Need advice on implements for repairing and maintaining our yard post-Helene

[CV428]

Long post, sorry in advance...

We got hit hard by Helene (SC/NC border) and I am still working on storm cleanup 4 months later. Lots of trees fell, which I have already chopped up, stacked or burned. The entire yard is littered with snapped twigs and branches hidden under leaves. Raking manually would take forever, so we opted to pick up the larger branches by hand and leave the rest. I swapped out blades on the mower deck to chew through the small twiggy stuff but it has been a slow process. Seriously my yard looks like all-bran cereal. Even where I have cleared the debris, the ground looks awful and is in desperate need of dethatching and top soil spreading.

We have an Agri-fab leaf vac that I have frankensteined to fit the BX2380, and it works fine for dry leaves, but add one small twig and it jams. Right now it is as good as useless.

1) Which implement(s) would you recommend for this type of cleanup? Some neighbors have lawn sweepers that seem to work nicely, but I have also considered getting a dethatching rake. We have more trees in our yard than everyone else around.

2) Helene washed away much of our top soil, so the ground is now uneven, rocky, and rattles my joints apart when I drive over it with the tractor. I have considered renting a top soil spreader, but I'm honestly not sure what direction to go. I've never had 2 acres of yard wash away before. Most areas only need 1" or so to even out. I can fill and flatten the larger dips and gulleys with the FEL/float. Other areas are far deeper and will require a few dump trucks worth of fill dirt before top soiling...

We were blessed that our home only suffered mostly cosmetic damage that I'll repair myself, but insurance and FEMA will cover nothing for us (and we have found it's the same for the vast majority of people around here).

I do not have the option of paying a company to come in and remediate due to scalpers. Everyone is scalping because they assume insurance is footing the bill. Big problem around here.

I'm nervous attempting to re-grade the yard with a box scrape as our entire yard is sloped with multiple terraces along the hillside, but I'm not opposed to getting one if that is the right tool for the job.

Any thoughts?

 

[GreensvilleJay]

hmm, you might try a 'landscape' rake. Looks like a giant hair comb, with curved tines. It'll collect the debris. There IS a 'learning curve' using them ! Have to be raised just enough to not damage the grass, but low enough to get the 'debris'. Some may suggest a 'pine needle' rake.
To do the 'dirty' work, I've found going backwards and 'feathering the bucket works well to get soil fairly level. Again a 'learning ' thing. I go backwards so after 5-6 feet I can SEE what I've done without turning my head,neck, shoulders( which IS a pain for me....). Once you get most of the soil down, turn the landscape rake around and use it to gently level the soil. After that, think 'baseball diamond' and drag a section of chain link fence behind, it'll help with the levelling process.

 

[D2Cat]

Sorry to hear about your situation. When we first saw what was happening after the storm (I think it was Dr. Phil's network) and FEMA passing some folks because of political sign in the yard, we made a donation to help.

Welcome to the forum. It would be nice to see a picture to fully understand your challenge but I'd suggest a tool like this landscape rake. It will pick up just about everything you drag it over. Sometimes it will release the things it picks up, but you may have to get off the tractor to physically remove some of the twigs, etc.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/field-tuff-60-in-3-point-landscape-rake-ftf-60lsr3pt-1507691?cid=Shopping-Bing-Product1507691-&msclkid=90b3b38af7ed13c60df1d428ebc30d4b

 

[CV428]

Sorry to hear about your situation. When we first saw what was happening after the storm (I think it was Dr. Phil's network) and FEMA passing some folks because of political sign in the yard, we made a donation to help.

Welcome to the forum. It would be nice to see a picture to fully understand your challenge but I'd suggest a tool like this landscape rake. It will pick up just about everything you drag it over. Sometimes it will release the things it picks up, but you may have to get off the tractor to physically remove some of the twigs, etc.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/field-tuff-60-in-3-point-landscape-rake-ftf-60lsr3pt-1507691?cid=Shopping-Bing-Product1507691-&msclkid=90b3b38af7ed13c60df1d428ebc30d4b

That's exactly what I was looking into. Would that help with dethatching too, or would I need one of the vertical-tine versions too?

Yeah, I won't get into the politics surrounding the storm haha. But, yes, we have seen that and then some. I volunteered for cleanup efforts in the Asheville area in early October. We were sawing through 2-4' trees that were blocking roads, driveways, etc. I live maybe 40 minutes from where it got hit the worst. My situation is very mild compared to what so many others are dealing with.

Several neighbors and I teamed up to clear local roads. I drove the BX a few miles on a main road pushing back trees. A few of the farmers around here had much larger equipment and cleared more in less time, but it was definitely a community effort. For the most part, community really stepped up to help each other. Police and FD were out helping full force. Lots of looting though. I had to pull all-nighters sitting out front with a rifle due to roaming packs of looters. Too bad they didn't loot all the trees and branches... XD

 

[MOOTS]

Like Jay said, landscape rake is the tool you need. You won’t be moving a ton of material, I’d get something that will cover the tractor track when angled. Once the stick debris is cleaned up, you can dump small piles of top soil and drive around every which a way to spread. Chain link fence to finish grade, seed and straw.

 

[Russell King]

You might want to get the landscape rake with removable gauge wheels.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Russell beat me too it, gauge / caster wheels helps it float and only take off the surface debris.

For leveling the yard, I'm a huge fan of land planes.
They are much easy to use than a box blade.
You can rough add an area with the loader than use the land plane to smooth it out.

 

[airbiscuit]

A pine straw rake in addition to a landscape rake for the finer stuff, and dethatching,

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

A pine straw rake in addition to a landscape rake for the finer stuff, and dethatching,

View attachment 147563

You know that might just do it all on it's own.
For the price I would get it and see what it can do.