OK. So, within the next several weeks, I’m due to close on a house that’s on a wee bit more then 4 acres. My reason for purchasing a place on a lot that big was so that Metadog, and any future Metadogs, would have lots 'o room to run around. After I get around to fencing it (which may take a while).
For the most part, it isn’t really landscaped. The previous owner kept the brush mowed, and tried to plant around the foundation, but that’s about it. It doesn’t look like there’s a lawn, and there’s segments that look like they’ve never even been worked (lots of rocks). The deed restrictions say that I have to keep the grass and weeds cut in a “healthfull, sanitary, and attractive” manner (I’m not in city limits, so no other ordinances to worry about).
So. What on earth are my options (and the pros and cons thereof) for keeping the grass and weeds less then, say, 8 inches in height? Riding mower? Industrial weed wacker? ATV dragging some kind of mower? Livestock (I can have up to 2 head)?
I’m moving from a small’ish apartment, so this is gonna be new to me: Any advice would be appreciated…
Livestock is a poor choice. They have to eat in the winter, when grass isn’t growing, and there’s no way to make any money off two head of anything. Not worth the trouble, and they usually don’t like weeds and brush anyway.
If it’s not too rough, a riding lawnmower will work. Maybe some combination of riding lawnmower, herbicides, and a good weed-wacker.
Are you in a farming area? A neighbor with a tractor and brush cutter will probably be willing to cut your place once or twice a year for a reasonable fee. That should be enough, and you won’t have to tie big bucks up in power equipment.
Unsolicited tip: When you build that fence, put at least two 16-foot gates in at convenient places. You’ll need them over time.
Do you need to keep all four acres shorter than 8 inches? Or do you need to keep some smaller area near the house trimmed? If you can let the back of the property grow, I’d suggest just mowing around the house.
If it is really rocky, you are going to want to use a brushhog rather than a lawn mower. For two or three mowings a year, I’d look into renting one rather than spending over $1,000 to buy one.
If by “rocky” you simply mean that there are 1 1/2 inch stones buried in the soil, but the land is mostly flat, buy a used riding movwer and run it at the highest setting every couple of weeks.
Sharky is right that goats are good for keeping down brush, (and in Texas, you might be able to leave them out almost all year). However, goats are not that good at keeping down grass and you would need to address the fence issue immediately. (To keep them healthy, you also need to trim their feet several times a year, treat them for mites in the spring, provide shelter from ice storms and blizzards, provide shade in the summer (while not letting them eat the shade if it is young).
They continue to need fresh water even if you are gone for a couple of days.
In short, goats are great if you are looking to get into animal husbandry, but they are way too much work for lawn maintenance.
Your other option is to look into clearing the land and re-seeding it with a ground cover that simply stops growing before it reaches 8 inches.
John Carter of Mars, your advice about the gates, though unsolicited, is appreciated. This is definitely new ground for me (no pun intended). 16 feet is wider then I’d planned, but it makes sense to err on the side of too wide. But why two gates that big? I have about 450 feet of frontage, and there’s a ditch between the front of the property and the road. Only the driveway is currently set up to pass over the ditch. Could I get by with 1 big gate and a smaller gate, or is there a specific reason for two big gates?
Sharky, ironically, pygmy goats may be a more viable option then “real” goats, if they’re classified as pets. The only animal restrictions are on “livestock,” and if pygmy goats are more considered pets (like them little pot-bellied pigs), then they wouldn’t be restricted.
tomndebb, the property does have one outbuilding–a 25 x 25 foot steel building. It has a human-sized door, a vehicle-sized roll-up door, and a (very rough and uneven) concrete slab. No electricity or water yet, though. I don’t know how useful it would be with livestock? I certainly don’t have anything I can use it for, at the moment. I did think about goats a little bit, but I read that they preferred shrubs and such to grasses and weeds? I could almost certainly have more then two. The livestock restriction is only enforceable by the other owners in the subdivision (~10 househoulds, IIRC), and, judging by the number of horses, the others don’t seem to pay too much heed to that restriction…
I’m thinking a riding mower would probably roll over it all OK. The current owner has a full-blown tractor that tows a mowing thingy, but the property is pretty flat, and the rocks are relatively flat too. Kinda like big (1’ in diameter at the largest) pancakes that don’t stick up much. I didn’t see many that wouldn’t fit in a wheelbarrow. The back of the house was relatively clear of rocks–judging from the ruts along the current fenceline (3-strand barbwire, inadequate for dogs, unfortunately) and the piles of fertilizer left behind, the back was used for a horse at one point.
