Top soil

chiefwiggum

Looking for advice/help/opinions please.
We have about a half to two thirds of an acre of rough land beside our house..it messy looking and want to do something with it this year to 1 clean it up and 2 make it more maintainable with the tractor mower.
I have had all the vegetation scraped of the top to reveal a lot of rock underneath.we live in Wicklow so thie rock is considerable in places..was going to rotavate but the rock could break up the machine.
Looking at getting top soil in now to put over the worst areas. Was quoted today 350 euro for 20 tonnes of screened soil.
Realistically how much ground would this cover? Ground is flat enough and I'm not looking for a manicured lawn finish. Maybe and inch or two of soil with more graded out around the rock.
Again any advice greatly received

Furze99

https://www.gigacalculator.com/calculators/soil-calculator.php

About 15 metres x 15 (225m2) metres at 6cm.... half acre is abt 2000 m2 I think - so 200 tonnes might be more like it. And it will compact. You might be better off to make a feature of the rock! At least learn to love it.

chiefwiggum

Furze99 wrote: »

https://www.gigacalculator.com/calculators/soil-calculator.php

About 15 metres x 15 (225m2) metres at 6cm.... half acre is abt 2000 m2 I think - so 200 tonnes might be more like it. And it will compact. You might be better off to make a feature of the rock! At least learn to love it.

Appreciate the reply Furze99 . Yep making a feature of the Rick has been talked about. It's just its in so many random places!

chiefwiggum

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chiefwiggum

chiefwiggum wrote: »

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looksee

Can't see the rock, apart from a few boulders? What are you going to do with the area? Take out the boulders and use them to face the bank in the background.

You don't need screened top soil, except maybe as the top half-inch for lawn. My ground is extremely stony in places - its shale with a few inches of (admittedly very good) soil on top. As soon as you dig you hit stones though, anything from small stuff to boulders. Anything brick-sized and up gets moved, I live with the rest.

MacDanger

Would it be an option to scrap away a lot of the soil and plant it in wildflower?

tedimc

chiefwiggum wrote: »

was going to rotavate but the rock could break up the machine.

Have you looked into the hydraulic rotavaters? I hired one recently (200/day) and it would chew through anything. You felt the large stones hit the tines but it didn’t cause any issues. Soil was like powder after a few runs.

Re screened topsoil, that is ok price wise. I was quoted 200 for 10 tonnes. But I actually got really good non screened for 300 for 20 tonnes so went with that. I might use a couple of loads of screened on top, but I was advised to use a max of 2 inches. Above that is just wasting it.

chiefwiggum

Again lads thanks for the replies..trying to upload pics of the rocks but it's not playing ball so far

Stihl waters

You dont need topsoil, a good quality dark subsoil will do you if it's only grass you're sowing on it, any sites near you being dug out that would be looking to get rid of a few loads

chiefwiggum

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chiefwiggum

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chiefwiggum

Thats the kind of stuff I'm dealing with.. some or more jagged and are a good few inches sticking out from soil but a lot like this sheet rock

chiefwiggum

tedimc wrote: »

Have you looked into the hydraulic rotavaters? I hired one recently (200/day) and it would chew through anything. You felt the large stones hit the tines but it didn’t cause any issues. Soil was like powder after a few runs.

Re screened topsoil, that is ok price wise. I was quoted 200 for 10 tonnes. But I actually got really good non screened for 300 for 20 tonnes so went with that. I might use a couple of loads of screened on top, but I was advised to use a max of 2 inches. Above that is just wasting it.

I think it would still get broke up! I'm thinking kango hammer maybe!

chiefwiggum

MacDanger wrote: »

Would it be an option to scrap away a lot of the soil and plant it in wildflower?

I'm definitely thinking of exposing the rock as much as I can..could be left with something looking close to the Burren ..lol

magicbastarder

what do you want? a lawn? why not go for something more natural looking if not; easier to maintain in many ways.

looksee

I would think if you are only trying to make the place look a bit interesting and attractive, making a feature of the rocks would be a great idea. Reveal the rocks and get some low-growing native wild flowers growing between them - clover, self-heal, eyebright, buttercup, ox eye daisy - see what grows happily locally and encourage it. I don't like those cheap packets of 'wild flowers', they are mostly packets of 'stuff that will grow easily' with no thought of whether they are local or even 'wild'.

