Gravel on the grassy bank

[AMC RULES 36,945]

I'm thinking...   

NOT!

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 2016 by AMC RULES

[ztnoo 2,298]

Renowned Beatles lead guitarist, George Harrison, was a ukulele player:

http://www.openculture.com/2014/08/george-harrison-explains-why-everyone-should-play-the-ukulele-with-words-and-music.html

[Phatboy 565]

My neighbor has a huge back yard and it is slap full of moles ( i have none) his craftsman tractor was broke ( cough cough) so he askd if i would pull his brinly 400lbs roller around for him ,, so i loved the fact i got to go oit and play on my tractor today, but i told him them little rascals better not come in my yard !!! Lol

[Ed Kennell 35,833]

And we all thought you were just overweight.

[Tankman 3,515]

2 hours ago, Phatboy said:

My neighbor has a huge back yard and it is slap full of moles ( i have none) his craftsman tractor was broke ( cough cough) so he askd if i would pull his brinly 400lbs roller around for him ,, so i loved the fact i got to go oit and play on my tractor today, but i told him them little rascals better not come in my yard !!! Lol

Look up milky spore disease. 

[IthacaJeff 151]

Okay, so my gravel bank issue gets hijacked by Tiny Tim and moles. Wow. But, just in case a few might still have some solutions, here are the pics:

 

This is the mowed part of my yard. I do mow this bank, and you can see that I was able to dozer the gravel off the top of the bank. But dozing does not work on the slope; regardless if going across the fall line or up and down. I emailed the town highway dept. to see if they would take care of it, as this is far beyond the normal. Way to much to rake out. I've yet to hear back.

 

 

This is the part of the bank flail-mowed by the town. Too steep to mow across or up and down, too steep for the dozer blade. The gravel is thick.

 

 

[Retired Sparky 526]

10 hours ago, Tankman said:

Gas those ugly pests? Needs some thought.

 

Try Milky Spore disease, kills grubs. Moles populate where grubs live, milky spore, one application lasts 20-30 years. Eliminates the moles' food supply.

The moles will move to your neighbors.

That is very true. Kill the grubs, the moles have nothing to eat.

[Ed Kennell 35,833]

  for the  hijacking  Jeff.   The pictures make it clear ...you have a serious stone problem.   I feel your pain and I only raked for  1 1/2 days.

I'm thinking one of the smaller power brooms where you have room to work from the bottom up may work in the shorter grass.  In the longer grass with no room at the bottom  ????

One thing I try to do is when the snow starts to melt, I push the snow back on the edges of the road while the stones are still suspended in the snow.

[WNYPCRepair 1,875]

On February 29, 2016 at 0:23 PM, tunahead72 said:

 

Pics will definitely help.  You might want to ask your town's road crew to stop by and take a look, see if they have any ideas.

 

 

Whoever owns the road (county, city, state) is responsible for maintenance. Start complaining about the blocked ditch and keep complaining. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

 

 

On March 1, 2016 at 8:06 PM, AMC RULES said:

After installing my rock collection a couple years ago...

 

That is a nice looking wall, Craig. I wish I had some stones on my property, I've always loved those low rock walls. I like the plants in the middle too.

 

14 hours ago, ekennell said:

The latest "invasive species".             Break out the mole controllers.

 

 

 

I think this might be the best implement for a WH yet!

 

11 hours ago, Tankman said:

Try Milky Spore disease, kills grubs. Moles populate where grubs live, milky spore, one application lasts 20-30 years. Eliminates the moles' food supply.

 

 

 

I think what was digging up my garden was a vole or shrew. The only holes I ever saw were coming up inside the garden, never did spot the ones outside the fence. Any ideas for those?

 

45 minutes ago, IthacaJeff said:

This is the mowed part of my yard. I do mow this bank, and you can see that I was able to dozer the gravel off the top of the bank. But dozing does not work on the slope; regardless if going across the fall line or up and down. I emailed the town highway dept. to see if they would take care of it, as this is far beyond the normal. Way to much to rake out. I've yet to hear back.

