Levelling a garden for lawn, rotavators?

[Kram]

Several people,one a good friend, have been asking me about leveling their gardens and it seems for any larger area, a rotavator is needed to break up any weed.

I started yesterday with just a pickaxe, as theres a stump to grind out at the highest point of garden, I had to dig around it before it could be ground out.

I could hire a large rotavator for a week but thats a bit expensive. Its a 36x8 garden and will likely be done in two halves.

I'm thinking if I help the machine with a bit of manual digging, a smaller one will do the job, so I'm looking at attachements for my 52cc engine tool.

Makita also make one for the XGT power unit, but at only 1kw I dont think it will have enough power.


Has anyone used them? Am I being optimistic on their ability?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Makita-KR401MP-Cultivate-Attachment-Black/dp/B07KXPYZFJ

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hyundai-Rotavator-Cultivator-Rototiller-4Stroke/dp/B08BX4LYFG/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Replacement-ROTAVATOR-Cultivator-Tiller-ATTACHEMENT/dp/B096YCM739

This last one is a possible customer, she wants the strip along the left, made to the same as the lawn. The chain link fence may be a pain. I dont want to do any more fencing but it will be a real pain with everything growing through it.

In both cases the existing grass is poor condition and not very level, but I think can be improved without buying 300x £6 m² rolls of turf.

 

[gaz1]

it will chew the weeds up for fun and they will grow back

as i did so on a garden to level a hump out i used the merry tiller cultivator for that work and the chewing was done in 30 mins fully tilled and fine to rake out

then it was level the soil and thats shoveling into a pile and leveling out the rest flaten off i used a flag for that or stone droped onto the ground compacting the soil down so it donst drop when it rains you could use a compactor said job

then its rake out the piled high soil and layer it until level so its not an easy job

 

[8ob]

I would dig a few test holes first and see what the sub soil is like, last thing you want to do is churn up a load of clay or rubble with a rotavator. If all is well rotavate,grade out with a machine,run a stone burier over the whole job ( that will punch all the tufts and stones below the surface, then run a blec over it which will seed and roll.

Bob

 

[gaz1]

last pic you want a low till close to the surface on the left whilst the right wants a deeper tilling and then leveled out to the left

if your leveling out the back area you need to till near the frame and go lower creating a step down or you step down lower in the garden

 

[Kram]

Looks very good @8ob , I guess you have all the kit to do it properly!

There was some rubble around the stumps so possibly a lot elsewhere. In my second last pic theres a concrete slab under the dirt, quite large, that I will need to break up and remove.

 

[gaz1]

my tiller has a plow device so after tilling i could use it to plow soft tilled soil over in chunks and just drive it up and down moving the soil over as it does the work for me

 

[knighty]

I would dig a few test holes first and see what the sub soil is like, last thing you want to do is churn up a load of clay or rubble with a rotavator. If all is well rotavate,grade out with a machine,run a stone burier over the whole job ( that will punch all the tufts and stones below the surface, then run a blec over it which will seed and roll.

Bob

How do you get a large area nice and flat like that? just operator skill with the digger?

I've got about 4 acres of garden to do that's a cross between not flat and lumpy as hell where previous owners horse has been living out there in the mud

I thought about popping into local farms too see if a farmer had the gear to sort it for me... but at least half of it has trees too close for anything really big to fit between

thought about a wide bucket on the 3cx but I'm also thinking it's a bit heavy so driving it round will probably ruin anything I do, have a 1.5ton digger but it might be a bit small

bit lots really, don;t normally do this kind of thing, google and most of the results are useless :-(

 

[sako243]

@knighty the problem with a JCB is high ground pressure compared to a similar sized 360. My 2CX makes a mess of any vaguely damp soil because it's 5.5t on small 38x12.5 tyres.

The 3CX although bigger tyres is heavier so will suffer the same issues.

 

[Agrismith]

How do you get a large area nice and flat like that? just operator skill with the digger?

