Sorting a half acre garden.

murph226

I have a half acre garden that is all lumps, bumps and full of stone that I would like to level and sow a nice lawn on.

It was totally overgrown with thick brambles when I bought the place 3 years ago, there was also loads of tree stumps and a few trees that were dying and hanging dangerously over the house, road and ESB wires.

I got rid of all the brambles, all the tree stumps have been removed and I cut down the dangerous trees except for one big one that I'm waiting for a local tree surgeon to take down.

I have a lot of stone picking ahead of me first but I want to know whats the best way to go about having the place levelled, is it something I could do myself with a rotavator or am I better off getting a farmer to plough/rotavate the place with a small tractor?

The site is high enough and I think adding topsoil isn't really an option.

Can anyone advise on the rough cost to have it done properly by a landscaper?
This would be a last resort really as I am trying to do this on a budget.

Also, I'm currently de-stoning the place bit by bit with a small soil sieve that I made which goes over the wheel barrow, has anyone got any plans or links to a better diy soil sieve/sifter.
I have plenty of steel and timber around the place, have an arc welder and can weld.

FrancieBrady

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le-Nmg0q9jE

murph226

Thanks Francie, that looks good, might have to beef up the design but I like the idea!

Lumen

How big are the stones? Smaller ones are no problem.

murph226

Lots of decent sized rocks to come out by had before I am at that level Lumen.

Lumen

murph226 wrote: »

Lots of decent sized rocks to come out by had before I am at that level Lumen.

Ah right. My landscaper said anything below fist size is OK.

There's a thing called a stone rake that might speed things up.

macraignil

murph226 wrote: »

I have a half acre garden that is all lumps, bumps and full of stone that I would like to level and sow a nice lawn on.

It was totally overgrown with thick brambles when I bought the place 3 years ago, there was also loads of tree stumps and a few trees that were dying and hanging dangerously over the house, road and ESB wires.

I got rid of all the brambles, all the tree stumps have been removed and I cut down the dangerous trees except for one big one that I'm waiting for a local tree surgeon to take down.

I have a lot of stone picking ahead of me first but I want to know whats the best way to go about having the place levelled, is it something I could do myself with a rotavator or am I better off getting a farmer to plough/rotavate the place with a small tractor?

The site is high enough and I think adding topsoil isn't really an option.

Can anyone advise on the rough cost to have it done properly by a landscaper?
This would be a last resort really as I am trying to do this on a budget.

Also, I'm currently de-stoning the place bit by bit with a small soil sieve that I made which goes over the wheel barrow, has anyone got any plans or links to a better diy soil sieve/sifter.
I have plenty of steel and timber around the place, have an arc welder and can weld.

Sieving half an acre of soil sounds like a huge amount of work to be doing. If you were getting an area ready for growing vegetables I could understand as you would save on hitting rock every time you were cultivating the vegetable plot. Under grass only the large stones sticking out of the surface would be a problem for mowing.

I worked on a similar area and found the easiest way to make the job manageable was to use the stone I was digging out in making a border around the different flower beds and sections for shrubs etc. around the garden. The linked video clip shows some of the little walls I put together from the stone I dug out. The larger dry stone walls (in my garden only about 2 foot tall) can be made with a skin of larger stones around a fill of smaller stones and soil. In other words two walls side by side leaning slightly towards each other and topped with larger flat stones. The slight slope towards the centre helps the walls have some structural strength and stand up without any mortar to hold them in place. Some other flower beds are simply edged with a small number of stones stacked on top of each other.

I'm happy with what turned out and even went stone picking in some neighboring fields to add to the stone I dug out from the garden initially. If you do intend on just having a lawn then you could just add the larger stones to your boundary hedges and hire in a machine like the one in the link.

magicbastarder

if you're trying to do it on a budget/limited time, maybe you could revise the idea to go for a lawn over the full site and plant a lot of it with small trees?

Defunkd

A farmer to plough and harrow it could work out cheaper than getting a landscaper in - but no harm in asking both for a quote.
You could dig a few holes to throw the stones into. Get a few friends to help with the stonepicking though.

TomOnBoard

Get a fella in with a minidigger. He'll have it rough- levelled in no time, picking out all the rock as he goes... Many lads will have a rake attachment/bucket that will take out anything above a few inch diameter.

murph226

Thanks guys, I'll avoid anything below fist size from now on.

I should have mentioned I am keeping larger stone for rebuilding an old wall.

The plan is to plant more trees but I would like to level the place and sow a lawn first.

I'll try to get it rotavated by someone local and get the bigger stones out, at what stage should I be spraying it?