Creating a lawn

[MW66]

Here's the scoop. We just finished our new home and they have to come back to finish grading this spring/summer. Our property, just where the "lawn" will be is approximately 400' wide by 350' deep up to the wood line. They will finish grade 200' x 350' deep as this was the section where they dozed and stripped the topsoil. The section adjacent (200' x 350') is where I plan to recover the field and make one contiguous lawn that will be 400' x 350' (about 3.5 acres). It is basically flat and once was used for farming. There are a few small scrub brush type plants, but not a lot, and I also planted a 12 tree orchard. My plan is to buy a Kubota B3200 this spring and the dealer told me that a rear tine 54' tiller would make quick work to recover the field in 2 or 3 passes max. Is there any other equipment that I would need to turn this into a suitable state before I spread grass seed? A box blade? Rake? Do I need something like the ratchet rake to rip out the small scrub brush first? I'm not looking for a golf course type lawn, but I would to get it right before I put seed down. I'm going to also buy a heavy duty roller roller, a mower (not sure RFM or MMM), FEL, and snow thrower.

 

[kebo]

All I can say is you must be a glutton for cutting grass!!! 3.5 acres is alot to cut all at once.

Will you have other uses for the rototiller after you get the lawn established? If not, I would consider getting a used 7 shank chisel plow and run over it back in forth east & west, then go over it again north & south. That rototiller is not going to go very deep anyway, if there are established (small) trees and/or bushes, you probably need to rip up their root systems. After you got all that dirt chewed up, a rake would smooth it over nicely.

 

[MarkV]

I agree that 3.5 acres is more than I would want to mow. That would be 4 to 41/2 hours with my zero turn mower and that gets old doing it once a week.

I think the tiller and a rake would be a great combination. Follow that with a home made drag, log with fencing wrapped around it, pallets chained together, or varies other combinations and you are set to go. I am not sure why you would want to compact the soil with a heavy duty roller after loosening it up to plant. I do use a small light roller to bed seed after using a drag.

You might want to think about a tractor mounted spreader for seed, fertilizer and lime if needed. Your best bet is get a soil test done to see what the soil needs. Seed and fertilizer has gotten too expensive to guess.

MarkV

 

[Jimmy Joe]

I think tilling is going to take a little longer than the dealer leads you to believe, at least the experience I have with tillers. Unless the ground is fairly loose already as in plowed. Usually leveling with a dozer leaves the ground fairly firm, the tiller won't bite too well. A heavier tiller will help. To plant grass only the top few inches needs to be loosened, dragging it with a piece of chain link fence works pretty well on loose ground for final leveling. I seeded at half the rate, lightly dragged with the chain link then seeded the other half and rolled with a Brillion seeder borrowed from a nearby farmer with great results. As Mark said a soil test is highly recommended.

 

[jenkinsph]

Here's the scoop. We just finished our new home and they have to come back to finish grading this spring/summer. Our property, just where the "lawn" will be is approximately 400' wide by 350' deep up to the wood line. They will finish grade 200' x 350' deep as this was the section where they dozed and stripped the topsoil. The section adjacent (200' x 350') is where I plan to recover the field and make one contiguous lawn that will be 400' x 350' (about 3.5 acres). It is basically flat and once was used for farming. There are a few small scrub brush type plants, but not a lot, and I also planted a 12 tree orchard. My plan is to buy a Kubota B3200 this spring and the dealer told me that a rear tine 54' tiller would make quick work to recover the field in 2 or 3 passes max. Is there any other equipment that I would need to turn this into a suitable state before I spread grass seed? A box blade? Rake? Do I need something like the ratchet rake to rip out the small scrub brush first? I'm not looking for a golf course type lawn, but I would to get it right before I put seed down. I'm going to also buy a heavy duty roller roller, a mower (not sure RFM or MMM), FEL, and snow thrower.

One of the more important things to consider with a lawn this size IS making it smooth as a golf course, it will save you time, wear and tear on the equipment and wear and tear on you. What I did was till the entire lawn about seven inches deep then ran a 3pt landplane/grader over it to smooth everything up, seeded the lawn and harrowed over it. I can now cut just over an acre an hour with my small riding mower running full speed. This same lot used to take three or four times longer to mow.

 

[mostly_gas]

How is your top soil? Mine is better suited to patching ponds than growing grass. I used a double bottomed plow and disk to plant 2 crops of buckwheat prior to putting in the lawn. After the second crop was plowed under, used a plain rear blade (not a box blade) and a homemade drag to prep for grass seed. I mow the 3 acres in just over two hours w 60" RFM then the wife trims with a 44 " rider in 1-2 hours