I've got about 4 acres of garden to do that's a cross between not flat and lumpy as hell where previous owners horse has been living out there in the mud

I thought about popping into local farms too see if a farmer had the gear to sort it for me... but at least half of it has trees too close for anything really big to fit between

thought about a wide bucket on the 3cx but I'm also thinking it's a bit heavy so driving it round will probably ruin anything I do, have a 1.5ton digger but it might be a bit small

bit lots really, don;t normally do this kind of thing, google and most of the results are useless :-(

The easiest way to make an area flat is to break the soil up using whatever you have available rotavator disk harrows toothed digger bucket. Then tow a levelling beam round behind whatever you have available until the area is flat. Leveling beams are dead easy to make. Just two bits of whatever metal you have available welded to something on top to space them out. To make a H shape. A chain on the front in am A shape and your away. Lengthening and shortening the chain adjusts how much it digs in depending on the power of the towing equipment.
Just keep driving in random patterns until level.
In new Zealand I towed one about 6m wide made from railway track around a 100 acre paddock for weeks until it was in a state a combine could work on it.

 

[Kram]

An experienced farm guy, who runs a paving/driveway business, I spoke to, said a week of rotavating and then level it manually with a wide rake.

 

[jo1010]

"Several people,one a good friend, have been asking me about leveling their gardens and it seems for any larger area, a rotavator is needed to break up any weed".....

..does "levelling" mean that 1) they've decided the grass is rubbish and want to nuke it....or 2) that they want a level bowling green type of lawn....or 3) make it decently weed free.??
A rotavator will nuke it ...but not necessarily make it weed free. It's hard to tell exactly how bad the grass is....but I'd be more inclined to cut the grass right back, treat with weedol to eliminate weeds, scarify (ie verticut) and then overseed if necessary (sure you can use turf for the bit thats already dug over), but rotovating the whole area seems a bit overkill to me

 

[Kram]

The grass is rubbish but a lot of that is lack of maintence, very rarely cut.
Decently weed free and somewhat level. I'll fill in the low spots with the high spots else where.

Grass seed, they guy was telling me wrong time of year and was pushing for turf if he helps me. Is seed a good option?

 

[jo1010]

Its exactly the right time of year for seed ....when the nights are getting warmer (hopefully)... seed doesn't like cold nights ....but the main faff is that is should be kept moist and with no rain atm it's time consuming setting up sprinklers etc...mind you if you lay turf you've got a similar problem keeping it moist to establish it.....
The first step is to see how bad that existing grass really is...cut it back and weedol it and see how it looks after 3 or 4 days..

 

[frank horton]

unless it's a wide open space for prop agri machinery it's a hand job.....
remove the high spots and use in the low spots as u said.....
then a few ton of top soil for when u haven't enough spare soil...all the disturbed soil will sink so the low spots need a little mound that will flatten by walking and the rain.....
best to get a smallish area done at a time....otherwise it'll end up like the Somme....
There's no easy way with out machinery.....sorry...
expect this leveling to go on for a few years when done by hand.....
I had a 2 acre field that was full of weeds, brambles etc etc...
I just used a topper once a month for a year.....then it looked real good but not quite a lawn.....

 

[addjunkie]

How do you get a large area nice and flat like that? just operator skill with the digger?

I've got about 4 acres of garden to do that's a cross between not flat and lumpy as hell where previous owners horse has been living out there in the mud

I thought about popping into local farms too see if a farmer had the gear to sort it for me... but at least half of it has trees too close for anything really big to fit between

thought about a wide bucket on the 3cx but I'm also thinking it's a bit heavy so driving it round will probably ruin anything I do, have a 1.5ton digger but it might be a bit small

bit lots really, don;t normally do this kind of thing, google and most of the results are useless :-(

Try a quad with heavy harrows on the back, then roll it when damp, before you start really ripping into it.

Comvex machinery in Sunderland may demo/ hire you something

 

[iNf]

Hard work digging/ rotavating that by hand. Take off any big high spots, Weedol then a lorry load(s) of topsoil to level then seed or turf?

 

[Kram]

then a lorry load(s) of topsoil to level

I dont want to raise the grade if it can be avoided or feel like barrowing a lorry load of dirt would be less work. Theres enough concrete that needs to be shifted, or buried. Could dig a deep holes with the earth auger but that would likely bring up clay from underneath.

Is a lorry load, what will fit on an overloaded 3.5T tipper, or a 44T earth mover type lorry?

 

[Kram]

Any opinions on the rotavator links in my first post?

 

[oldbikedavey]

Seeding is usually the most reliable and least labour intensive option.
A good seedbed, however, isn't.....

 

[DanZac]

Any opinions on the rotavator links in my first post?

I've got a rotavator like the Hyundai one in your links for the allotment. It'll break up broken (roughly dug) soil into a nice fine tilth quite happily.

But it won't touch compacted soil, so I'd say it would have no chance of breaking up a lawn unless your going to put in some effort first to break it up.