wind storm. One good thing about zero scape NO lawn mowing and maybe a little weed wacking. bjr

 

[Lacal]

One of the best things I have done so far is find this site.

Once we close on the property I am going to have a well person inspect the well for capibility, but since the last owners had ten acres and we only purchased five and there are irrigation lines placed over the ten acres I am "assuming" that water won't be a problem.

The last thing I want to do is put in a manicured lawn. I hoping more for native grass and wild flowers for keeping the dust down. The grass would not be irrigated. I do like the ideas suggested about weed killer and zero scape. Since there are plenty of mesquites I figured I could just clear around them.

Now I can start researching the attachments suggested. I can hear my wife now "more money".

 

[Deadman]

Will fruit trees even grow in that sand?
I'm not sure anything will grow there.

 

[Lacal]

Deadman - Willcox is high desert (4'300' elevation) and is known for it's corn, apples, peaches, pecans and is becoming the wine region of Arizona.

These people are 20 miles down the road:

Apple Annie's Orchard, Produce, & Pumpkins - Willcox, Arizona

 

[Kfbeal]

Out of curiosity, how deep are the wells there? Being where I'm at the well is 90' deep with pump sitting at 60'.