 

I should have finished reading the thread before replying, I guess.

If that part of the grass is their property or right of way, they may not have to do anything, unfortunately. Hopefully they clean it up. If not, maybe you can rent a power broom for a day? 

Looks like your driveway is gravel, tell the highway dept they don't have to haul it away if it is easier, just sweep it up wwith their power broom and you'll doze it away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You could go to Home depot, buy a cheap riding mower, set the blade as low as you can and mow all the gravel back into the road, then return it.  

[Phatboy 565]

Im sorry Jeff i saw the wh with the tube and killing of the moles ,, i thout that what convo was about ,, im really sorry did not mean to hijack your post

[Tankman 3,515]

Sorry Jeff. Seeing your pic's, stone problem is awful. A back breaking rake job, appears you'll be raking till dooms day.

 

You might rake, rake, rake.

[Lane Ranger 10,495]

 

 

I worked with a guy that developed a product back in the 1980's called Mole-Med.     It had to have approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency  under FIFRA -the Federal Insecticide and Rodenticide Act.

 

He used two ingredients -ivory liquid soap and castor oil.    Poured down a mole hole (or later with pellets)  the moles would smell, eat and then blow up on their rear end!   

Edited March 2, 2016 by Lane Ranger

[Lane Ranger 10,495]

Driveway groomer device  may be worth looking at to deal with your gravel on the bank issue.    You can see it has teeth on the "groomer' .      I do not have one  but there is a video or two on Youtube of this in operation.     I use a  light dethacher on my lawn each year and it will pick up  gravel and walnuts after the times get full of grass.    This groomer  would cut into the grass too but that actually  might act like a dethatcher does.   

 

 

http://www.drivewaygroomer.com/shop/driveway-groomers/groomer-jr-riser-plate-black-hardened-blades/

[Tankman 3,515]

29 minutes ago, Lane Ranger said:

Driveway groomer device  may be worth looking at to deal with your gravel on the bank issue.    You can see it has teeth on the "groomer' .      I do not have one  but there is a video or two on Youtube of this in operation.     I use a  light dethacher on my lawn each year and it will pick up  gravel and walnuts after the times get full of grass.    This groomer  would cut into the grass too but that actually  might act like a dethatcher does.   

My dethatcher does bounce stones up 'n out but still need lots of spring tooth raking. My drives are stone and asphalt millings. The stone goes back where it belongs, on he driveways.

One big problem when wet, stone hugs mud, sticks in the lawn. Driving, the Horses' weight push the stone in further.

 

Annual grass germinates in seven (7) days. A good cover for stone left behind. Plant grass seed before leaves grow on trees. There's no such thing as "shady lawn grasses".

You can overseed (in) the annual grass using perennial grasses. Perennial grass will be held in place while germinating, 14-21 days.

 

At any rate, we both have lots of spring cleaning ahead of us. I vote for the dethatcher. Mine is 4 ft wide, does a decent job but is time consuming.

 

I've seen the driveway groomer Lane Ranger posted, thinking of making one. A few homemade graders are on youtube, interesting.

[Don1977 604]

Rubber edge on a snow plow might be the best way to push that stone back in the road.

[Tankman 3,515]

15 hours ago, Phatboy said:

My neighbor has a huge back yard and it is slap full of moles ( i have none) his craftsman tractor was broke ( cough cough) so he askd if i would pull his brinly 400lbs roller around for him ,, so i loved the fact i got to go oit and play on my tractor today, but i told him them little rascals better not come in my yard !!! Lol

Careful with that roller. #1 problem in PA = erosion. The 2# difficulty = compaction.

Sorry, years ago an agronomy student at Penn State.

 

For erosion use grasses or ground cover. Compaction? Spread gypsum or sand.

Minimize roller use, compaction. A roller will compact the soil. Good strong earth for mole tunnels!

 

Stone in your grass? Sorry, rake away. One very good reason to have many grandsons. Pop-Pop will supervise!

