Roto tilling

[Snyder's Lawn Inc]

Originally Posted by Smallaxe

I know this will sound strange to most people, but tilling through a "prepared seedbed" for a lawn is something that should be gotten back to... this business with LCOs using skidsters on decent topsoil lawns is really an indication that lawn prep is more lazy than professional...

Somehow there got to be a twisted view of professionalism, in that "The Toys Make The Man", rather than "The Lawn Demonstrates Excellence"... the simple concept of compaction to the extreme is secondary to Mr. Pro, driving around a 4k lawn with a skidster looking like a real scaper...

4" of good topsoil compressed onto the preexisting ground, is not remedied by 2-3" aeration plugs, even after 10 years... market excellence with the tiller,,, on lawns under 4k, it doesn't even make sense to haul a skidster on site, especially with trees or even the placement of the house, but a "Real Scaper" can't be seen using a tiller... how silly does that look to people who haven't bought in to the idea of bigger toys makes a better scaper???

So you are saying If somebody use a Skidloader in there prep work of a new Lawn They are lazy???
How do you grade a lawn with a rake and shovel
I know and seen ppl seed behind a tiller that makes a lumpy lawn
My prep stage
Run a 6ft tiller
grade it with skidloader
Final prep Run my 8ft Turf Shaper this leaves 4-6'' a light compress topsoil to seed on

[DavidsonLandscaping]

Originally Posted by Snyder's Lawn Inc

doing gardens no with a 22''-24'' tiller I have a 6ft rear tiller for a tractor now tilling gardens are worth it I have 23 jobs range is 45 to 130 size gardens are 2k to 15k Im only around my town offer this service use to have around 100 at one time but money has got tight or they bought a cheap tiller and doing it there self

Congrats on the 6ft tiller, must come in handy. But where I service, one being east boston, 4 minutes from my house, you'd be lucky to fit a trash barrel between the houses. So I think mine would work fine just didn't know how to price. Another big thing that becoming popular are roof top gardens. I don't currently service any, and I don't think I would want to either.
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[gcbailey]

if you have the right tools to do it, it can be profitable. We've always offered spring/fall garden tilling and with a scut and 48" tiller along with a 12" plow and a set of discs it's not bad at all. Usually for a 25x50 plot we can make $400+. It's a couple day process, plow and till one day, disc a couple days later, but usually a total of about 3 hours of work.

[Snyder's Lawn Inc]

Originally Posted by DavidsonLandscaping

Congrats on the 6ft tiller, must come in handy. But where I service, one being east boston, 4 minutes from my house, you'd be lucky to fit a trash barrel between the houses. So I think mine would work fine just didn't know how to price. Another big thing that becoming popular are roof top gardens. I don't currently service any, and I don't think I would want to either.
Posted via Mobile Device

Best thing I can tell you Live and Learn Price one if you make good time and make ur hour rate and extra then you have price it right If you price to cheap and takes to long you know next time to chargee more

[Smallaxe]

Originally Posted by Snyder's Lawn Inc

So you are saying If somebody use a Skidloader in there prep work of a new Lawn They are lazy???
How do you grade a lawn with a rake and shovel
I know and seen ppl seed behind a tiller that makes a lumpy lawn
My prep stage
Run a 6ft tiller
grade it with skidloader
Final prep Run my 8ft Turf Shaper this leaves 4-6'' a light compress topsoil to seed on

I just did a small lawn that had topsoil brought in and spread around and levelled with a skidster, following a major construction project... We could've just run a slit seeder over it, but it was packed down hard enough to use as a driveway...

I tilled it up and raked it smooth as I covered the seed... I didn't even walk on it because I stayed ahead of the tiller... Yes, it can be done and should be done on smaller new lawns and can be considered derelict, not to(unless its just sand of course)... Tilling is just about the most important last step, though I agree that if the area becomes too large it is no longer practical...

For the amount of money I charged the widow for that few hours of work, it wouldn't have made sense to even start up the skidster and compact the soil, before seeding... many factors play into the best way to do a job, but the professional results of a perfect lawn comes first... I don't care how much squirt&fert one dumps onto compacted soil here with the cool season grasses, the ill-effects from compaction seldom ever goes away...