IHDiesel73L
Silver Member
- Joined
- May 13, 2010
- Messages
- 167
Over the past year or so I've been clearing brush from around my little (60' x 100' or so) pond with the goal of being able to mow all the way around it right up to the banks and keep it maintained. Eventually I plan to put up a small pavilion, maybe a dock and put a firepit, a grill and some chairs on the far side between the bank and the wood line:
After rough grading with an excavator I let it dry out as best I could and then seeded the area HEAVILY with K31 and clover. The total area (excluding the water) is a little less than a 1/2 acre but I put down 100lbs of seed. I then covered the entire area in straw matting (by myself-something I will NEVER do again
)-that was back in late April/Early May and the grass has come in pretty well in some areas, but there are still some bare spots and lots of surface rock. I wanted to get seed and matting down in a hurry so that I wouldn't get a ton of erosion and it was way too wet to bring out a rockhound or power rake at the time. Now that the grass has really gotten established and the ground has really dried out I first started mowing with my brush hog on the back of my Kubota. Once I knocked the big stuff down a few times I started venturing in with my 48" walk behind mower which has been a jarring experience to say the least between the rocks and roots and ruts. Needless to say I'm throwing this season's set of blades in the scrap pile once I'm done with them...LOL
In any event, the goal is to have "lawn" all around the pond as close to the bank as possible, leaving some tall grass to provide a buffer for runoff into the pond, cover for frogs and turtles, and maybe one thick "cove" area in the shallows for small fish. I plan to aerate and establish some more robust spring protection and eventually stock it but that's a whole other conversation. Right now I just want to focus on having a relatively smooth and even surface that a mower can easily roll over and that you won't turn an ankle walking on. To start, I built this drag from the old 35" tires I just pulled off of my truck for a new set:
I'm planning to pull it with my quad back and forth and round and round, hoping that the tires will knock down the high spots and spread dirt into the low spots without disrupting the root structure of the grass too badly. I've seen YouTube videos of farmers using these in pastures and the tires seem to do pretty well at collecting fist or so sized rock as well. I'm hoping that after doing this a few times that I can then start leveling the soil a bit by adding material. The challenge is that the pond is a good 150 yards into my property from my lane and no dump truck driver is going to get anywhere near it. My thought was to get bagged material a pallet at a time and haul it back there with my truck (ie: 1000lbs of sand, 1000lbs of compost a time), placing the bags somewhat strategically, opening them up where they lay and dumping the contents on the ground. After raking it out a bit I'll get back on the drag and attempt to spread the material as far and wide as it will go. About 2.5 yards (4000lbs altogether) of sand/compost mix will cost me a little less than $600 with tax plus time and fuel. I'm hoping that I really won't need that much since I'll be going in there beforehand and redistributing what is already there. Finally, when all is said and done I plan to heavily overseed in October with more K31/clover mix.
After rough grading with an excavator I let it dry out as best I could and then seeded the area HEAVILY with K31 and clover. The total area (excluding the water) is a little less than a 1/2 acre but I put down 100lbs of seed. I then covered the entire area in straw matting (by myself-something I will NEVER do again
)-that was back in late April/Early May and the grass has come in pretty well in some areas, but there are still some bare spots and lots of surface rock. I wanted to get seed and matting down in a hurry so that I wouldn't get a ton of erosion and it was way too wet to bring out a rockhound or power rake at the time. Now that the grass has really gotten established and the ground has really dried out I first started mowing with my brush hog on the back of my Kubota. Once I knocked the big stuff down a few times I started venturing in with my 48" walk behind mower which has been a jarring experience to say the least between the rocks and roots and ruts. Needless to say I'm throwing this season's set of blades in the scrap pile once I'm done with them...LOL In any event, the goal is to have "lawn" all around the pond as close to the bank as possible, leaving some tall grass to provide a buffer for runoff into the pond, cover for frogs and turtles, and maybe one thick "cove" area in the shallows for small fish. I plan to aerate and establish some more robust spring protection and eventually stock it but that's a whole other conversation. Right now I just want to focus on having a relatively smooth and even surface that a mower can easily roll over and that you won't turn an ankle walking on. To start, I built this drag from the old 35" tires I just pulled off of my truck for a new set:
I'm planning to pull it with my quad back and forth and round and round, hoping that the tires will knock down the high spots and spread dirt into the low spots without disrupting the root structure of the grass too badly. I've seen YouTube videos of farmers using these in pastures and the tires seem to do pretty well at collecting fist or so sized rock as well. I'm hoping that after doing this a few times that I can then start leveling the soil a bit by adding material. The challenge is that the pond is a good 150 yards into my property from my lane and no dump truck driver is going to get anywhere near it. My thought was to get bagged material a pallet at a time and haul it back there with my truck (ie: 1000lbs of sand, 1000lbs of compost a time), placing the bags somewhat strategically, opening them up where they lay and dumping the contents on the ground. After raking it out a bit I'll get back on the drag and attempt to spread the material as far and wide as it will go. About 2.5 yards (4000lbs altogether) of sand/compost mix will cost me a little less than $600 with tax plus time and fuel. I'm hoping that I really won't need that much since I'll be going in there beforehand and redistributing what is already there. Finally, when all is said and done I plan to heavily overseed in October with more K31/clover mix.