[can whlvr 991]

our town uses a mid sized mini excavator with a large stiff broom end on it,it does an ok job,but would be expensive for you too rent,maybe the town has something like this,its not a rotary broom,the hoe pulls the large broom and the gravel and road sand come with it,then they skid steer it,theres large vaccums too but again would be expensive

[Retired Sparky 526]

Looks like all that stone was is part of the original road bed. Of course I'm not there and like everyone else we can only add our .  Looks like a nice well graded bank. I sat get some top soil and cover the D--- rocks, throw some hay of it, when the grass grows mow it and be happy.    

Peace Brother.

[TDF5G 2,051]

I'll offer my  on the gravel in the ditch situation.  

 

You may already have tried this, but I use my dozer blade going backwards to pull the gravel from the grass back into my driveway each spring.  You have to turn the height control all the way down and the blade will ride with the contour of the ground.    It actually does a great job of grading going backwards and it won't dig into the soil.  You can experiment with different blade angles too. 

 

It's hard to tell exactly how steep your bank is so I don't know if this will work, as I would think you would have to drive down and up out of the ditch, going the same direction as your driveway.

 

If it was me I'd just try to get the worst of it and let it go.  The gravel will eventually work its way into the ground. 

Edited March 2, 2016 by TDF5G

[IthacaJeff 151]

The town got tired of trying to patch up the roadway that was undergoing colossal failure along along a 200 yard stretch. Much of the asphalt/chip/tar had broken up and the road bed below was mud. Temporary cold patch or trying to fill with crushed concrete did not last, so last fall they covered the whole 200 yard length  with crushed limestone. Good stuff, wish it was on my driveway. Worked well until the first snowplows hit it, and pushed the gravel to my bank and my neighbor across the street.

 

It was unwise to put down the gravel, though it did stop cars from sinking into mud pits on the road. My road is due for a complete new chip 'n tar job, but there are only two houses on the road. Low priority.

 

I've thought of the driveway groomer type of idea. I could set it down the bank and drive on the top. I don't want to push the gravel into the ditch as it does not drain water too well as it is. I cannot drive the tractor on the ditch bank -- not across or up/down. Much too steep.

Edited March 3, 2016 by IthacaJeff

[Tankman 3,515]

Thinking, lawn sweeper? I used to use a Parker (or Jackson) sweeper behind a Horse.

Might work on gravel, or not?

 

Edited March 3, 2016 by Tankman

[Ed Kennell 35,833]

I have never tried my sweeper and I probably should.  I just never thought it would be able to pluck the stones out of the grass.     If we get that 3" snow that's forecast for tonight maybe I'll plow a few stones back into the grass just so I can test the sweeper.

[Ed Kennell 35,833]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/tools/reviews/g125/6-top-shop-vacuums-tested/?slide=1

 

May be the answer Jeff.  I used a Craftsman dual motor shop vac on a 55 gal steel drum to pull balled up wads of curly drill chips out of the crannies of a 5 axis mill.

I am sure it would suck 2B stone out of the grass and they are deposited in a drum that can be hauled and dumped where they belong.

 

I am already starting to dream about the ultimate stone collector with the vacuum head mounted on top of an enclosed dump cart pulled by a WH with a front mount gen set,  a boom mounted collection nozzle sweeping left to right by an actuator  as the WH slowly moves forward with a foot controlled hydro...............

Oh my, I'm headed for the barn.

Edited March 3, 2016 by ekennell

[Tankman 3,515]

I have two Little Wonder lawn vacs. Threw the bags away, blow everything into the surrounding woods.

I am thinking sweeper would be best or, might the blower push stone?

[Ed Kennell 35,833]

Yeah, you definitely don't want to try to suck up stones with a lawn vac system. That could get real exciting when the stones go thru the blower.

But a high suction vac system that drops the heavy objects in a container and nothing goes thru the blower...That should work.

A blower would probably push the stones, but some of mine are thrown 20' into the yard.  That's a long distance to push a stone.