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Landscaping Advice Needed...
DrewKaree:
--- Quote from: Jabba on April 03, 2005, 10:15:21 pm ---Hey Drew,
Wow, I hit the goldmine :D. Thanks!! for all the great advice. I guess you'ze "in da business" for sure!
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Yes indeedy I yam!
--- Quote ---Not sure on this yet, but do you have to have some sort of special license to drive one of those skidsteers?
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Shouldn't need one at all. Here's another tip for you. If you rent one, make sure you open the throttle up almost all the way. It'll be easier to use, although it'll jerk you around easier and faster ;D
--- Quote ---Is Round-up a US brand weed killer? If I were to spray 'em dead as you suggest, wouldn't this prevent the new grass seed from taking? I mean, some of those weeds I mowed down last summer were pretty scary. I mean massive with real thick stocks. Took the mower a lot a passes to mow that sucker down.
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Sounds like thistle, big fat'uns...you Canadians! Yeah, Round-Up is a weed killer, it's a systemic herbicide, which means the stuff that's growing underground (which is how some weeds propogate) will ALSO be killed. You'd THINK it wouldn't allow the new seed to grow, but there's guidelines on the stuff for just this use and they give you time frames which you can replant or sow new grass.
Had you asked about this last fall, I'd have told you to lay carpet/newspaper/tarps over all that crap to cook it out and kill it off, but now you need quick knockdown of all that stuff. I'm not sure what they'd sell it as in Canada, or even if they allow it...dunno what your pesticide/herbicide laws are up there :-\ After spraying something like that on it and waiting the proper time, using the harley rake will pull out most all the rest of the root systems too, so you'll be killing two birds with one stone.
--- Quote ---Like what, a couple of weeks? a month? Guess I can read the label when I go looking for this stuff.
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Yeah, the label will tell you. Each chemical will have its own properties. I think Round-Up can be seeded over after two weeks, possibly three. I'll try to find the chemical name so you can look for it and get back to you.
--- Quote ---The house sits in the middle of a two acre lot. The front yard is what I am considering to work on. Total space to cover maybe a little bit smaller than an acre. I'll take some exact measurements and post them for you.
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You're probably looking at 15 yards (probably EASY 15 yards, mebbe 20+)
--- Quote ---Wow, I've heard minimum 4" base (Maybe I'm thinking of crushed stone bases though...). You figure 2" is enough? The land was back filled. Pretty stony. I spent a couple of days picking rocks. I'm sure there are "thousands" of them little critters 1 " beneath the surface!
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With using the harley rake, you'll get that 2" using that, and blending it in with another 2" of your topsoil will bring you to that amount. If you were just laying topsoil straigh on top of it, your figure would be a better amount, but your grass will sprout in 2" too. It'll just have a different root system. The thicker the base you use, the longer it will take to settle and the longer you may have to wait to cut it, and it's already gonna be REALLY long when you first cut it ;D
--- Quote ---Great tip...typically, in your opinion, is this type of topsoil/compost blend THAT more expensive than regular topsoil?
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Depending on the place we get it from, it can be anywhere from 2 to 6 dollars more per yard, but you'll be starting your grass out in a better condition....you can always come back next year and top-dress with straight topsoil.
--- Quote ---I'll take a picture of the surface to give you a sense of what I'm looking at. If I laid down 2" of 1 yard of soil, how many square feet would that cover?
I am assuming that the Harley rake will do the rough work, and that I would have to complete the rest by hand...Right?
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That's one of those screwy "eyeball-measurement" things...I wish I could be more helpful here, I'll see if I can round up some place with guestimates/measurements...I know of one site I can direct you to, but I'm away from home until tomorrow. I'll drop that link on you tomorrow. Usually it's an eyeball-estimate thing for everyone, though...you'll end up with low spots you'll wanna even out, ruts, etc.
The harley rake is designed to spin out a good chunk of stones, even out the surface, semi-finish grade it, and somewhat till the surface. You'll wanna have the bucket AND the harley rake, use the bucket to drop piles of dirt all over, and use the harley rake to spread/till/mix it in to a fairly uniform depth. Final grading should be done as you go along by someone standing close by with a landscape rake. Pick up two or three, or rent 'em (they CAN be kinda pricey!) You'll be able to do the bulk of the work with the skidsteer, the rest is just the handwork that comes with the job.
If, when you call the rental place, they tell you they don't have a harley rake but they do have a rock hound, hang up and call a few other places. They are different pieces, and the rock hound will not do all the stuff the harley rake will, in spite of their claims to the contrary.
While you're at the rental joint, check out prices to rent a landscape rake or three, and a straw blower. If the straw blower will be more than $50 to rent, skip it, but if it's less, consider renting it to spread your straw - take you mebbe a half hour with it! Otherwise, look into something called Penn mulch (it's really just a compressed paper pellet mulch designed to retain water close to your seed and leach it slowly so your grass doesn't die off.
Drop me a PM with other questions, glad to help out.
I haven't had time to line up ANY side jobs this winter, so I'm pretty free for another few weeks...snow seems to be over here too.
Zakk:
We are not snobby.
DrewKaree:
--- Quote from: Zakk on April 04, 2005, 07:50:34 am ---
We are not snobby. Harumph. Wait till I tell the guys at the club what you said. We shall have a good chuckle over a glass of port. :P
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....he said as I choked him with an insane amount of brie stuffed in his nose, until he P.I.'ed all over himself ;D
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(and it is not a Magnum P.I. dream dammit!!) 8)
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Magnum dream, Magnum dream....nener nener boo boo!
That's IT....I'm NEVER buying a house in Canada
unless I get driven around to walk through them by a realtor with a Magnum P.I. car, an appropriately sized mustache, and a hawaiian shirt!
I may buy a hockey team, since they're aboot $20 American dollars to purchase nowadays, but they'll play in my backyard....with rollerblades!
w00t!
Jabba:
I made my way down to the local Battlefield Heavy equipment rental place and had him show me the skidsteer (when he showed me it, I could feel that Tim the Toolman Taylor grunt getting ready to explode...)
DrewKaree:
Offhand, I'd say that looks like a rock hound, but I've not seen that particular attachment from Cat.
If those Cats are a single joystick, you will find them E-Z to use after just a touch of practice. WAY easier to use versus the standard controls. I believe Mustang is the big user of the T-handle, and those things I've always found to handle like ass. And not the small good kind of ass. :-X
Here's an example of the two items I'm talking about, and you can look at them and judge which is more like the Cat attachment there
Rock Hound:
Harley Rake:
The landscape rake I'm referring to is an actual honest to goodness rake. It looks like a (semi) normal rake on steroids. Here's what I meant by that
Landscape rake:
The picture of what you have there WILL work for your purposes, however the Harley rake will do the exact same thing, allow you to move faster (at least for me, anyhoo), and most importantly, SEE what you are doing quicker. The "seeing" part makes a big difference to me, as I hate wondering what's going on. I like to SEE what I'm doing, and quickly. There's obviously more cleanup with a harley rake, since you've gotta pick the crap up, but swapping out the bucket solves that in a snap.
The hand landscape rake will be used by you to "fine tune" everything else. If they charge 185/day for that hand rake, punch the guy in the face for trying to rip you off ;) You could BUY one of those for that price.
It's nicer to plant in fall, but not vital. If you plant now, you won't have problems...more stuff is conducive to fall success, like the cooler weather, rain, it might SNOW (perhaps eliminating someone walking over your newly seeded plot!), etc but you'll still have a nice yard if you do it now. A plus for doing it now is that come fall, you can drop more seed down (overseeding) and next year, have an even BETTER looking yard.