Plan to landscape the new place next month

[flusher]

Looks like my new house will be ready for occupancy in mid-Sep. First order of business is landscaping. Now that I have the B7510HST, I figure that I can get the prep work done with a middle buster, a tiller and a homemade chain-link-fence drag.

Checked out the tillers on the Web and at my local TSC. Looks like the least expensive are in the $900-1200 range. Advantage in this approach is hook up and go.

Checked my local tractor guys in Red Bluff and Los Molinos. Both handle gray market tractors. Both expect shipments of Yanmar and Iseki tillers to arrive late this month. They say that we could deal in the $300-500 range depending on the condition of the equipment.

I've spent a good deal of time reading the threads here regarding these used tillers and the expected problems. I don't mind getting dirt under my fingernails getting one of these ricers working. Sounds like fun to me.

I think a 48" tiller is a good fit to my tractor, but I may be mistaken.

My soil ranges from mostly clay in the front yard to gravely loam in the back yard (where the septic system leach field is located 6' down). The landscaped area is about 0.6 acre and according to what I read I should shoot for about 6" tillage depth.

Before I commit $$$ to one of these pre-owned tillers, it would be nice to hear the latest experiences, gossip, rumors, etc. regarding using these implements with a tractor like mine. Any feedback is appreciated.

 

[RonR]

I have heard rumors that some gray market tillers run the opposite PTO direction of imported tractors, so that would be a concern. If you can take your tractor to the dealer and have them mount one for you to test, that would be best. Then you'd know the fit.

Yes, a tiller will make it easy.

I think if I were doing a whole yard from scratch, I'd buy a landscape rake to use following tilling. That would help you move the loosened soil around to fill low spots, etc.

My experience is when I tilled deep, the soil had no base, so I had to wait until it settled to plant grass. Since then, for grass planting, I've only tilled about 2-4 inches deep.

Best wishes,
ron

 

[Sarge]

Flusher, I'm in the same boat as you are with a new house and new lawn. I found that the tiller is my biggest asset, so spend the time and money to get it right. Also, What's the chances of getting a picture of the chain link fence drag? I'd like to make one my self and looking for ideas.

Good luck

 

[flusher]

I'll post pictures of the drag in this thread when I get the welding done, hopefully next week. The parts are lying in a pile next to the garage/shop right now.

Am tied up with house construction stuff. The foundation contractor just stripped the forms this morning from the 24" crawl space walls. Need to clean up the area around the foundation perimeter so the termite guy can do his thing Friday morning. Also have the septic system contractor coming on-site early next week. Busy. Busy. Busy.

 

[flusher]

Thanks for the info about deep tilling.

Don't know what to expect when I start working on my landscaping. So far I do know that running construction equipment over my jobsite generate one heck of a lot of dust this time of year.

The foundation contractor used a skid steer Bobcat to move some gravel into the crawl space area and left about a foot of dust where he made his turns.

I've recall reading a thread in one of the forums about tillers doing the same thing in dry soil. Maybe I'll have to hold off on the tilling until our rainy season starts in November.

 

[deminin]

We moved to the country about 3 years ago, and after the house was built, I had a yard of raw dirt, loose stumps, and rocks of all sizes and shapes. I have a Kubota B2910, and using my box blade, and landscape rake, I was able to work the dirt into a pretty nice yard...after removing the stumps and big rocks with my loader. I set the box blade ripper teeth for about a 2" bite, then went over the yard in a cross hatch pattern. This loosened the dirt fairly equally, and removed the humps and filled in the low spots. Then, I made several passes with the landscape rake, and it smoothed the yard fairly nicely, and pulled out nearly all the rocks. The final pass was with grass seed and fertilizer down, and a nice gentle rain a couple of days later had me mowing within a couple of weeks. My yard is about 3/4 of an acre, and it took some time, but it was well worth it. I have since done much the same for a couple of the new neighbors in the area. They buy the fuel, and help pick up the bigger rocks and roots I dig up, and I get to have the fun. I haven't tried smoothing a yard with a piece of chain link yet, but it sounds like a good idea, and I might just make up a rig this winter.
A tiller would be nice, but in our area, there can be lots of sizeable rocks just under the surface, and I can just imagine the damage they would do to the tiller blades, etc. It takes a little longer with a blade and rake, but there is little to damage on these implements.

 

[flusher]

Thanks for the info. Looks like I need to get educated on the possibilities of landscape rakes.

As usual I start by checking prices at TSC, where I find that there's a 6-foot landscape rake for $496.51. And Howse has a nice selection (4' for $397, 5' for $425).

I have to admit that I'm still strongly leaning toward getting a used tiller from one of the local rice tractor dealers for under $500, hopefully. Even like the idea of tinkering with it to get the little beast working up to par.

Now it looks like your rake approach is just as good for landscaping jobs.

Oh, well. Decisions, decisions.