Cleaning lawn of branches

[beenthere]

Every spring, I spend at least a full afternoon cleaning up downed branches from my ~4 acres of lawn, mostly from the more mature walnut and maple trees. I get to repeat this exercise after each major storm, all summer long, and I'm getting awful tired of the routine. Presently, I drive the FEL to an area with a bunch of downed branches, pick up each larger one and put them into the bucket. Then I rake up all of the smaller bits, and scoop them into the bucket. Very tedious.

I'm wondering what automated options might be possible. A landscape rake with float (anti-scalp) wheels would do half the job, at least gathering them together. Although driving over them in the process is just going to make them harder to pick up, in the end. Perhaps a tooth bar on my bucket, fitted with large swivel caster mounts on either side, so that I can drive around gathering branches with the bucket floating just an inch off the lawn.

Ideas? I can't be the only one hating this chore.

I mow over them with my JD 455 and 54" deck. Keeps the deck clean on the underside too.

 

[WinterDeere]

Was kidding but I use my belly mower on slopes I would not take the Z turns or brush hog and on places that got over grown due to wet conditions. Still a handy tool in the barn.

I hear ya, there's some serious pucker factor in using a zero turn on a steep hill. My property is very hilly, and now 12 years here, I don't worry about it much anymore. But the first year or two of mowing here, I was frequently concerned that I would tip the thing, given how light they are out front. Even thought initially about adding a few small suitcase weights to the front, but ultimately realized it wasn't needed.

The belly mower would be handy to have on a rare occasion, as would be the 64" snowblower I sold a year or two ago. But not very frequently, and the barn is only so big, we all have to choose our toys! My brush hog sits in a separate shed on its own, as it's easy to back up to that and drop it, and it at least gets used more than the belly mower would.

All the people who've mentioned hiring a kid to do the job must be lucky to have kids around willing to do that sort of work. I live in an affluent neighborhood where the kids spend their days being shuttled from music lessons to sports activities, and none work. Not a criticism, their primary job is doing well in school, but it does take that option off the table for me.

 

[WinterDeere]

I mow over them with my JD 455 and 54" deck. Keeps the deck clean on the underside too.

I just sandblasted and repainted the 60" deck on my zero turn over the winter. It was getting pretty scaley on bottom. I called my local Deere dealer to get pricing on a new stamped steel housing (bare), and they told me the last one they sold in 2018-19 was something like $3600, so we knew it would be north of that today. I told them to not bother getting updated pricing, the sandblasting only cost me $75 and the paint another $60. Three medium thickness coats of sprayed Deere OEM paint, which will hopefully hold up at least a few years before I have to repeat, so I'm not anxious to speed its abrasion by mowing over a bunch of sticks.

I was about to post a thread on known tools for cleaning the deck after each use, since it's forever clogged up with grass clippings, as our mowing tends to be wet and muddy in various low areas every spring and fall.

 

[tradosaurus]

I use a zero turn (Deere 757 ZTrak) on the lawn. My brush hog is only for trails and fields. I sold my last belly mower (Deere 72 inch 7-Iron) almost ten years ago, never going back to one of those!

Never understood the use of a belly mower. I would rather have a tractor and a lawn mower than to have to fiddle with removing and attaching a belly mower when I need to the clearance to use the tractor.

 

[2manyrocks]

My Dad had an International Cub Cadet 106 with a belly mower that was pretty heavy, but probably not as heavy as the belly mower on today's subcompact tractors. I never liked putting that thing back on despite it being made about as easy as it gets to install and reinstall.

After getting a zero turn, I'd hate to go back.

105 posts and not that many fun options for picking up sticks in the yard.

 

[Eagle1]

I have 35' high dam to but that is near vertical in places with a 5' landing zone on the bottom for about half of. No problem to cut with the BX and belly mower but I would not run a Zturn on it nor will I ever try to turn a bush hog on it.
I have 2 61" Zturns and a rotary mower. Also have a bigger tractor to pull the bush hog. I'd have to remove the BH to hook up the hog to the big tractor and would be scared to death to drive off the edge with that setup.

 

[Eagle1]

I'm 60+ and it takes little time and effort (5 min) to roll the deck under the BX, of course I've done it weekly (more or less) for almost 20 years now. Takes me longer to hook up the brush hog (don't use it near as often). Just me and YMMV

 

[tradosaurus]

I'm 60+ and it takes little time and effort (5 min) to roll the deck under the BX, of course I've done it weekly (more or less) for almost 20 years now. Takes me longer to hook up the brush hog (don't use it near as often). Just me and YMMV

I'm 30+ (actually 57 ) and I don't have a place to store a belly mower out of the weather.

