How do you fix ruts with a tractor?

[strantor]

I rutted up over an acre of carpet grass lawn spraying for mosquitoes before it was dry enough. We were held hostage in our own house by insects. It was a dire situation. I don't feel stupid (yet) for doing it, but now I need to fix it. Most of the ruts are 1" - 3" but some are 4" - 6" deep.

I tried dragging bucket backwards over the ruts and the result was less than ideal. The ruts didn't fill completely in, and the giant poo stain left by the bucket looks worse than the ruts did. I have a piece of steel pipe about 16" dia x 6ft long. I am thinking of turning it into a roller that attaches to the exge of my bucket. Then I put the roller down instead of the bucket edge, with the weight of the front end of the tractor on the roller, and drag the roller back.

I feel that would be a gentler levelling than the bucket edge. But I just googled "how to fix ruts" and one page suggested that any remedy which further compacts the soil is bad, because grass dies in compacted soil. I don't want my grass to die. I don't know if they're right or not.

Do I need to till the yard or what? I don't have a tiller or any implements except FEL w/ bucket and fork attachment, and a concrete counterbalance. I'm open to buying something if needed.

 

[strantor]

Sample spot (bad ruts)
Before dragging the bucket:




After:

 

[atsah]

I would smooth that over with the flat of my bucket backing up and reseed it.. When it's drier of course.

 

[Oldoak]

You definitely caused yourself more work by not waiting for better conditions to remedy those initial ruts.
True, those ruts will never completely fill in completely due to compaction without adding additional soil.

I would wait until it drys out when the soil is more workable without creating a bigger mess. Then I would drag it with something like spike tooth chain harrows, reseed, and roll it.

 

[Diggin It]

Tiller set shallow?

 

[ZTMAN]

A neighbor hired a skid steer to do some work. The operator went through a common area that was wet and made some big ruts. I walked down to look at the ruts. The ground was still wet and I had my muck boots on. I pushed on the outside of the high part of the rut and it just squished back in place. Had nothing better to do that afternoon so I squished my way along about 100 foot of ruts and you could hardly tell they were there when I was done.
Will only work if the ground is still wet and if you don"t have any thing better to do.
Not as fun using equipment to fix, but it was effective.

 

[Jstpssng]

I would rake the ruts out as well as you can, finish filling them in with new loam, run a roller across it, plant new seed and hay it.

 

[Bigpuddie]

You can wait until it dries a little more where soil firms up and is only damp, then take tractor and run parallel to the ruts, right on edge, and let tires push soil back into the ruts

 

[LouNY]

You can wait until it dries a little more where soil forms up and is only damp, then take tractor and run parallel to the ruts, right on edge, and let tires push soil back into the ruts

Bingo, works for 90% of your ruts

 

[/pine]

I would fill them with sand and grass seed