Smoothing a very bumpy yard

[psvines]

I mow about 2 acres with my new BX2660, 54" MMM. Over the past couple of years I've had a lot of work done around the house and many large trucks have driven around the yard. In particular I permanently closed a very large pool last summer.
The ride on the Bota is bone rattling in places. I tried pulling a roller around when the ground was very wet but that didn't help. The roller was only 200 gallons (guessing).
What should I do? Would dragging some type of rake help level the soil.

 

[collije]

I had somewhat the same problem after building my house here. I got a DR Power grader and it works great for smoothing out the yard and also works fine for the gravel drive. I am currently removing many stumps from the back yard and will be using it for that as well. I also have the BX2660 and love the little thing. It is a real power house when it comes to digging after I added the Markham tooth blade.

 

[savageactor7]

psvines...get a load of sand and use the FEL to back blade over the rough areas. It'll fill in and you'll notice the improvement...before long grass grows right up through the sand.

 

[roadhawk]

I have the same type of yard; old stump roots that have started rotting which gets the ground sinking in those areas and just overall rutted areas in other spots with some big cracks in the dirt too.

I don't have the tractor yet but I was looking forward to using a landscape box to top-cover the existing lawn with new top soil and then doing that again every so often as the grass kept coming up through the new top layer until things were smoothed out again. Will this work or was I hoping for more than a box can do?

 

[TripleR]

I had the same thing when my septic system was replaced on a rainy day. I ran my reverse rotating tiller over it and also used my FEL to move a little dirt around. Because of settling, it may need to be repeated a little later.

 

[BotaBX24er]

I have the same type of yard; old stump roots that have started rotting which gets the ground sinking in those areas and just overall rutted areas in other spots with some big cracks in the dirt too.

I don't have the tractor yet but I was looking forward to using a landscape box to top-cover the existing lawn with new top soil and then doing that again every so often as the grass kept coming up through the new top layer until things were smoothed out again. Will this work or was I hoping for more than a box can do?

I re-graded my front yard, because of septic field settling of the years, and had very good success with a box-scrape. Depending on the tractor, you can set it to grade at a slope so that water won't sit in any one place.

 

[TripleR]

I have the same type of yard; old stump roots that have started rotting which gets the ground sinking in those areas and just overall rutted areas in other spots with some big cracks in the dirt too.

I don't have the tractor yet but I was looking forward to using a landscape box to top-cover the existing lawn with new top soil and then doing that again every so often as the grass kept coming up through the new top layer until things were smoothed out again. Will this work or was I hoping for more than a box can do?

Depends on the size of your tractor. A box blade/scraper works great if you have the weight and power. I tried it with my BX2660, it was too lite and didn't want to drive my big tractor up, so I went with the tiller.

 

[roadhawk]

NH TC40D is what I'll have.

 

[MarkV]

Depends on how you want to do it and how bad it is. If you want to save the existing turf then sand or screened top soil in small lifts will allow the grass to grow back through. Cut short, add soil/sand to the low spots, back drag with the heel of the bucket and then pull some sort of drag over it.

If you want to regrade and reseed that is a much bigger project on 2 acres.

MarkV

 

[rdsaustintx]

topdress with sand and use a landscape rake?