 

[BnRidge]

105 posts and not that many fun options for picking up sticks in the yard.

I just heard that yard sticks are not being made any longer.

 

[Eagle1]

I'm 30+ (actually 57 ) and I don't have a place to store a belly mower out of the weather.

Right now that is my problem with the BH unless it is on the tractor, then the whole kit and kaboodle is parked in a pole barn bay.
Trick really is to drop everything where you can hook back up.....

 

[WinterDeere]

Spent the morning yesterday picking up sticks before the first mowing. Took several hours, atop what I had already done in the prior two weekends. Since we're nearly at the end of our usual March high winds period, that's probably the last of it, until we get our first summer storms. The highest number of most annoying branches are the diameter of a finger or less, meaning a lawn sweeper may be worth a try, if it sounds like they'll get them. The trouble I anticipate is that these black walnut trees drop widely branching sticks, not individual bits, which will clog any sweeper that isn't able to break them when it sweeps them up.

 

[Maknwine]

This pile was started roughly 8 years ago and the last 3-4 years has been added to very little with most of what's picked up being hauled to a fill spot on my dad's property. Roughly 30 ft long with one end about 6' high and low end 3 '. I would say 90% of it was picked up by the lawn sweeper with 10% being limbs larger than 42" long. The sweeper works great as long as the grass is kept mowed.

 

[2manyrocks]

This pile was started roughly 8 years ago and the last 3-4 years has been added to very little with most of what's picked up being hauled to a fill spot on my dad's property. Roughly 30 ft long with one end about 6' high and low end 3 '. I would say 90% of it was picked up by the lawn sweeper with 10% being limbs larger than 42" long. The sweeper works great as long as the grass is kept mowed. View attachment 791461View attachment 791462

Which sweeper do you have? Looking at the new ones for sale today, the user ratings vary a lot.

 

[Maknwine]

Spent the morning yesterday picking up sticks before the first mowing. Took several hours, atop what I had already done in the prior two weekends. Since we're nearly at the end of our usual March high winds period, that's probably the last of it, until we get our first summer storms. The highest number of most annoying branches are the diameter of a finger or less, meaning a lawn sweeper may be worth a try, if it sounds like they'll get them. The trouble I anticipate is that these black walnut trees drop widely branching sticks, not individual bits, which will clog any sweeper that isn't able to break them when it sweeps them up.

The widely branching stick wont clog it, it actually helps it to get picked up as it has more surface area to grab. You dont know me from Adam so you don't have much to put faith in except my experience. You will be impressed with the results and at such a small price. You can adjust the height of the brushes on mine so that also effects the what you're getting up.
If I get a chance today, I'll run over an area with a before and after pic as I have some pine sticks that are down. I'll get a pic of what gets thrown in the basket too.
They also work great when you cut the grass in the summer at the height of the grass growing season and there's alot of cut grass that you might not want to leave on the lawn in clumps or just an abundance of clippings, I'll sweep that up and compost it too.

 

[tradosaurus]

I'm now convinced to get the pine need rake from Everything Attachment.
Is there any disadvantage with going to the 72" vs the 60"?

 

[Maknwine]

Which sweeper do you have? Looking at the new ones for sale today, the user ratings vary a lot.

Mine is a Craftsman 42" but is 20+ years old so I dont know if there are models based on it still or not. I was looking at an Ohio Steele one a year ago or so that looked well made(IMO). I haven't checked reviews but will when I get another. I think height adjustability is key and how much plastic is involved in the gearing and drive mechanism. The wheels on mine have plastic teeth for gearing but they never wore out in the teeth but the tread on the wheels wore smooth. Has a chain on each side under cover that I have replaced once as original was stretched enough to not work right.

 

[Maknwine]

Oh and I pull mine with a regular style riding mower, I've used a honda Big Red 3 wheeler as well so if you dont have a smaller piece of equipment to pull it that may be a trade off also.

 

[WinterDeere]

Thanks, @Maknwine! I'd probably pull something like that behind my zero turn, no need to get the big tractor out onto a soft lawn at these times of year, if it can be avoided.

Yeah, any photos are appreciated, as are brand recommendations from anyone who's owned one. I can say the Ohio Steel wagon I bought 12 years ago held up great to lots of abuse, in fact I just resold it this year, as it hasn't been used as much since I got a larger (Country Mfg.) wagon.

 

[GeneV]

Mines an Agrifab, this one: Products > 44" Lawn Sweeper

This an older pic, but here's what it picks up in the spring for me:

 

[GeneV]

I got rid of that pole for dumping, and now just have a rope attached to it instead.