I like it Smooth (bumpy yard)

[Cherokee140]

Have you read five SIMILAR THREADS in the blue box at foot of this page?

Hay forum cop don't quit your job at the TSA.

But tell me do those threads show up before you ****** post you **********.

But thanks for the tip...I will check out those year old to 7 year old threads....perhaps we should lock the entire forum down as all this has been covered before you ***.

 

[Cherokee140]

is some of the problem (clump grasses) grass that grow in clumps or bunches with space between them the field can be smooth and the grass is what is rough, in that instances, and if it is clump grasses then removal of the clump grasses and replacement of the lawn type that make a field type or lawn type look,

I guess this could be it, but there sure are holes there as well.

This back area gets a great deal of runoff, but I did not bring it up before as the part I "fixed" does not hold water anymore. At one time we called this area the swamp....really that is what it was....wetlands.

The area that we ran the disc over for about a month is now not holding water and drains very nice....I bet this area will be the same after all this rough area for the water to sit is gone....cut down on the mosquito problem as well.

 

[philbuilt]

I use sand. You can put small piles where you need it and then use a land plane or box blade. If a box blade is used set it so the inside cutting edge is up a little. The sand should fill the hole and the grass will grow though eventually as you keep cutting. It's a lot less work then redoing the whole yard.
good luck and have fun

 

[Cherokee140]

Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet, pay the piper....and do it right.

View attachment 374713

Yea...If I was landing there I would want it smooth. I would think with even with a small private strip you would be fighting that battle all the time. I know the little strip by us does, and they mainly do ultralights and those little Taylorcrafts.

 

[Pine Strip]

Yea...If I was landing there I would want it smooth. I would think with even with a small private strip you would be fighting that battle all the time. I know the little strip by us does, and they mainly do ultralights and those little Taylorcrafts.

Doing the regular yearly maintenance with my Rosco Roller. All part of the fun !

 

[pmsmechanic]

I have two old diamond tooth harrows welded together side by side. I attach this on my 3 point hitch add some weight and when the ground is wet I harrow my lawn. It's amazing how this levels the lawn and you don't have to reseed. I've used it to fill in old plow furrows and also ruts from driving across the lawn when it's too wet. It was cheep to build and works very well. You don't end up with a perfectly smooth lawn but it's a huge improvement over what was.

 

[coobie]

I would till, then grade then roll and seed. Can't see how you can save the grass you have.

++1 on THIS.

 

[JimRB]

I was confused about the term bail. Bail as in you are in jail and you pay bail to get out. Or bail as in my rowboat is leaking and if I do not bail the water the boat will sink. But then you talk about wetlands so bail might make sense.

I would assume it does not mean making hay because many people would not want to work a hay field that rough.

I think you are describing animal holes and terraces.

I was mowing a field down the road from me. Maybe 3-5 acres. OK mowing on the outside but some knucklehead disced in the middle and left big clumps or mounds of dirt. I had to get off 3 times to pick up rocks and run with my loader bucket low to bulldoze the dirt piles. Along the way I came upon at least five 8" or bigger holes in the pasture that armadillos or other creatures had made. Leg breakers for a horse or a person. I also came upon plenty of fire ant mounds which when they collapse can make some pretty big holes. If that was my property I would have filled in the holes using some of the dirt mounds. I would have gotten my pulverizer out and dragged the rest of the dirt mounds out to smooth the rough middle section. The terraces stay otherwise everything will wash away.

The 500 acres that was subdivided in 14 lots of 1.5-200 acres used to be a cow pasture and before that working crop fields. There are mini terraces to control erosion. You may not notice them bush hogging but you feel them driving the trucks across. The worn down terraces create a harmonic that if you drive too fast gets the trucks wallowing like a 1970 Cadillac. 1987 long bed Toyota and a 2004 Dodge 2500 regular cab long bed. Different wheelbases but both feel the worn down terraces. Terraces are good things but maybe not so loved in a hay field or golf course. The ones left in our neighborhood have been smoothed over enough that I could make hay on any of the properties if I were so inclined.

By the way the 200 acre cow pasture across the street has been disced 2 years in a row and planted with oats in an attempt to get weeds under control. I would have sprayed weed killer but the farmer went a different route. It seems that every time you disk around me you just turn up, pull up rocks that make horrid noise when bush hogging.

 

[Cherokee140]

What is a pulverizer?

Sorry about the words, spelling was never my strong point....bale perhaps

There are some critter holes and bumps...but mainly moles. There are some terraces, but they are not an issue. It has been raining the past two days, so I have not been back there as there is just too much standing water right now.

With the one person describing "clump grass" that sounds like part of my problem, but then there is dirt type holes that I can put my out reached hand in and not come above ground level till past my wrist.

