# clearing land, want lawn



## mcote (Sep 8, 2009)

I purchased our house about a year ago.  The landscaping hasn't been addressed in about 10 years.  I have been clearing out the front yard which is full of small (less than 2") trees and brush.  I have been cutting the small trees and removing them (leaving about 1-2" of small stump).  The area is about 40'x75'.  My question is this: I want to have lawn here, what do I do?  The land is sort of bumpy and uneven, so I am planning on needing some fill to level and smooth it out.  Can I just dump and spread some fill over this or do I need to pull up all of these roots and stumps with a dozer first?  I don't have equipment, but could rent/borrow some smaller things if needed.  Any help would be great.  Thanks.


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## smokinj (Sep 8, 2009)

2 in stump should pull out pretty eazy or dig it up enough to cut it below grade


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## daveswoodhauler (Sep 8, 2009)

I think you need to get a small dozer in there to clean out stuff....those little saplings will come back over and over unless they are uprooted. Sounds like a tough DIY project, but best of luck


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## billb3 (Sep 8, 2009)

After too many years of mndlessly pushing and riding a mower I'm trying to get rid of asmuchlawn as possible.
More garden, more trees, moremulch and leaves staying put.

My ideal lawn would be in a paper cup on my window sill.


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## Highbeam (Sep 8, 2009)

You'll need equipment and time. If everything is under 2 inches then you are in great shape. That is the size that a normal brush hog can mow and the stumps will rot away prettty quickly. If you keep mowing it then it will become lawn. Or you can accelerate the process by using a tractor with a set of rippers on the rear to first rip out the woody debris and then use it to rake it into piles for burning. Then keep ripping the soil to smooth it out. If you want to import fill then you can just fill the low spots but most people will use the dirt that they have by knocking off the high spots and using that material to fill in the low spots. 

Within the last few years I have done this to about 5 acres. By the time I was done I could deep rip the soil at a good pace. Then seeded and now I mow mow mow.

Making pasture is pretty easy. Going to a golf course requires much more leveling work.


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## flyingcow (Sep 8, 2009)

Depends on what you want to spend, but check out rental centers. They might have a small combination backhoe with a small dozer blade. Might be over kill but would make easy work. pull everything out and smooth over as much as possible. That little area wouldn't take long. Locate your septic tank and leech filed, and or well piping. If you have any red bushes showing, you'll need to pull them roots and all. Almost bad as bamboo.


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## dave11 (Sep 9, 2009)

Now, do you mean you just want a "lawn," as in a place where (mostly) grass grows, or do you want a lawn as in something you want people to notice and/or admire? If you're worried about bumps, I think you mean the latter.

If so, I think you'll almost certainly need to strip off at least the top 4-5  inches and replace with clean topsoil (not fill). Otherwise, you might spend a long time living with all the bumps and irregularities in the lawn that result, or spend a long time fixing them. It's amazing what's hidden under the surface.

Also, be careful not to leave any compacted areas.


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## JustWood (Sep 9, 2009)

Fill it! Keep it mowed and it will kill anything that comes up.


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## LLigetfa (Sep 9, 2009)

How many stumps do you have?  When I cleared out many of my trees, I chopped the roots around them and pulled the stump out with the tree.  There were some that I cut off flush with the ground and most of those eventually stood proud and needed to be recut.  A few years later I ran around with a drill and bore holes in them to speed up the decaying process.  Whenever they came up proud again, I'd recut them or if they were well along and rotted, I bash them down with a sledge.

A perfect lawn it will never make.  The stumps can be felt under foot.  When they rot, the ground subsides leaving ankle buster holes.  Rotting wood promotes mushroom growth.  11 years later I still have several stumps showing.

If you have access to equipment, go over it with a box blade with ripper teeth.  If you want to hand job it, a mattock would be a good to have.


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## smabon (Sep 9, 2009)

When I bought my place my back yard was in the same shape.  So this is what I did.  Went through and cut down all of the small trees.  Nothing was bigger then 3 inches.  I cut them level with the ground, maybe and inch showing.  Once all of the trees where moved off I took my very old, free riding lawn mower that I didn't care about and mowed the area.  Actually that was the wifes job.  After mowing it I sprayed Round Up to kill every thing.  Becareful where you spray that stuff.  Don't tell my neighbors but I think I killed one of their trees that line there driveway.  Anyways, spray round up wait and see what dies off.  Mowed again as close to the ground as I could.  wait a week or so and spray again to kill anything that didn't die the first time.  A week or so after the second spray I rented a small Kubota with a front end loader, tiller and a york rake.  I tilled up the land and that took care of the roots of the small trees.  Used the york to level the land and help rake up the rocks.  I also tilled in some peat moss to help with drainage.  After I got the land all level and smooth I waited for the first group of weeds to spring up and then I sprayed round up again.  Waited for the second group of weeds to pop up and sprayed again.  thats right I sprayed 4 times and would of sprayed another time if needed.  I then spead the grass seed and covered it straw.  over all it came out pretty good.  I think next spring I will have chem lawn out to help with lawn nutrients.  Hope this helps.


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## jebatty (Sep 9, 2009)

My wife always has had the job of mowing the lawn (I'm the lumberman and firewood harvester). Over the years she has shrunk the yard to little more than space to walk to and from the house, plus a little for a campfire site by a picnic table. A very wise woman, indeed. I love her more every day because, among many other reasons, she realizes fully the folly of lawns. Now, a cleared space for a productive garden or pasture, that makes cents. But a cleared space to gawk at and spend hours maintaining so a person can do more gawking, really?


