Boxblading Vegetation

[rf33]

Yeah, you gotta love those foriegn plants brought in by the developers because they are so much "better" than the native plants. Certainly mother nature does not know as much as sme stupid land developer. (I know, I know, get off the soap box) I lived on Marco from about 1978 until about 1989, and saw it grow tremendously during that time. The real estate prices are going absolutely crazy there, and it just keeps getting worse. I moved to TX in about 1995, and just love the wide open spaces.

rf33

/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[njrqs]

Just curious...

How do you take your box blade to a huge pile like that??

Do you climb on top and scrape it down or something??

I was lucky enough to get 6 BIG truck loads of soil from the council yesterday. They are now in huge piles and I have to spread them with my rear blade. I was just going to keep taking bites out of the bottom of each pile.

How would you do this with a box blade - You can only for Fordwards correct ??

<font color=blue>Neil from OZ.</font color=blue>

 

[Sub_Dude]

Hey there!

FWIW, I live on the other (East) coast of Florida. We have more people but less mosquitoes. How's that for a tradeoff? /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

I'm a third generation Floridiot born and raised in West Palm Beach. Back when I was a boy, there was exactly one concrete structure on Singer Island. Now it looks like Miami Beach, which was also darn near a village back in the day. The reason I'm out here in the sticks (14 miles from the ocean) is because I can't stand what they've done to my homeland. But I can't leave Florida. Just today I saw a cloud in the sky, and was reminded of how terrible it must be to live where you see those things all the time. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Going by recent values of land sales in my area, the good news is that my property has about tripled in value in the 17 years I've owned it. The bad news is that I can't imagine a finer place to live than right here. But if I ever give up on Florida, I'll be looking long and hard at Texas. /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif

I have no idea how bad the piles smelled when they were still festering, because I was out of town when the work was done. S'matter of fact, I've been out of town since then. That's why this situation got so out of hand. I came home a few times, but I was only here long enough to keep the tigers from hiding in the pastures.

The advice to use Roundup doesn't surprise me. Of course I have two sprayers full of it on hand at all times. A small one for detail work and a large one for shotgunning such things as berms that have gotten out of control. Looks like it's time for chemical warfare. I was hoping to hear that this wasn't necessary, but I guess there's no way around it. I have next week off and was hoping to finish this phase of the project. But from my experience it takes Roundup at least a week to do its thing, so I guess I'll have to find something else to keep busy on. Besides eating turkey. /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif

The advice to cut the grass was no doubt well meant, but if I could do that, it wouldn't look like it does now. Last weekend I did run my 'hog between the piles and the canal (a 12-15' wide strip of the stuff that's on top of the berm) and it didn't even slow down, let alone choke. As for burning, don't I wish. It's just too much grass to burn where it stands. The fire wouldn't last long, but it would be a conflagration. None for me, thanks.

So I'll shoot the juice to the grass, let it croak, and pull the dirt while I'm off over the Holidays between Christmas and New Years, when I'm usually at home.

Finally, Harv, I've got flicks of my jihad against the pepper trees. I sent them along with text via email to my sister, the English teacher, and she said I should make a web page of it and share it with the rest of the family that can't come see the before and after in person. Maybe that's what I'll do next week while the Roundup does its thing. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for all the input. Too bad I won't be able to get that ugly mess out of my face next week, but think of all I'll save on sunscreen and bug spray by staying off the tractor! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

TTYL.

The Sub Dude

I'm gonna live forever....So far, so good....

 

[bgott]

Just keep playing with it until you wittle the pile down enough to go over the top. Don't take too big of a bite, I damn near rolled my 8N a few times getting in a hurry. You can try backing into the pile from opposite sides and build ramps until you can go over the top. Once you can go over the top you can fill the box without any problem. It can be pretty steep, the blade will act like a wheelie bar if you lower it while climbing. As far as using the blade in reverse, the only problem I had was it unloaded the rear wheels and lost traction once the blade got a good bite.

 

[Turfman]

Stan has the right idea. Round-up 41% mixed at 2 oz/Gallon, with a little surfactant. Needs to be mixed fresh each time and applied when the vegatation is still green and actively growing.

After it dies off, and be patient, it takes a while, burn it down. Spread the dirt and, unless you are growing crops or allowing animals on to graze, apply a pre-emergant such as treflan or surflan to prevent new weeds growing from seed.

Kev

 

[theboman]

I agree with the rotary cutter. If you live where you can burn the grass off while obeying all burning laws and not catching the world on fire that is another suggestion.

Bo McCarty
Bluegrass, Pick It Up!