Landscaping Question - Boxblade First, or Tiller First?

[NSBound]

I can't recall if I have seen this exact discussion or not, so I'll ask it this way - I am preparing the yard around my new house for lawns and gardens. I have already had about 6 loads of topsoil brought in and spread around by a bulldozer, so for the next step, am I better to boxblade the whole thing, get the remaining rocks out, make smooth and then rototill? Or am I better to till first then boxblade smooth? I'll use something (not sure what just yet) to tamp down the areas where I plan to sow grass seed in the fall for better ground contact, where I do the rototilling. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

 

[theboman]

Either way works with the new topsoil. Maybe even drag it smooth with an old pallet, the rocks will pop up there too.

 

[aggiehortguy91]

I would skip the tiller unless you are just dying to use it. Run the box blade over it untill you have the area smoothed and graded just like you want. Then harrow (you can use a pallet or a piece of chain link fence, etc), rake to remove as much rock as possible and touch up any spots you feel aren't quite right, seed and fertilize, rake again (or harrow) to incorporate seed, straw any steep areas that may wash in a rain, and call it done.

 

[GE222]

Tillers are nice, but unless you have a long term re-occurring need, I would opt for the box blade. Especially since you can buy 4-5 box blades for price of one tiller.

As previously mentioned, drag around a box blade.

 

[NSBound]

...drag around a box blade.

Thanks for the comments, box blade it is! I already have the tiller too so will use it for the garden plot.

 

[Egon]

Make a drag as long as you can pull and use that for leveling. Then do some tilling and more leveling and on and on.

 

[ToadHill]

If you plan to do the blading now and plant in the fall, You'll find all kind of weeds that come up between now and then. Make sure that if you plan to use roundup to kill the weeds before you pkant, that you do it at least a week before, roundup will kill the fresh seed as soon as it germinates if you don't wait between application and seeding.

 

[LBrown59]

Tillers are nice, but unless you have a long term re-occurring need, I would opt for the box blade.
* Especially since you can buy 4-5 box blades for price of one tiller.

But you can't do this with a Box Blade.

 

[easygo]

But you can't do this with a Box Blade.

??????????????? And what exactly are you doing there? Tiller burnout???

 

[boxygen]

Re: Landscaping Question - Boxblade First, or Tiller First?
Quote:
Originally Posted by LBrown59 View Post
But you can't do this with a Box Blade.
??????????????? And what exactly are you doing there? Tiller burnout???

LOL!!! Doesn't matter what hes doing, it cant be done without a tiller!