Getting rid of a bumpy 4 acre yard

[jsburnside]

After 28 years my 4 acre lawn is filled with ruts about 1 to 3 inches deep. Mostly the result of weather and use. Needless to say that mowing the yard is a very bumpy task and makes the task take a lot longer then before. I use a commercial JD zero turn that should let me mow quicker except for the ruts. I have a JD 2305 compact deisel. I really don't want to start all over by removing the grass and using a box blade, land plane, or soil roller, all of which I don't have and can't rent. I do have a 48 inch rotor tiller that would work except it would get rid of the grass which I'm trying to avoid. I'm thinking that just putting down a soil / sand mixture would be the ticket except I can't find any suppliers that have say a 50/50 mix. Getting top soil and sand delivered is do able, but mixing the two would be quite a job. It would take quite a bit of material to fill the ruts, and then drag it out. Any thoughts on how to level a 4 acre yard without starting all over from bare soil would be greatly appreciated. Northeast Ohio weather can be cruel at times.

 

[JJT]

You've lived with it for 28 years, bite the bullet and till up an acre a year. In four years you'll have a nice level yard.

 

[JasperFrank]

My standard birthday present, is now 14 cubic yards of screened dirt.

 

[2manyrocks]

Some might suggest renting a skid steer with a power rake.

I also think there is a lot of merit in the suggestion to do 1 acre a year instead of trying to do it all at once.

 

[dirttoys]

Some might suggest renting a skid steer with a power rake.

I also think there is a lot of merit in the suggestion to do 1 acre a year instead of trying to do it all at once.

so this is absolutely the correct answer, once you get passed the idea of trying to save the grass.

I would say to kill it all at once. The idea of doing it in sections sounds good, but, seems i always tear up good getting to the work, and then always have edges to deal with.

Get the skid, harley and smooth bucket, and kill it in a weekend. Or suspension seat for the lawn mower

best,

ed

 

[BravoXray]

I have the same problem in my back yard, only for the last 40 years. I have had a couple of large rollers, one was a 60" wide and weighed 900 lbs full of water, that I used to try to smooth it out, but only mashed down the tops of the worst of the ruts, but left the ruts themselves.
I have been toying with the idea of dumping topsoil in the low areas and using a 12 foot long piece of 6" H-beam I have, pulled behind my BX to level it out, working in a figure 8 pattern to get it distributed.

 

[zepsherlock]

Maybe get some screened topsoil, and spread/top dress the worst areas, then a piece of chainlink fence as a drag harrow to smooth but not destroy the grass? I'd say it's worth the cost of a 6' section of chain link to test if it'll mess the lawn up.

 

[chim]

I would like to have a couple areas smoothed out, but they haven't bothered me enough to do anything beyond dragging a 24" diameter concrete-filled pipe roller along home one Spring while the yard was soft (no effect).

One thing I considered was getting screened topsoil and spreading it as some have recommended. My thought about that is that it seems that approach could take a number of applications. If the screened topsoil id just sort of screeded off, the material that is deposited in the low spots won't be compacted. Won't that settle and require more applications?

 

[LD1]

Try rolling it when its wet enough for a roller to actually work. Rolling in combination with aerating can smooth a "bumpy" lawn.

You can only roll/compact the soil so much then you have issues. Grass struggles, and a roller becomes less and less effective as it compacts. Aerating (CORE aerating) removes plugs....reduces compaction.....and gives voilds and places for the ground to move/displace for the next time it becomes moist enough to roll it.

But beyond that.....or manually trying to fill a few ruts.....there is nothing that is gonna do much good. No drag, or H-beam, or light pass with a tiller, or chain link. NOTHING is gonna give desirable results for effort.

Get over killing the grass. Kill it, level it, reseed it/ Thats if core aerating and rolling dont work.

But if you dont have the equip.....gonna spend as much on core aerating and rolling than you would renting a skidloader and harley rake

 

[skipmarcy]

I just re-covered my slightly sinking field lines in my front yard after 16 years - my lines are the 10" pipe type so were fairly large ditches. They had sunken just a few inches over the years as they settled but made it more work to cut the grass to match the rest of the yard.

I had to make a larger swale along my driveway ditch this spring and used the dirt from boxblading that to dump on the 2, 100' sunken lines. I adjusted my boxblade back a little (lengthened the toplink) and bladed the dirt out just fine with virtually no damage to the existing grass. 3 months later now and you can't tell it ever had work done to it - grass has re-grown thru the new dirt and all is smooth again, even with one of the driest Julys we've had around here.

I used my 4110, in 4 wheel drive, with loaded R4 rears and did not cause any damage to the yard and my hydraulic toplink made adjustments on the fly easy to manicure the dirt. In the past I have repaired quite a few rough yards for people with just my tractor with loader and a cheap, light duty boxblade. Didn't have to tear the place up and try to rebuild it all with terribly expensive equipment.