Never have too much lawn????

[Scooby074]

In my never ending quest to make work for myself, i decided i need more lawn so i spent 12 hours today spreading fill to turn swamp and rock into grass

Over the last couple weeks i rounded up close to 60 tons of fill and 20 tons of topsoil.

First job was to spread the fill in a swampy area to the right of the barn and level it out and prepair for topsoil. As you may be able to see from the pics that area was full of trees / stumps. Took several hours to grub and bury the old stumps. Most were s,mall, but there were a couple 12" hardwoods, and one ~24" hardwood that was a bear to get out!!! Unfortunately i forgot my to take pics while in the middle of that job.

Got that section mostly done, and i hope to finish that tomorrow.

 

[Scooby074]

Second half of the day, i spent filling in around my barn. Trying to landscape and level it off. THe right left and rear all require fill. Then im going to top with more grass

When the barn was built, it was built over a swamp. This required LOTS of LARGE rock. This made things extra fun Ill try to remember to get some pics of the rocks tomorrow.

It may be hard to tell in the pictures but there was close to 5 ft drop from the barn floor to the Left hand ditch beside the barn. Required lots of fill. Got that and the rear mostly done.

All and all it was a long day. 12 Hr in the seat makes for a sore ***

 

[Scooby074]

As part of the lawn construction, i had to clean some ditches and redo some culverts as the old ones were clogged and rusted. The new poly culverts are 10x better, and hopefully will last a lifetime. The old ones were pretty much done after 20 years.

 

[Scooby074]

The ground in the area has some major rocks as mentioned before. This made life extra difficult.

 

[Scooby074]

But at least the rocks came in handy to build retaining walls around the culverts.

 

[Scooby074]

Finally i got the topsoil and seed spread over the new lawn area. Total area is around 7000 sq feet. One thing i can say is seed sure has gone up in price! close to $120 in seed to cover this area. Plus another $40 in fertilizer.

I brought the 23 year old craftsman lawn tractor out of retirement after my several page thread on TBN on getting the old girl ready for work again. And it worked GREAT.

I put together a chainlink drag to level and spread the topsoil. Probably one of the best things ive ever built. And considering it was made of junk that was kicking around, even better

 

[Scooby074]

Then the deer came last night and proceeded to ruin my new lawn

Sure is enough to tick you off.

Any tips to keeping them at bay? I have a electric fence around the garden, it works good, but the cost of a new fencer and supplies is prohibitive. (yeah i know bullets are cheap, but the neighbours probably would frown on it )
Im thinking of getting some pie plates and string and hanging them around the perimeter. Some say that works?

 

[RayCo]

Excellent work. I'm filing this away in my "project inspirations" folder, since I have countless areas on my property in need of the same work. Thanks for all the pictures.

 

[mjncad]

Oh come on Scooby, a little brush on rust converter/remover and those culverts will buff right out to look as good as new.

I can see why you have a sore butt from all the seat time; but somehow I suspect you had fun.

 

[radioman]

get some hair from your local haircut saloon and spread around your lot and leave some human urine around in spots as well. that oughta keep deer at bay.