Wet Area mowing suggestions wanted

[prof.fate]

tagging to learn..

got a 15 acre pasture that a previous owner put some ditches in...not sure why but they suck to brush hog over.

One area that one of them drains toward is I think a spring..1/2 acre of wet area, here and there, not a single spot that I can identify, still too wet to get drive in there..don't want to get stuck.

Since I got a tractor with a loader I went to where I sunk the last tractor and dug a hole to see what the water does.

A pond would be my 'solution' if I can find out the source of the water.

 

[Russell King]

You all may want to read about permaculture swales and berm and basically how to move and store water in the ground.

If the ditches are that problematic to mow over you should be able to make them wider and less deep to move the water around and easier to get through


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[dirtydeed]

Well, one section dried out enough for the first time this year that I got it cut yesterday with a zero turn going very slowly. Best part is I only had to yank the zero turn from the mud with the quad on 2 occasions.

Maybe a pull type mower for the quad would be a much better choice. I would just need something with some larger tires than I've typically been seeing.


PS. while i was finishing with the string trimmer I saw lots of frog carnage. The crows were having a feast this morning.

 

[chazman26]

dirty, I have the same issue on the bottom 7+ acres of my property. I have got the tractor stuck way to many times and the zero turn is still to heavy for that area. My only solution was a tow behind bush hog like you are thinking of. Here is the one I settled on: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Swisher-14-5-hp-12V-Kawasaki-Commercial-Pro-52-in-Rough-Cut/1000178281

This thing is a beast.. as long as I can get to the area with the quad, it will mow almost anything down. It does not cut very clean like the zero turn or a finish mower, but it does make short work of the brush and bush type stuff that is in that swampy area.

Honestly I feel it was the best money spend in a long time. It can be offset to the right or left and you can set 3 diff cut heights.

The only major issue I have is that as you can imagine, it is a long and wide turn radius.
Sometimes a second pass at a different angle would be needed, but it is so much better that all that brush growing up and blocking the view.

P.S. If you do go the lowes route, be sure to use a 10% off or at least do the online chat option and do price match. I was able to get a price match from the mfg site for $2699

 

[dirtydeed]

Thanks Chaz.

Glad it's working for you. I managed to get mine cut last weekend since it dried out some. I cut it with two zero turns...first crappy one to knock it down, then followed up with the better one to clean it up.


Best part...didn't get stuck once!!!

I'll probably keep my eyes open for something else (like a tow behind).

 

[dggott]

We put 20A that was "agricultural" for prop tax purposes into "forest preserve". Zero property tax (until they end the program- lol). Might check with your county treasurer (or whoever does taxation) and see if you can do something like that for wetlands. Even if you can't, if it were me, I'd get some advice of wetlands and do a beautiful wetland "garden". Don't fight it, surrender.

 

[dirtydeed]

I found an interim "solution" to my problem...Installed some new shoes on the beater zero turn. OMG, what a difference! I used it this past weekend without any fear of getting stuck. The little mower ran up the berm of my shooting range without a hitch. I swear the slope in some spots on the backside of the berm is in excess of 45 degrees. I just had to make sure I backed down in a straight line.

$66 delivered to my door from amazon...well worth it in my opinion.

 

[Palmettokat]

If the wet area is part of your lawn or house site was told the rules on what is allowed is wider. Of course you can fence it and place goats, sheep or cattle or such to mow it. Subsoilers are good to help drain wet dirt.

 

[Captain13]

I had the same problem this year on five acres. It stayed wet and I was leaving deep ruts wheni would try to mow. I cut some swales down 12 inches and made them smooth. Now I can mow in either direction (perpendicular or parallel to the swales) and have a smooth cut.

Since I’ve cut the swales, the property drains good, the grass is growing better and I have no more bogging or ruts from the tractor and mower. I used the tailings from the swales to fill in the low spots in the field and some deep ruts created before. With all the rain we are still getting this year, I’m mowing once a week with no problem. Last year, I had to hope for two weeks without rain to mow and the field would still be wet.

 

[johnjk]

An update on my swamp. I was able to get in drainage last fall which is doing a great job moving the water out of the front yard area. We installed a catch basin about 3' down with a few feeder lines running out to problem areas. I also extended my downspout collectors and basement sump pump to this basin. The drain from this then runs to the ditch on the south end of my property. The drain line is wrapped with fabric with a good 8' of crushed clean rock between the line and the fabric. We also graded it so the pipe is our low spot so water drains down, through the topsoil, hits the fabric and drains out. Tube in a tube. The next "problem area" for me will require a pond to collect the water coming out of the woods. Hope to have a contractor come by here in the next few weeks to give me an estimate. I would like to dig it myself, but the loader on my B3200 is not the tool for this job.