|
Kenster
07-19-2007 06:32:18
|
A month or so ago, with the aid of a 'new' Ferguson two bottom plow, I turned over about an acre and a half of weeds and sticker burrs that surrounded our house. A couple of weeks later, i turned it over again. The next week I borrowed a neighbors disk and smoothed out all the furrows from the plowing. Then ran the disc again, against the grain.
The plow and disc made short work of this because the soil is nearly pure sand. But it was damp when I plowed it, which helped turn it over, and it was dry when I disced it, which helped smooth it out.
Next, I spread 650 pounds of lime. I was going to disc that in but a heavy rain over night did the job for me. Then I made myself a nice heavy drag out of a heavy eight foot long fence post, followed by a heavy metal frame that was like a foot wide ladder, only it weighed about 75 pounds.
This drag had the desired effect and the land soon looked level enough to shoot pool on it. I then spread triple 13 fertilizer, which once again was rained in over night. The next day, using walk around organ grinder type spreader, I spread bermuda seed.
My last duty was to do a light drag to put just a touch of dirt over the seed . I had a short roll of green vinyl covered fence fabric left over from the dog run. I spread it out and used three six foot fence pickets to hold it flat. I dragged this behind the little lawn tractor rather than put big 8n foot prints all over the new yard. The little drag worked perfectly.
Right on cue that afternoon, we had a half inch of rain. More coming today and good predictions of showers for the next several days.
I don't kinow how long it takes for bermuda seed to germinate but hopefully before long, this big sandy lot will be a vibrant green. And I hope I don't have to water too often, though the well is full from all the rain we've been having.
One thing about the land now being flat, cleared and sandy: it sure is easy to spot new gopher mounds. I've dispatch over a dozen in the past few days with my double barrel LC Smith 16 guage.
Luckily, I just ran into the man who owns the neighboring property. He lives in town and hardly ever comes out to his property. He commented that he had noticed that I've been keeping the front of his property mowed for several years and wanted to know how much he owed me for that.
I didn't want anything, then thought.... hmmmm... he has a community water line with a faucet in the corner right next to my property. From that faucet I could easily water almost half an acre. So, I'm going to use his water as payback for all my mowing! Fair enough!
When the grass comes up I'll post pictures of the land plowed up; then flat and planted, then green with grass.
|
|
|
|