But, if I intended to keep the land rather rough, would a mower work? They seem more like they’re designed for lawns and their relatively low height. I’m guessing that maintaining the property at lawn-height would involve, at a minimum, several hours every couple of weeks? Given the ambiguity of the deed restrictions and the lack of an entity (homeowners assocation) to enforce, I could probably get away with quite a bit higher. It’d have to be so bad the the neighbors would sue, although I would obviously like to avoid it every coming close to that…
Goats. Blech. Nasty things. I vote against goats. Talk to the neighbours. Ask what the expectations really amount to, how they keep their places trimmed, if you could borrow their mowing equipment in exchange for a case of beer now and then, etc.
Forget the goats – nasty, smelly beasts, forget sheep – no such thing as a sick sheep, get a burro. A donkey ought to be readily available somewhere around you. They require minimal care, will winter on a little hay and will do an admirable job of keeping grass weeds and brush under control. It will need fresh water but a small stock tank will do the job nicely. Believe it or not, Rubbermade ™ makes a good line of nearly indestructible small stock tanks. A couple of goldfish will keep the water clear.
Looks out window across the cattle and horse farm he’s owned for lo these many years
No more tax advantage than any other business, except in farming you are required to show a profit two of every five years or the IRS will declare it a “Hobby Farm” and you’ll owe lots of back taxes.
Not esential, certainly, but I’ve found it to be a good thing to have a wide gate on at least two sides of any property that’s fenced. If you ever (and that’s a long time) have need for a large truck to come in from the back or side, it’s much better to have a gate than to tear out fencing.
Gatopescado may be talking about how the property is taxed. We have 40 unimproved acres that we have a grazing lease on. It keeps the property zoned agricultural, which is WAY lower than unimproved property. (saves us about $1500 a year).
I doubt though, in Metacom’s case, some goats are going to change anything re: taxes. And if anything they would become a burden.
I like the second suggestion (John Carter of Mars). I grew up on 5 acres and mowed it with a 1940 Ford farm tractor with a 5’ weed cutter behind it. If you’re out in the sticks, a neighbor may be able to help once in a while, while you keep the area around your house clear with a small riding mower or brush hog.
I would highly advise getting a tractor of some sort. We picked up ours with all the attachments that give grown men hard ons for about 6k, 11 years ago and we were very , very luck to score a mostly brand new 10 year old tractor at that price. Oddly enough, it is now considered an antique according to the local tractor dealership and it is only 20 years old. All it really needs is a bucket for some fun dirt pushing.
But, you will need to know the basics in mechanical repair and how to drive a stick. (And a floppy hat for sun protection and something over the nose to keep the pollen from clogging up the schnoz and ear plugs to protect your hearing.)
A regular riding lawnmower (not an Ex-Mark or similar professional mower)will not be enough power to keep 10 acres mowed and you will go through blades ($$$) like water. A tractor is for a manly man. Trust me on this. We are the only family on our block with a tractor. Tractor envy and penis envy are interchangeable. You can probably hire a farmer to come and do the first mowing with a brush hog. Expect to pay $200-300 for his time which will reimburse him for his gas and getting his blades sharpened, but it will be worth it.
You probably won’t need to keep the entire acreage groomed as with gas prices so high and you having a job and life and it takes a good 6 hours or more the first time you mow it down. ( It took me over 10 hours total, but the weeds were higher than our truck cab and the filter on the tractor had to be cleaned with every pass because of all the pollen and junk.) After that, if groomed regularly, probably 5 hours, depending on your equipment. Maybe just making a trail/maze through the weeds for friends, the dogs and yourself for nature walks. Don’t forget the bug spray.
I highly recommend turning the unused portion into a wild flower meadow. Mow it down, get a farmer to rototill it all up and about $500 worth of perennial and annual and biannual seeds mixed in sand and put in a seed spreader, you can have something really beautiful to look at for years to come with very little maintence. It will bring on butterflies and birdies too. Adding a couple of good sized sapling trees every year will only enhance it’s beauty and visual appeal. Another plus is that your wife will have purty flowers all season long for the table.
We have never really successfully planted grass seed because of an incline and clay soil. The base of the incline is beautifully grassy. We just keep the weeds trimmed short.
My uncle had a Gravely with a sickle bar to maintain the paths on his hilly, wooded place. That thing would cheerfully go up and down hills while mowing, and it would lop off sapling trees without coughing. You can get a little stand-up sulky to pull you behind it, but on rough ground, it will spit you off the sulky. They sell a variety of mowers, rototillers, and snowblowers that bolt right on.
Some friends of mine with small acreage have a farmer grow corn or soybeans on part of it. It brings in a little money, and they don’t have to mow that part.
Not knowing the Dallas area’s natural growth conditions well, would it make sense to make part of the area wooded, putting in some trees and scattering seeds for others that would likely grow in the area. Maintenance of the “floor” of even a relatively open wooded area is fairly simple. (I know we’re not talking a lot of land here, but it would seem to me that an acre or so of wooded area would be a benefit to your property’s value, as well as being aesthetically pleasing.)
