The best dirt to help grow grass is ditch dirt. If you know of someone who is cleaning out ditches and want to get rid of the dirt, ask what they're doing with it. Sometimes can get it free. Granted it comes with a lot of trash like aluminum cans and glass but its worth it. Spent a lot of time picking junk out of dirt years ago from ditch dirt. Used a piece of chainlink fence to drag it and work the junk to the top. Im probably blowing up your notifications but I just discovered your channel a week ago and I've been binge watching all videos to get caught up. Beautiful house and property.
wow, just started watching the channel, great stuff. I bought a farm in PA 25 years ago and had a lot of the same projects and a lot of first times for me. I had a great mentor in my dad to guide me on how to do things. I give you credit. you two aren't afraid to dive into a project, research what you can and learn as you go. thanks for the channel. new subscriber today. can't wait to follow along in your journey.
You need a 5 foot box blade with rippers behind your jd,,and set the rippers at most minimum dig position. Next turn your right side lower control arm inward to shorten it up about 1 to 2 turns. This will make the box blade slightly higher on right side looking from rear of tractor. Now start at right edge of house drag over to left side. With each pass make the box blade dig about quarter of an inch deeper each pass. You will always have to start at right side of house,,go to left side of house,,looking from pond. You will achieve your slight downward grade towards pond with this configuration. You will end up with a small pile of dirt at left side of house. Simply use bucket to move extra dirt to a spot it is needed.Many people has a box blade sitting around i am sure you could find one to borrow/rent for a day. Good luck
clay is rock hard when dry and heary and doughy when wet but I have found grass grows on it only trouble with putting soil and seed on top if you ha ve a hard down pour it will wash it a way on a slope
That's exactly what I would have done . I had some very sandy soil , so mixed some top soil with wood chips and covered the sandy soil for a season and got great soil to plant in the next year.
You need a renovator. It is a bar that has 5 12 inch long teeth, and will cut thru the hard pan. We used ours to do the initial garden plowing. We have shale and nothing goes in it.
A farmer's work is never done. I thought I saw a John Deere 2025 tractor in your future, but maybe not. Good thing you can borrow your dad's. 😊👍 Plant a field of sunflowers there to build up the rhizomes and break up that clay. It will take a little longer, but with better soil, compost, and amendments, you will have a better planting medium than trying to work with that clay. I know. You want to get it done now. If what you are doing doesn't work, try plants that root deep and far to break up the soil in one section at a time and amend it as you go. They will break up the soil for you and then you can till them in. Just an idea.
Great video! Just to give you a heads up, you may know this already but at 9:55 it appears that the front drive shaft going to your front axle looks extremely bent. Keep up the great work!
Just my opinion, but get the grade where it needs to be, then 2-3'' of Topsoil, seed it with plenty of starter fertilizer and lime, then water it at least an hour in the morning and an hour at night as soon as the sun falls for at least 3 weeks. Cannot emphasize the Starter Fertilizer enough !
If the soil is so bad why are you not adding some good soils and mulch to create a growing medium in that area. I would have thought even some lime would help. Keep doing what you are doing as it is interesting to watch. Some similar to here in Australia but some so different as to be indecipherable. Cheers.
Looks like you need to get a D9 that would definitely do it but I know the feeling of that old clay dirt it definitely a pain at least you got a tractor to help you can't imagine doing by hand 😂😂😂😂 but anyway love the video y'all
I had thought about just covering the whole area in wood chips. Letting them compost, then planting grass. You can see the clay soil looks better where the wood chips were, you can see topsoil starting to form.
@@CountryViewAcres with the low ph levels that would have worked. Another great option is to put the cleaning from the chicken coop there and till it in. Carbon and nitrogen rich material is what I think you need.
Looks like you are trying to grow grass directly on clay .... not a good idea! But you have to live with what you have got. You do have woodland, so it may be a pain but why not transplant some of the soil from there? That way you get some of the mycelium that is essential to good growth. You have already noted that there was soil forming from the wood chippings .... so why move them to the barn? Why not cover with your transplanted topsoil and mix with chippings and then in spring plant your grass seed? If you have the kit, taking some of the lakebed may also be an idea! Failing that can you source topsoil of a decent quality in? It is easy to pick holes in what someone else has done .... a damn sight harder to do it yourself! Best of luck!
That is the deer I killed last season. I just posted some pictures on our facebook page. It hung it in our pond for 4 weeks and it turned out pretty good.
I was also under the impression that dolomite is used to help break up clay so that might help[ if you add it to the soil. I have used it in hard clay soil here in Australia. Cheers.
Pretty big bites of soil for that little tractor. But every farmer does the same. Construction guys say “ Give a farmer a loader and he thinks he has a D9 Cat. “
@@CountryViewAcres good i use one on people drive way in the spring around here to fix them i add a 4 x 8 oak wood to the back with chains to help level it the dirt out to
yup i can see it now, adding water to clay, then driving tractor over wet clay and pond at the bottom of the hill, thats like putting greass down on a steel ramp, here we go, strait into the pond with daddies tractor, dont mater what you do with that deep down clay, it will grow nothing untill you add 4 inchs or more top soil, i used a D8 on my clay, cutting some areas down 8 feet, nothing grows, i layed down 2 inchs of top soil, added cows, and grows like mad, do not till the new top soil in, clay will pull it in on its own, slow
To painful to watch! You have rippers on that box blade. Set the top link so they are 1/2” to 3/4” below your blade when your digging so when you lift the box blade up they are not digging in. Then you can drag the dirt, rock you have in the box to fill in your low spots... They make a bar that is like teeth for your bucket.. highly suggest you get one. Don’t be so aggressive with your bucket angle when cutting. It keeps you from digging holes. Watch the rod on the right side of the loader. You don’t need much tilt for the bucket to cut! You want the bucket just slightly tilted beyond level for your cutting... anything more and your digging holes when you hit the soft spots... My best advice to you and anyone else: Know the capabilities of the machine that you’re on! A 25 or 30 horsepower tractor will not be as fast as a 45 to 55 hp tractor. When you’re looking to buy one of these smaller tractors try to stay at 30hp or larger! My friend purchased a 1000 series Deere with the loader and he has been sick since! I tried to tell him all your buying is an over size lawnmower with four wheel drive! He still refuses to listen me when trying to do stuff with his 4x4 over sized lawnmower with a loader. I think he said he had over $30K in it! Trust me, look at what you think you need then go one size bigger if possible! Because after you sign that dotted line and take it home it’s a very expensive mistake to find out your new tractor isn’t big enough for your needs! Good luck!
I would love to have a new tractor. If I buy a tractor it will have to be around 50 HP. I have priced some, and they are pricey. I would rather save my money to build a pole barn right now. Some day I will have a 4 wheel drive utility tractor, one that will do these jobs better.
I had to look up Andrew camarata. I see he is an equipment operator. I dont access to that kind of equipment that he does. The John Deere was free to use. It only cost me time and fuel. That works for me.
@@CountryViewAcres Yep - fully understand. You did a great job! It wasn't a criticism, just a light hearted reference to a guy who's a wiz at landscaping with plant machinery.
I have goat manure but not enough for that large of an area. I plan on using the goat manure on the garden. In the end, the garden is more important than the lawn.
