Smoothing Front Yard / Renovation

[coreydurbin]

lling my entire front lawn for a renovation and smoothing it out. How would you guys go about smoothing this out? Unfortunately, it measures out at 22-24* and due to moles is a little iffy on the BX. All the work I would be doing is up and down the face of it.

My thought process was to use the FEL to cut the high spots out. In particular, there is one spot that juts out towards the road at the halfway point. From there, I was going to add organic material (compost) to the entire lawn and just a bit of top soil to the low spot in the middle and then till the entire lawn.

Do you think this would work? Am I going about this the wrong way? Any other implements (besides a Harley Rake-the wife would have my dig my own grave) that would be a better fit for this task?

 

[BigG]

Living in Illinois do you have enough good weather to get a good stand of grass before cold temps hit you? If not, a lot of your hard work is going to end up in the middle of the street. Even if you sod the bank, this time of the year, you will end up with a lot of washout over the winter.

You are not talking about removing the crest of the hill are you? You are just working on the slope? From the pictures it looks like you need the flat area coming out from the house to stay in place.

Good job with the night time picture to illustrate the rolls on the bank. I would do as you are talking about but wait until spring and then sod it to quickly hold the soil in place as much as you can. Lay the sod going in a brick like pattern across the hill to minimize the water run off. Also use wooden pegs to hold the sod in place. We would use the large tongue depressors like they have at the doctors office to hold the sod.

 

[coreydurbin]

Living in Illinois do you have enough good weather to get a good stand of grass before cold temps hit you? If not, a lot of your hard work is going to end up in the middle of the street. Even if you sod the bank, this time of the year, you will end up with a lot of washout over the winter.

You are not talking about removing the crest of the hill are you? You are just working on the slope? From the pictures it looks like you need the flat area coming out from the house to stay in place.

Good job with the night time picture to illustrate the rolls on the bank. I would do as you are talking about but wait until spring and then sod it to quickly hold the soil in place as much as you can. Lay the sod going in a brick like pattern across the hill to minimize the water run off. Also use wooden pegs to hold the sod in place. We would use the large tongue depressors like they have at the doctors office to hold the sod.

I live in southern Illinois and typically first frost is about 5-6 weeks out. Unfortunately, this project was supposed to begin at the beginning of this week but the utilities failed to come out and mark their lines. In order to attempt to get most of this to germinate and hopefully hold, I am looking at rolling it after a light tilling to compact it a bit, seeding and raking the seed in, followed by a light roll again. From there I have a tackifier I will be putting down as well as erosion mats.

In regards to the crest of the hill, most of it will stay in place. On the left edge of the nighttime photo you can see that it juts out about an additional 12 inches further than the rest of the crest. I'm hoping to cut this down to make the yard more consistently sloped.

Unfortunately, the only SOD nearby I can get is Kentucky Bluegrass (which I did in the backyard lastyear) and I'm still fighting with it. The soil needs quite a few amendments which kind of forces me to do the renovation like I am. (adding compost and everything else and tilling it in.)

-Corey

 

[sheepfarmer]

Here is another thought. I am wondering if the unneveness resulted from dirt washing after the original seeding, and if you till it up, the end result might be similar. How about just gradually adding topsoil a little at a time over the grass in the low spots? Grass will grow up through it and continue to hold the bank. Alternatively get some patches of ground cover started so you won't have to mow the steep parts.

 

[coreydurbin]

The washing could be the case. To be completely honest, it's hard to say as we've only lived here right at one year. Unfortunately, in that time I've been fighting an uphill battle with the clay soil, weeds, etc. Part of the reason for wanting to till was to correct the deficiencies that the soil sample pointed out. As far as gradually adding topsoil, I could. I could also just go it a bit lower, and fill in that low spot and put the erosion mat down at that area. It'd be about 2in of soil I'd need to add.

 

[RCW]

I’m following sheepfarmer’s viewpoints as well. I’m concerned that working that slope too much may lead to the same end product due to erosion.

It’s difficult to tell slopes from photos; is dragging a box blade along the slope (e.g., parallel to the house) possible, even if without the loader on?

Not trying to encourage something unsafe...if it’s remotely a concern, cross that off the list.

I’ve done quite a bit of that kind of stuff at my own place, and a box blade is my first go-to.....some of this I re-profiled without the loader; it was too steep to have the FEL on.

That said, you may be able to backup the slope, drop the BB and slide it down. Stockpile material at top of slope first. Use BB with long top link to smooth it out. Leave the low spots a little high to allow some settling/compaction.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

Is this a 'new ' house, like <5 years old ?
I'd wait until LATE Spring to do anything, not enough heat/sun left to do a proper job.