I am thinking of the box blade for now (as I have it) and getting pretty aggressive with it....see where that will leave me.

 

[The Fred]

Try dragging a railroad tie behind the tiller as you till, filling in and somewhat packing the soil. The more you till the smoother things get.
Seed then roll the seed in with a roller, Good results.

Fred

 

[JimRB]

Soil Pulverizers for Tractors is a place to look at all kinds of tractor gadgets.

If it was me I think I would be trying to fill those holes with something first, like rocks and dirt before smoothing. No matter what you put in the holes, the fill is probably going to compact and compacting holes might be challenging if they are going into burrows. Translated you may have plenty of holes after you smooth everything out with a few good rains settling the filled in places. In any event the pulverizer is kind of cool tool. I made mine own. I forgot how many days it took to make but it was a few days minimum.

At our 9 acres I picked up buckets of rocks and used them as rip rap (rocky fill) in the few wash areas. 17 years later those wash areas are forgotten and the rocks disappeared. I guess the dirt washed in and covered up the rocks.

By the way the bail/bale might not get me but I do have to think hard sometimes with other words. I was driving my car and I tried to brake. I broke a brake drum which I worked on when I got home. I took a break to brake (I do not know which brake/break that is) open a bottle of root beer when a bear walked through the back yard. Lots of words that might sound the same and I get plenty confused. ;-)

 

[Cherokee140]

I was halfway working on this with my old box blade....I really need to get a new one. The one I have came with my 8n and it has been welded together so much there is more weld then anything else...it busted again and I said the heck with it....on to plan B.

What I think I am looking for is really two things. The first area (the back) is so bumpy you really can't walk back there. Water drains from the field, sits in the holes (mosquito heaven) and it is just bumpy. If you take a brush hog back there you better take a fist full of shear pins....that tractor will fall in a hole and WHOP new pin time.
I want to at least to be able to brush hog (just really grass) back there. It would be nice to actually mow back there...but I just don't know without really tilling the entire place up. I am talking some holes as big as your foot, and more then ankle deep.

Then there is the "yard" once a field, Mowing kills me. Every weekend we will mow the front or the back....they rotate. I can usually mow about half, then have to take a break (actually a pain pill) then I can finish it up. It is not super bumpy but on a tractor it really just pounds me to death. I am really not sure if it is just me or not, My back has gone down hill after I moved out there, and IIRC it really did not bother me before my last surgery. I could be chasing a rainbow. I drove a neighbors zero turn a little bit and it was dog gone fast, but still real bumpy...I think it is a Gravley 260Z...I know it is a 260Z because I made Datsun comments....funny I almost raced Datsuns before I fell on my head and started racing Opels.

Anyway I think getting the ground smooth enough for ME might be something just not possible (think golf green) That is why I am thinking about the Ferris or Simplicity with the suspension settings.

This all comes up again from mowing this past weekend. I did half the yard on the JD650, then the other half on my new Kubota BX....just to see what was better. Both have good and bad points, I will outline in my day in the life thread. But I am really thinking after running my friends zero turn I really am going to have to have suspension.

Or another thought....what about some cheap Chinese side by side and some kind of powered pull behind mower....any thoughts on that.

This is all key to how long I get to live at my house. I can see only a year or two more of the status quo. then the grass will have to be let go, and I will have to rely on un-reliable people to come bail it, or I will have to move back to the city.....I don't want to move to town.

 

[kevin37b]

I don't understand your last sentence . Well , maybe I do , back pain . You need a disc and a good chain link harrow . The first pass will be rough , the next 2 or 3 will be better . That grass will recover if you are patient between passes . That suspension thingy you are talking about is worthless in your situation . It takes a little time . Everytime you smell rain , get out and disc it . That grass will recover . Hope this helps .

 

[Cherokee140]

I don't understand your last sentence . Well , maybe I do , back pain . You need a disc and a good chain link harrow . The first pass will be rough , the next 2 or 3 will be better . That grass will recover if you are patient between passes . That suspension thingy you are talking about is worthless in your situation . It takes a little time .

Ok....yea, I know there will come a day when I just can't get out and do it any more....and I am only 48.

You really think the mower will not help. I had pretty high hopes for springs on the mower, but I was going to make them bring a demo to my house.

I have a disc, but not the chain harrow. I have thought about renting one of those Harley rakes, or just pound the **** out of it with a tiller, then drag (rr tie perhaps) the surface to try to get it smooth.

It is really kind of depressing....I only have my O.L.S.D. (Organic Labor Saving Device)...otherwise known as my 17yr old son for a few more years. He really hates it when I call him my OLSD...But it is funny.