Singlecoil
Gold Member
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2006
- Messages
- 371
- Location
- Eatonville, Washington
- Tractor
- Kubota BX-24D Cub Cadet LT42e
I spent many an hour on this little project this spring. I ended up with about 45 hours on the tractor to bury 700 feet of sprinkler pipe, build 225 feet of fence, spread 40 yards of topsoil, and spread 20,000 pounds of drain rock.
This was a new house on 1/5 of an acre with an unfinished backyard. The ground here by Mt. Rainier is glacial silt and clay, so drainage is definitely an issue. We elected to go with the drain rock around the back of the house to have a somewhat stable platform for the barbeque and an eventual picnic table. We live near a quarry so 20,000 pounds was only about $300. The right side of the back yard I scraped down with the box blade and built a retaining wall. This was so the neighbors could backfill their side to make a flatter yard for them. We used a few 10 foot fence posts in that area by the retaining wall. The fence was designed to look the same on both sides so the neighbors would have a consistent look when they finished their other sides. The back side has 1x4 cedar trim pieces stained to match the 2x4 treated fence rails on the other side. The gates are 5 feet wide, wide enough for a BX though I hope I don't need it back there anymore
I used a 9 inch auger on the post hole digger. We did hit a fair number of big rocks so my new favorite tool is not the BX, it's the cast iron digging bar.
There are six sprinkler zones: left strip front yard, back yard, front yard, and 3 garden zones along the fence perimeter in the back yard. I used black poly for all of it and learned a lot in the process. A propane torch is your friend. The backhoe worked great digging up the backyard, but largely made a mess of areas that already had sod. My sod was lousy and I had planned on top dressing it with soil and seed so I really didn't care a whole lot about messing it up.
We wanted to do everything organic so the lawn doesn't look all that spectacular. There are some days when I would love to accidentally drop some weed killer on the lawn, but then I would have to find a new place to live as the wife would take exception to such action The lawn was drop seeded and we used Ringer Lawn Restore for fertilizer from Home Depot. I bought a lousy drop spreader and over fertilized some areas but eventually they filled in.
Since the neighbors kicked in on the fence, the total cost was about $3500. When you consider the added value to the home is in the $10,000 to $15,000 range, the tractor looks even shinier in the garage
On to the pictures. The order got messed up when I uploaded them so you have to start at the back and work forward. Click on the link below then keep hitting previous image to see the rest.
Hopefully that will work.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/photos/showphoto.php/photo/3713/sort/1/cat/500/page/2
This was a new house on 1/5 of an acre with an unfinished backyard. The ground here by Mt. Rainier is glacial silt and clay, so drainage is definitely an issue. We elected to go with the drain rock around the back of the house to have a somewhat stable platform for the barbeque and an eventual picnic table. We live near a quarry so 20,000 pounds was only about $300. The right side of the back yard I scraped down with the box blade and built a retaining wall. This was so the neighbors could backfill their side to make a flatter yard for them. We used a few 10 foot fence posts in that area by the retaining wall. The fence was designed to look the same on both sides so the neighbors would have a consistent look when they finished their other sides. The back side has 1x4 cedar trim pieces stained to match the 2x4 treated fence rails on the other side. The gates are 5 feet wide, wide enough for a BX though I hope I don't need it back there anymore
I used a 9 inch auger on the post hole digger. We did hit a fair number of big rocks so my new favorite tool is not the BX, it's the cast iron digging bar. There are six sprinkler zones: left strip front yard, back yard, front yard, and 3 garden zones along the fence perimeter in the back yard. I used black poly for all of it and learned a lot in the process. A propane torch is your friend. The backhoe worked great digging up the backyard, but largely made a mess of areas that already had sod. My sod was lousy and I had planned on top dressing it with soil and seed so I really didn't care a whole lot about messing it up.
We wanted to do everything organic so the lawn doesn't look all that spectacular. There are some days when I would love to accidentally drop some weed killer on the lawn, but then I would have to find a new place to live as the wife would take exception to such action
The lawn was drop seeded and we used Ringer Lawn Restore for fertilizer from Home Depot. I bought a lousy drop spreader and over fertilized some areas but eventually they filled in.Since the neighbors kicked in on the fence, the total cost was about $3500. When you consider the added value to the home is in the $10,000 to $15,000 range, the tractor looks even shinier in the garage
On to the pictures. The order got messed up when I uploaded them so you have to start at the back and work forward. Click on the link below then keep hitting previous image to see the rest.
Hopefully that will work.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/photos/showphoto.php/photo/3713/sort/1/cat/500/page/2