CelticRambler

chiefwiggum wrote: »

We have about a half to two thirds of an acre of rough land beside our house..it messy looking and want to do something with it this year to 1 clean it up and 2 make it more maintainable with the tractor mower.

I'd love a rocky garden like that! As it is, I have to scour the neighbour's fields after ploughing in the hope that he'll have lifted up some decent sized lumps of stone!

In your situation, I would ask someone with a drone to take a good quality still image of the site, with a few reference markers placed on selected outcrops. Then I'd sit down with the photo some evening and design a twisted but mowable path through and around the whole area.

I've done something similar with part of my own land, where I wanted to keep a load of self-sown oaks (and a few other species) unharmed but have the space relatively tidy and easy to maintain. That area turned out really well, and it's actually great fun driving the route on the mower (doubles up as a time-trial circuit when visitors start complaining that there's nothing to do in the countryside! :pac: ) so I'm doing the same again in another corner now, and along the boundary that joins the two.

The Continental Op

I'm not convinced there is anything other than a few boulders in that land.

Just get a local guy with a JCB to work the field down to about 6 inches deep with the back hoe and put any large rocks in a pile at one end of the site with a view to having a large grass area with some form of rock garden in another.

chiefwiggum

The Continental Op wrote: »

I'm not convinced there is anything other than a few boulders in that land.

Just get a local guy with a JCB to work the field down to about 6 inches deep with the back hoe and put any large rocks in a pile at one end of the site with a view to having a large grass area with some form of rock garden in another.

That is exactly what was done ..local guy with a jcb. When the house was built we had a rock breaker here for ages breaking out the foundations ..the rock is substantial.

chiefwiggum

CelticRambler wrote: »

I'd love a rocky garden like that! As it is, I have to scour the neighbour's fields after ploughing in the hope that he'll have lifted up some decent sized lumps of stone!

In your situation, I would ask someone with a drone to take a good quality still image of the site, with a few reference markers placed on selected outcrops. Then I'd sit down with the photo some evening and design a twisted but mowable path through and around the whole area.

I've done something similar with part of my own land, where I wanted to keep a load of self-sown oaks (and a few other species) unharmed but have the space relatively tidy and easy to maintain. That area turned out really well, and it's actually great fun driving the route on the mower (doubles up as a time-trial circuit when visitors start complaining that there's nothing to do in the countryside! :pac: ) so I'm doing the same again in another corner now, and along the boundary that joins the two.

Very interesting post.thanks. yes that could work alright !..will just take just take bit of planning .. Next step is to expose the rock!

The Continental Op

chiefwiggum wrote: »

That is exactly what was done ..local guy with a jcb. When the house was built we had a rock breaker here for ages breaking out the foundations ..the rock is substantial.

So those chunks of stone we can see on the surface are iceberg like rocks underneath the surface? I'd get the guy back and work the ground over again it looks to me that he's just scabbed off all the soil you did had along with the rough grass and dumped it all. If thats the case get a different contractor.

CelticRambler

chiefwiggum wrote: »

Very interesting post.thanks. yes that could work alright !..will just take just take bit of planning .. Next step is to expose the rock!

Next step is to find the rock! Or rather: find the gullies between the rock. Get hold of a 2m crowbar or other long pokery type thing and go over and back across the site, probing it (like they do when looking for bodies ... ) to see where the soil is deeper/rock is closer to the surface. Mark as you go with coloured ribbon or milk bottle tops or whatever's cheap and available.

If you take your time over it, and define the spaces where you want (and can have) grass/soil/deep beds, the rocky bits will probably become exposed through natural processes. You can certainly give Nature a hand, if she's being a bit slow and you want to make a feature of one particular point, but the overall effect will be better - and easier to maintain - if you don't rush things too much.

chiefwiggum

CelticRambler wrote: »

Next step is to find the rock! Or rather: find the gullies between the rock. Get hold of a 2m crowbar or other long pokery type thing and go over and back across the site, probing it (like they do when looking for bodies ... ) to see where the soil is deeper/rock is closer to the surface. Mark as you go with coloured ribbon or milk bottle tops or whatever's cheap and available.

If you take your time over it, and define the spaces where you want (and can have) grass/soil/deep beds, the rocky bits will probably become exposed through natural processes. You can certainly give Nature a hand, if she's being a bit slow and you want to make a feature of one particular point, but the overall effect will be better - and easier to maintain - if you don't rush things too much.

Yeah it's certainly going to be a whole summers work tipping away at it ..but at least a plan is coming together
Thanks for the input lads