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## SolarAndWood (Sep 9, 2009)

I use a 6 ft box blade on my 35 hp tractor to break it up and get it close to level.  Then a 8 ft york rake to smooth it and remove most of the stone.  Finally, a garden rake to pick all the the small stuff that the york rake misses.  While not putting green quality, it works pretty well.

Filling works as well if you don't need a lot of it...topsoil isn't cheap.  Lawn can be practical.  An acre of grass provides enough mulch for a large garden.


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## Highbeam (Sep 9, 2009)

The biggest issue is the stumps. You can't just rototill stumps, they need to either be pulled or ground in place. Stumps will be your biggest challenge as everything else can be mowed with a proper mower.


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## woodsman23 (Sep 9, 2009)

I would simply rent a small one man stump grinder and have at it. Then use all the chewed up tree stumps for mulch. You could also rent a small chipper and mulch all the small trees you cut down, Keep it simple..   But like said above i opened up close to 5 acres and have regretted ever since. It is a ton of work to keep grass looking nice and i am now thinking of allowing mother nature to take back 3 acres......


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## Highbeam (Sep 9, 2009)

It's not a ton of work if you have the right equipment. You can use a pair of scissors and it will take weeks, or you could buy a standard tractor with a small 5 foot rotary cutter and mow it once per year in 6 hours. I just wish I had 10 acres opened up to allow for a 15' batwing mower. What good is it to own acreage if you can't see 5 feet into the woods.


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## woodsman23 (Sep 9, 2009)

I have a troybuilt sickle bar mower i used to open up some acres and i now have a cub cadet SLT with a 54" deck to mow it all with. I have also a gas weed eater with a blade on it to keep back the growth. I have the equipment to a point but it gets expensive to just mow the dam lawn... I am at the top of a big hill and the view is forever anyway.. but i do agree with highbeam you don't want to much over growth. 





	

		
			
		

		
	
     <<< my road going uphill





	

		
			
		

		
	
    <<< back view from house





	

		
			
		

		
	
   pond





	

		
			
		

		
	
   plow truck


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## Highbeam (Sep 10, 2009)

What a cool driveway.


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## gpcollen1 (Sep 10, 2009)

I moved into an overgrown place and did the same thing to an extent.  Did all the cutting and then rented a small excavator.  If you have never been in one, you can pick it up in a few hours.  scraped up the entire area down a few inches, which turned up all the moss and stumps and rocks near the surface.  Removed all the debris and then rough graded the place.  Got 40 yds of topsoil dumped and moved it around, ran it over with the machine and did some leveling and then finished with a hand rake and some seed.  

Not to bad a job at all..


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## fbelec (Sep 12, 2009)

we haven't heard back from the person who started this thread. what did ya do and i hope your takin pitcha's.
with 2 inch stumps i don't think that he would have to rent a d9 dozer. get a sawzall cut um up put the top soil over it.


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## basod (Sep 12, 2009)

Of the 12acres I own about 1/4ac is grass/yard.  Why cut grass on your days off when you can cut wood? I did invest in a good quality troybuilt chipper, extendable loppers, and found the beast of all brush cutters, the old FS353.  With the beaver head on that thing you an clear out all the small undergrowth saplings.  Most of woods are mature hardwood, with a few large pines.  Once you get an opening the small stuff will just need a clipping every other year. Eventually the canopy will starve out lower vegetation, and then you'll have room to select cut some cord wood.  I added to my arsenal this spring and have a Foreman 500, now just need one of those HD yard trailers so I can get to all the remaining standing and deadfalls.


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## LLigetfa (Sep 12, 2009)

Funny how a topic can digress.  The front yard area is about 40’x75’... no space to turn a D9 around in.  The stumps are 2 inch, not something one would rent a stump grinder for.  The area is the front yard, not something you would run a field and brush mower on.


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## Highbeam (Sep 12, 2009)

Then just how would you recommend to get the 2" stumps out? I have been stopped in my 10,000# IH bulldozer by 2" stumps. They can be stubborn to remove. If you want to leave them alone they will rot and disappear within a few years.


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## LLigetfa (Sep 12, 2009)

Ja, bulldozing out stumps can be tough cuz the tracks sit on the roots.  Ripper teeth on the back seem to work better than the blade on the front.
The way I take out most stumps is to cut the radial roots around it with an axe or mattock and pull them out.  I've also quartered larger stumps and pulled them out a section at a time.

Wood at ground level will rot faster than if they are buried.


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## raven (Sep 13, 2009)

maybe someone in the area has a Fecon  root hog


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## Gooserider (Sep 13, 2009)

One of the issues with roots is what kind of tree they were attached to...  Some trees stay down when you cut them, and the stumps and roots will eventually rot away, not a big deal...  Others will just keep sending up fresh shoots as fast as you cut them down, and the ONLY thing I've found will get rid of those is to pull out the stumps and as much of the roots as you can get - even the roots will start sending up shoots sometimes...  Annoying thing is that it seems like the trashier and less useful the tree is, the more likley it is to keep sending up shoots....

Gooserider


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## LLigetfa (Sep 13, 2009)

EH Goose, we have a saying around here... cut down a Poplar and 100 show up for the funeral.  Elm is almost as bad except Elm only shoots up at the stump, not a 30 foot radius.


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## Gooserider (Sep 13, 2009)

Exactly...  I need to get better on my tree ID skills, in order to really try to manage our yard better.  Our house is only on about an acre, which isn't anywhere near enough to supply our firewood needs, but I'd like to get as much as I can off the land just to keep from having to purchase / scrounge as much...   In Europe they do a thing called coppicing which involves encouraging the controlled regrowth of some of the more useful species, but I haven't really seen much in detail on how to do it...

Gooserider


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