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Posted: Aug/19/2007 7:37 AM PST
Hello folks. I'm new here and now in a new ( to me) home. I have plenty of backyard ( about 2 acres) and plan on doing some serious work out there. First off is getting rid of all the trees ( i still have about 40 or so to cut down) so I can start my personal garden and citrus grove. I use to live in Louisiana till Katrina removed my house from it's foundation so now i'm making a fresh start. Bought this house from the bank as a repo, so I got a deal on it, but it need much work to get it to my standards,.. including the yard which is in horrible condition. I'm concentrating on the interior so far, but have done some major clean-up work outside. The front yard does have potential with the cemi-circle driveway and the previous owners made a vague attempt at some shotty landscaping with front gardens. I plan on re-doing all that this next spring. I've cut down about 60 or so trees so far and replaced some of them with citrus trees. I plan to add more as time goes by. Only problem I'm faced with is when I bought the property I didn't know the yard was this big. The realtor that gave me all the keys and stuff AFTER i bought it told me... That's all your land!!! I was looking into buying a new lawnmower, Now i need a small tractor! I had no idea that I was buying the next 5 adjoining lots as a package deal. But now that i have them and doing some major yard clean-up I want a backyard garden to be proud to show everyone. I do plan on building a greenhouse or two. The first will hold my prized collection of plants. I now have 2 one year old Corpse Flower plants I want to pamper until they bloom into Huge flowers. I'll propably build a greenhouse around the two of them to start, then add another later for the 'common' plants. |
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Posted: Aug/19/2007 8:56 AM PST
Welcome from West Kentucky, WC! Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you. You did mention needing a tractor and I have a word of advice. Don't cheap out! When we bought our first sizable lot (almost 10 acres) we ran through 3 el-cheapo riding lawn mowers before we finally bit the bullet and got a decent sized John Deere with a mower/tiller/landscape rake/bush hog attachments. You are gonna need it! And you can add attachments as budget allows. Well, I guess it's better to be surprised by too much land instead of not enough. You are going to have fun with this. We will be standing by to hear about all your accomplishments and ready to help if we can. There are some pretty knowledgable people around here and I've gotten tons of answers. Welcome to GG!! |
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Posted: Aug/19/2007 9:05 AM PST
Welcome to GG from water-logged WI! Sounds like you have your next year's worth of chores already planned out, eh?  Our local U of WI here in Madison has a corpse flower which bloomed last summer (I think), drew quite a crowd to see/smell it...best to be on good terms with any neighbors before that blooms!  From the sound of it, this will be a really neat work-in-progress to watch develop. If you've the time and technology, post a few pics...that way we can give you suggestions without flying blind, so to speak! You'll find there are folks here who've done the same work you're getting ready to tackle, as well as folks who live in that area. Me, I've been coasting along with my gardens 'til this year, when the perennial garden decided it's done, so I've got some work coming up as well. Thanks for stopping by, see ya soon!
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Posted: Aug/19/2007 3:52 PM PST
KeeWee, I was thinking the exact same thing as far as garden tractors go. I checked out what the local Lowes and Home Depot had and wasn't happy by the price-to-power comparison. There is a John Deere dealership about 30 miles down the highway heading towards Houston i may check out. I don't need anything really big but something that has enough power and will last a while. I'm looking at a budget of around $6000 to start off with. Since i'm back working offshore and the house is paid for, will take me about 5 weeks to save for it. I'm trying to get rid of all the leftover timber from those guys that cut down most of the trees in my back yard. They cut everything down ( mostly) but only took the timber they could sell. They left the rest scattered around the yard. It's been about a month since they were cut down and nice and dry to burn. I'm sorting it out by size, putting the pieces big enough for firewood on the side to cut up later and burning the rest using the ashes as landfill way in the back where the yard dips towards the lake ( more like a canal on my end). After I get rid of all the tree-remenants and start cleaning the yard out more ( get grass to grow in place of the field grass-weeds) I want to plant about 50-100 citrus trees along the front line several feet behind the fence. I have two Ruby Red Grapefruit planted so far, so i'm off to a somewhat start. |
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Posted: Aug/19/2007 10:16 PM PST
Oh, now that sounds like you are going to have a whole lot of fun! One thing I will say, is before you really get going, get the book, 'The $64.00 Tomato' and read it, I have gone nuts in extreme small space gardening. Welcome to Gardenguides and I hope we have the pleasure of seeing before and afters as you get things going! I sure would not be wanting that much space, well, maybe...but the problem would be me getting into that $64 tomato, lol. |
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Posted: Aug/20/2007 4:48 AM PST
Thirty miles is not too far to drive for a decent tractor, and you'll be glad there's a dealership that close if you need a part ~ not that it happens that often! We've had our tractor for almost ten years and I'm not afraid to say that it cost almost three times the price you stated, but it's been worth every doggone penny!! You can nickel and dime yourself to death buying a regular rider every two years. My SIL just moved to Texas ~ somewhere near Beaumont. We hope you are not in the path of the storm! |
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Posted: Aug/20/2007 9:15 AM PST
Welcome to GG WConway! |
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Posted: Aug/21/2007 3:19 PM PST
Welcome, WConway! I don't know tractors but I know men love their John Deeres! |
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Posted: Aug/21/2007 3:55 PM PST
Hi there! We got a Cub a few years ago and while we were looking I learned the difference between a lawn mower and a garden tractor. At least one. Make sure the front is iron and not cheap flimsy metal. The John Deere dealer pointed that out and that made me stubbornly hold out against hubby's zero-turn-radius-only-good-for-cutting-grass tractors. The only thing I'm not happy with about the mower deck is they ALL seem to start rusting the first year. The old timers weren't like that. You've got a lot to do with yours so don't skimp.
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Posted: Sep/09/2007 5:30 AM PST
Welcome! My son loves tractors. |
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