Butch 194 #1 Posted May 26, 2013 Last August the front of my property looked like this. It had these kind of pines and undergrowth. My house is directly behind me. The township came a long last August and asked if they could take out the dead and weak scrub pines that were near the street. My wife said yes. You can see a sample below of the stumps I had. I had 38 of them. They ranged in size from 1 inch to about 8 inches. I rented a stump grinder and my son and I ground down all 38 stumps. I used this tool here below on the back of my C-175 and turned over the soil twice in criss crossing directions. The moldboard plow yanked out all of the undergrowths root system. Next came my mid mount grader shown below. This implement has earned it's keep many times over. This section of ground was very uneven. One side was a foot higher than the other side. I had the grader on my C-85 with manual lift. I could adjust the depth of the grader with the lift and feel of the lever. I could go deep or just feather some debris off the top. I developed a good feel of the grader. Then came the trenching machine for the sprinkler system. I'm convinced you can't have a nice lawn without underground irrigation. I installed 15 stainless Hunter heads on 3 zones. After all the trenching and piping was done I came back over the trenches with the grader to fill it all in. If you keep your feet on the grader you can really move that blade left and right with ease. I then used a wooden pallet with a board attached that had dozens of nails driven through that I drug around to make seed beds.So around the middle of September I was ready for seed, lime, iron, straw and fertilizer. This is how it looks below in mid May. There is some annual blue grass in there which is in the process of dying and there is some straw growing from the seed that was in the straw. Straw is not supposed to have seed. I was hoping the winter would kill the straw but it didn't. It looks to be dying now. Straw is an annual and should die. I don't have 100 % coverage but it is pretty good. It is filling in and I bought a 25 pound sack of Kentucky Bluegrass Supreme. $120 for 25 lbs. There is 3 different kinds of premium bluegrass seed in this mixture. I'll over seed in the fall and do my other section of lawns with it. Those raised flower beds? Well they were made with my grade blade. I just kept shaping them by driving in circles and pushing dirt up on to them. This spring I aerated with my new Brinly core aerator. Works great. I'll aerate again in the fall. The only tools used to make this lawn was my C-85, C-175, Mid-mount grader, moldboard plow, trenching machine, stump grinder and trencher. No rakes. No shovels. The only hard labor was the stump grinder which I shared the duty with my son and the trencher which was done by my other son. The shovel and rakes weren't used until the shrubs and mulch was done. 9 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wheelhorse84 87 #2 Posted May 26, 2013 Wow ! Looks great. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dennist 139 #3 Posted May 26, 2013 Very nice. I had never tried a grader blade till this year and I will always own one now. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
varosd 1,185 #4 Posted May 26, 2013 We can see that you take a lot of pride in your property. "hire someone?" Heck NO!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AMC RULES 37,196 #5 Posted May 26, 2013 Beautifully done. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sparky-(Admin) 23,196 #6 Posted May 26, 2013 Nice!! Just think of the value you added to your house if you were to sell. Mike.......... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marv 982 #7 Posted May 26, 2013 Butch, It looks really good. There is a lot of work involved in doing this. I have done mine from scratch at least twice. I am sorry to hear you have some annual Blue grass in it. When I last did the lawn the seed I got had annual blue grass seed in it. I did not know that until later. It constantly reseeds itself and now it is trying to take over. If you find a way to eradicate it without killing everything I would like to know. Marvin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
546cowboy 302 #8 Posted May 26, 2013 Really nice work. Looks like a landscaper did the job and I like that no shovels or rakes involved. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
953 nut 60,160 #9 Posted May 26, 2013 Looking GOOD! When I was preping a lawn space I did the same except I used a scrap piece of chain link about 4' X 4' with a 2X4 attached to each end, worked like a charm. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
StWeiler 6 #10 Posted May 26, 2013 I'm particularly impressed with your grader built planter beds...they look fantastic. At least the city/county had the tough job of clearing all the dead and overgrowth. You got the fun part...rebuilding it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JimD 3,347 #11 Posted May 26, 2013 It looks fantastic Butch. It takes a lot of patience to create that kind of lawn out of scrub woods. You and your sons do nice work! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wheel-N-It 2,976 #12 Posted May 27, 2013 Amazing! Good work! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Butch 194 #14 Posted May 27, 2013 Butch, It looks really good. There is a lot of work involved in doing this. I have done mine from scratch at least twice. I am sorry to hear you have some annual Blue grass in it. When I last did the lawn the seed I got had annual blue grass seed in it. I did not know that until later. It constantly reseeds itself and now it is trying to take over. If you find a way to eradicate it without killing everything I would like to know. Marvin Marvin I put halts down. That will stop it from seeding. A chemical called Dimension that you can buy on Ebay will also stop it from seeding and I read it will also kill young annual bluegrass plants. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fun Engineer 859 #16 Posted May 27, 2013 Nice job Butch. You should be very proud as it looks professional. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bo dawg 518 #17 Posted May 27, 2013 SUPER nice! Thats what I like doing. Thats really a beautiful thing! You messed up though.... you didn't take any pic's of the work in progress, everything in between, showing the horses at work. Lol! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KC9KAS 4,744 #18 Posted May 27, 2013 Looks very nice. You had the right equipment to do the job! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Duff 206 #19 Posted May 27, 2013 Great work! Your place is beautiful! Duff Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ken B 3,189 #21 Posted May 28, 2013 Nice job Butch! Any brownie points with the wife? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dclarke 4,082 #22 Posted May 28, 2013 Looks great, Butch. ...... Nothin better than bluegrass. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CasualObserver 3,411 #25 Posted May 28, 2013 Butch, that came out amazing! Any pictures of the actual work though? I definitely agree with Sparky's comments on the property value. The curb appeal is awesome, especially the way you framed the house with that center planting bed. Any neighbors approach you to do theirs' Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
