Buying Advice Landscape uses and limitations

[Carl_NH]

Lost,

I dont know - would envision an 1". Count the tines on the ebay one - sounds like too much fun?

jenkinsph actually suggested this and has one similar to the one shown... he his much better position to reply.

Carl

 

[jenkinsph]

About the pine straw rakes, the new ones at Everything Attachments have individually replaceable tines. Much easier to repair than the ones with all welded connections.

If you are referring to the stems as chaff then the PSR will do a good job of collecting. One of the things I like the most about these rakes is 90% of the time everything falls away from the rake tines when you lift it up. A hand leaf rake gets clogged frequently, not the case with these rakes.

What I do is rake the debris into a pile with the mower then pick up the piles with the fel and load into the dump trailer and haul off. There is some raking needed around trees and tight spots but not much. This is about as mechanized as I can get.

About the tall grass, shouldn't be a problem raking any of this up. I would question doing this on a regular basis though, I find it much more beneficial to the ground to mulch this up and allow it to return to the soil.

 

[jenkinsph]

Lost,

I dont know - would envision an 1". Count the tines on the ebay one - sounds like too much fun?

jenkinsph actually suggested this and has one similar to the one shown... he his much better position to reply.

Carl

The tines are on 2" centers and are about 5/16" diameter.

 

[lost in wisconsin]

The tines are on 2" centers and are about 5/16" diameter.

Thank you sir. I didn't mean to hijack this thread but this interests me for breaking up horse apples in an established pasture. Right now we use a homemade drag of chain link fence, 4x4's and tires (as weight).

Thank you again

 

[jenkinsph]

Thank you sir. I didn't mean to hijack this thread but this interests me for breaking up horse apples in an established pasture. Right now we use a homemade drag of chain link fence, 4x4's and tires (as weight).

Thank you again

You are welcome.

Heres what I use for pastures for cow patties and the like, between the PSR and this home made harrow it makes it all easy and quick. I built this about two years ago for $250.

 

[Carl_NH]

You are welcome.

Heres what I use for pastures for cow patties and the like, between the PSR and this home made harrow it makes it all easy and quick. I built this about two years ago for $250.

Steve,

You have all the "right" tools for the job(s) by your pics and signature line.

Nice work on the harrow too.

Carl

 

[jenkinsph]

Steve,

You have all the "right" tools for the job(s) by your pics and signature line.

Nice work on the harrow too.

Carl

Thanks, I just like using and building this stuff, guess it is my collection of toys.

 

[SI2305]

jenkinsph,

What you have shown me looks like very sound advice. As far as the over-raking of the tall grass, this is not what I intend. As I stated before, I have about 5-6 acres in tall grass and I rake perhaps 1/10 acre in order to collect clippings for along compost windrow about 30 feet long by about 4 feet wide by however tall I can get this to remain stable. For the most part i like having my grassland in a natural condition as possible, but as I stated before, I just appreciate using my land's own bounty to help fertilize my crops.

2 years ago I had a similar project where I just racked all the chaff I could over about a 20' diameter circle and added lawn clippings when they were really excessive (and otherwise left them alone), and I added coffee grounds & food scraps. It made a pile about 5' in diameter by about 5' tall. This was my compost heap for the year. By spring the next year, it had rotted into a pile about 2' tall. I then moved it into a prepared bed.

One of the most amazing aspects of this technique is that the grass downhill (and one peach tree I planted) grew as amazing rates and were just lush green. The spot itself produced huge grass stalks. All of this from a 20' diameter circle out of 5 acres of grassland.

I agree with you, I would not want to overtax my land, but all I do is rake from a different spot the next year.

Thanks much for your advice, I will seriously look into the PSR.

SI2305

 

[ChuckinNH]

Hello all,

It has been a while since I posted, but at this time of year, I have several thoughts on my mind. I just got done bushhogging/mowing my 6 acres of tall grass. By now, that orriginal 6 acres has been trimmed down a bit as I have a substantial fruit patch and a growing orchard, all of which is located in broad paths I have cut into the tall grass (I also maintain several interconnecting paths through my tall grass--just feels fun to walk down a meandering path). I am in the process of building/creating another strip on which to eventually plant raspberries. I intend for this to be a slighhtly raised bed, and I am preparing this bed using chaff left over from the hogging & mowing. I have laid down two layers thus far. The first, six months ago has decomposed nicely and is a crumbly texture that leaves the immediately surrounding grass lush and green. I am now laying my second layer and I hope to let it decompose till spring.

This brings me to my question. I have a bad back. Previously, I hand-raked all of this material with considerably time/effort. This morning, before dawn, I was up and raking more chaff into piles that I then used the FEL to transport and dump. However, I was wondering/wishing that a landscape rake might be the appropriate tool.

Specifically, I was wondering about the following:

1) Will it pick up mowed grass clippings efficiently?

2) Will it collect hogged chaff efficiently (tends to be much longer than clippings)?

3) Will it fill so quickly that It won't really be worth the effort?

4) I have a JD 2305 and I have never been wanting for more power/torque--can it handle
a 6' rake?

5)Will the angle function create windrows or just make a mess of things

6) I don't have a MMM--I use a combination of an LX4 and a Landpride RFM (both work GREAT, but they are different beasts. I sometimes hog the tall grass,then mow the debris, makes the acreage look nice but can be time consuming) Getting a bagger is out of the question unless one is available that does not require a MMM--plus I am sure that they are spendy items anyway.

I don't really intend to MOVE the debris very far, just collect it into piles so I can easily rake it into the FEL for transport & dump. I dump all the chaff & clippings into a windrow (made by dumping from FEL) in order to make a nice, fertilebed--it is almost like making your own topsoil! I am not an organic farmer, but I do like to use some organic principles. I just feel better using the bounty of my own land to make my own food.

Another long winded question, but if anyone has any thoughts, please let me know. Also, if I missed something here, again, I am totally open to thoughts/suggestions.

Thanks in advance,

SI2305

I like the same things, but I have taken to building the compost in it's own pile, and then moving it where I want with my loader, or the trailer.

I sure like that pine straw rake too! I'll have to go to Everything attachments, and check it out some more.

 

[Carl_NH]

Chuck,

Looks like you have last years leaves composting in one pile then loam and another aged compost pile there. I do the same with an active pile and a composting one.

Every year I collect 20+ yards of leaves in Oct/Nov sprinkle with a little 10/10/10 and lime and turn every few weeks. By this time of year its great material for top dressing the yard mixed with a little loam.

Been looking for a small manure spreader to use to top dress - saw one on ebay and CL but didnt get it.. Now looking to build a spreader. I looked on line and seems $1000 is the asking price or more, and then old spreaders that are large are too big..

Have you or does anyone have ideas/built a compost spreader to evenly spread it out? The FEL drops clumps then need to rake in and its not uniform.

Carl