On Fri, 04 Jun 2004 03:29:01 GMT, "Tim Fierro"
wrote:

I just moved and the back of my property is about 1/4 acre and I had to rent
a brush mower to mow it down. The grass was a combination of grass, some
blackberry bushes, holes, crevices, and bare patches in areas. It basically
looked like a field and this was the first time I was able to mow it since
moving here.

If it was level, or somewhat less bumpy, and was grass and not a bunch of
brush, I could use my mower to do the job; but I don't have that ideal lawn
and have to work with what I got. :-)

I want to get away from having to rent a brush mower to mow a field and want
to find an alternative.

What I would like is:

1) Eliminate the small patch of blackberry bushes so they do not get
overgrown again and cause problems later.

Goats.. they'll graze and browse the area. Saw the bit on the news
again about goat herds being used to control weeds and such with them.
The cities were paying a woman to graze her goats on areas that had
problems.

I don't know if you are in an area where you can do that. Don't know
if you would want any to keep any yourself, but if not, might be
someone you could get to put theirs on your land to kill off the
blackberries and keep the weeds down, and fertilize it while they do
their job of keeping the weeds down and the blackberries down.

If the goats don't graze enough, mix in some sheep.. grazers.. with
goats.. which prefer to browse.. eat bushes.. but do graze a bit. If
you're not in a big hurry, they will graze the area down quite well ..
and you can keep them in smaller areas with an electric fence so they
will work intensively on some plants you want dead. They'll keep the
grass down without you having to cut it, while you study a bit more on
how the land lies, what you can do to work with the land as it is, or
how best to move the existing dirt around to level/fill. But watch
runoff if you haven't been there in wet weather, you could make some
big mistakes if you get flash floods.. some of those areas may be
there because of periodic flash floods.

Anyway.. just a thought! ;-)

Janice

2) Level the land a bit so there is no crevices and holes on an otherwise
level piece of land.

3) Be able to use a lawnmower, or riding lawnmower, to maintain the back 1/4
acre.

4) Do not want to go overboard with putting in fertilizer, sod, new grass;
as we are not sure if we are going to build back there or not. If bringing
in some dirt and planting seed is the best option, then I can do that
though; but I didn't want the weeds/brush/blackberries to interfere with the
new growth.

First thought, not a gardener by any means, is to now clean up the grass
clippings from the brush mower work that I did today so it is somewhat
clean. Then get a rototiller, or bobcat with attachment, to till the soil.
Then have a bobcat move the dirt around to make it a bit more level. Bring
in dirt if necessary, but it wouldn't be much dirt to bring in to make it
more level and easier to maintain in the future.

But with my above idea, I have to wonder if I am only postponing the obvious
in that as soon as the freshly tilled land gets sun and water; those little
seedlings of grass/blackberries/brush/weeds/etc... will just grow again. I
want the grass, but not the other stuff. :-)

I am not sure what I should be doing with that area, but I know I don't want
to use a brush mower every time it needs mowing. I would rather go buy a
riding mower once I have something easier to cut and easier to drive on.

Can anyone offer suggestions on a direction I should go to maybe make this
area manageable?