Yeah, this is gonna be the big variable. Given that there were some deed violations on the adjacent properties (extra livestock, signs advertising businesses, etc.), I don’t think the maintenance requirements are going to be all that rigorous, but it’ll be interesting to see what they say.
I certainly hadn’t thought of a burro. And there’s no way I’d ever consider sheep–even if they were cheap, organic lawn-mowers there’s no way I, a single man, would own one. The jokes from friends and co-workers would never, ever end. But, realistically, any livestock is gonna have to wait a while. It’s gonna take me a while to replace the current barbed wire fence with something more appropriate.
enipla and Shirley Ujest, the tractor advice is appreciated. It’d probably have to be used (although I was surprised that the one enipla linked to was $6k–that seems abnormally cheap. Does that brand have any kind of reputation?) and would probably have to wait a while. Given that it’s my first house, I anticipate hemmoraghing money, and spending $6k+ on a tractor and a mower might be a bit much… I’m thinking I’ll try the “pay a neighbor or farmer” a few times a year route, at least until I have something of my own…
Hunter Hawk, those are very interesting. The list price on the “Pro G” series seems pretty reasonable, and they claim 3.4 acres per hour. I’ll certainly keep those in mind–I’d never thought to look at a big walk-behind (actually, they say it can go 7 mph, so it’d be more like a run-behind…)
Polycarp, it certainly wood make sense to make part of the area wooded. The house is set back about 160’ from the road, and there won’t be a single plant higher then 1’ on the property when I take posession. I’ve thought of temporarily putting in some quick-growing trash along the front of the property for privacy (Leyland Cypress) and then putting some nicer (but much slower growing) stuff in behind that. I found a list of recommended species from the country agricultural extension, and some of them are carried by a bulk bare-roots nursery I found. So this would actually be relatively inexpensive…
While y’all are here:
Any advice on fencing? I’m currently leaning towards 4’ woven wire (specifically, this) topped with 4 strands of electric high-tensile spaced 6" apart, and an additional hot wire set out near the bottom to discourage digging. I’ve thought of making the top strand the broad ribbon type stuff sold for horce fences, to make it more visible. I’ve found “local” (for some value of “local”) places that carry what I need, including big treated round posts (although they’re all CCA treated–not sure if I can get them delivered to a “residential” area ).
It needs to be able to physically contain large, high-jumping athletic dogs (and the puppies thereof) and, at a minimum horses. I don’t plan on having any, but I think that would be good for resale value, given that most people come to this area to own horses. And, of course, price is an enormous consideration.
My opinion is that your described fence is (expensive) overkill. I wouldn’t go electric for just horses and dogs. Lots of additional expense for rather little return. The pagewire all by itself should be sufficient if you keep it low to the ground so the dogs can’t crawl under it, maybe one strand of wire a foot above it if you really feel you need something higher. A hot wire low to the ground poses a difficulty in that it will tend to be in contact with weeds, grass, shrubs, etc, which will partially ground it. In addition, unless you were starting the pagewire up a ways with the hot wire beneath it, you’d have to use some sort of standoff insulators to keep it from touching the pagewire.
Horses will generally stay inside even a simple 3-strand barbed wire fence. That’s not to say, of course, that a horse couldn’t get through such a fence, but that’s beside the point. Fences are psychological barriers, not physical barriers. To build a fence that a horse couldn’t get through would be prohibitively expensive.
Well… I’ve seen my dog, from a standing position, jump up a ~4’ terrace. The breed I’m in is very tall and very athletic, so I’d certainly want to go higher.
I’m not so much worried about my dogs crawling under it as possibly digging under it. I figured with the hot wire, they’d try digging once, touch the wire, and never consider trying so again. The fencing person at the supply store I spoke to suggested burrying predator wire (some kind of ultra-barbed barbed wire?) under the fence, but there’s no way I’d use that on my dogs…
The person at the supply store a spoke to (a vendor for that brand of fence) said he had just that kind of standoff, so I think I’m set there.
I’ve read that barbed wire and plain high tensile wire are frowned on by a lot of horse people. Horror stories of entaglement, degloving injuries, etc… That was my main worry.
Yeah, my dad has a similar one with a bunch of attachments–sickle bar, mower, tiller, whatever the plow thing is called, etc.–but upon poking through the Gravely web site it looks like those models aren’t made any more. I’d really like to find out if any companies are currently making the same sort of equipment.
As noted above: Mow yourself a reasonable sized lawn, and hire somebody to come in twice a year and brush-hog the rest. That will cost something like $75-100 per mow, and will definately satisfy the covenants.
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