Techniques for spreading mulch with a FEL

[buck12]

When I bought my tractor I had high of spreading mulch with the FEL but it seemed to take more time than just driving around the yard with the trailer hooked to the truck and spreading with a shovel. Now if it is an unplanted or new bed that would be a different story but all our beds are established.

 

[lungdoc]

It's easy with a FEL, you scoop up the mulch and dump it in the beds with the tractor and have your wife spread it out with her hands, rake, whatever works best for her. You get a better vantage point sitting higher up on the tractor to point out to her the places she missed as well.

:laughing: I like the way you think! In my neighbourhood I am well known for saying that I believe in always buying my wife the finest of gardening tools.

 

[tractchores]

Good suggestions so far. I especially like the one where my wife would do all the work . I usually hand spread from a wheelbarrow, so will probably just do that from the FEL. I'm actually pretty good at tossing it in via hand and getting even and level coverage and it requires no real bending, which is nice. I'll try the slow dumping technique on a few less planted areas and see how that goes too.

 

[schmism]

with skill you can feather the dump over 3 or more piles.

With even more skill you can feather the dump while backing up thus putting down a layer of mulch. Note the last action takes much skill in operating the tractor as you have to do 2 or 3 or more things at once.

 

[Cat_Driver]

Fill up the bucket start at the back of the flower bed raise the bucket and start going in reverse tipping the bucket slightly as you back out.

Once you reach that perfect tipping angle where the load starts coming out I usually TAP, TAP, TAP the dump handle and it release dribs and drabs as you go.

 

[tractchores]

with skill you can feather the dump over 3 or more piles.

With even more skill you can feather the dump while backing up thus putting down a layer of mulch. Note the last action takes much skill in operating the tractor as you have to do 2 or 3 or more things at once.

I practiced that skill a lot spreading 40 yards of loam the last couple of weekends for a new lawn. The first areas were lumpy and slow, but by the end i was doing 10 yards per hour and getting it level without needing to back drag. We'll see if its the same motion for mulch this afternoon. Thats one plus of the tractor im actually looking forward to the chore this year!

 

[pacerron]

I would only add that depending on the size and weight of your tractor and the type of soil dampness you have when doing this on an established yard,
you may create tire depressions in the yard from the weight that won't go away till after next winter's freeze and thaw, if then.
Sometimes it is better to keep the tractor on the drive and wheel from there to the beds and borders with a wheel barrow.

 

[tractchores]

Got the job done. It was much quicker with the tractor, but still took 5.5 hours to do it by hand by myself. I had 3/4 of it done in around 2 hours, but the last part took a very long time due to distance from the mulch pile and having to maneuver around obstacles with virtually no clearance (pool, deck posts).

I tried both spreading by hand from the FEL and dumping and raking. Dumping and raking was much faster, but used a lot more mulch and wasn't possible in areas with heavy plants (which is unfortunately 90% of the beds).

Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[k0ua]

Got the job done. It was much quicker with the tractor, but still took 5.5 hours to do it by hand by myself. I had 3/4 of it done in around 2 hours, but the last part took a very long time due to distance from the mulch pile and having to maneuver around obstacles with virtually no clearance (pool, deck posts).

I tried both spreading by hand from the FEL and dumping and raking. Dumping and raking was much faster, but used a lot more mulch and wasn't possible in areas with heavy plants (which is unfortunately 90% of the beds).

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Were you able to practice your FEL "shakeing at the tipping point" technique?

James K0UA

 

[RJD2516]

I use a wife to spread my mulch. Does a very good job, but they are darn expensive.