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Background:

We have a wooded lot. It is a little under three acres with probably close to a thousand trees on it. It is on the side of a hill thus a large portion has a 4-to-7-degree slope.

We are currently mowing it with a Cub Cadet LT2138 lawn tractor, which has a 38-inch deck. It is taking over six hours plus string trimming. There are many places where anything wider than the 38-inch deck would not go and we would end up with even more trimming. If the deck were a little smaller, more of it could be mowed leaving less to trim. I had to put lugged rear tires, like real tractor tires, on the cub to handle the wet conditions without getting stuck. The turf tires just didn’t do it.

Our yard is not your typical manicured suburban yard. It is full of trees and fairly ruff. See picture.

I was looking at the small zero-turn mowers from Toro and Hustler as those are the only ones I have found offering a deck of 38” or less.

Questions:

• Is a 7-degree slope too much of a slope for a zero-turn? In many sections of the yard, you are going up the hill while also going along the side of the hill.
• Due to the constant supply of small sticks and black walnuts, I’m sharping the blades after each mowing. Totally clearing the yard of all sticks and nuts is just not possible! How hard is it to remove and sharpen the blades?
• Parts of the yard are almost always wet. Will I be able to replace the rear tires with something with a more aggressive tread than the standard turf tire?
• Will a zero-turn get close enough to the trees that I might not need to use the string trimmer?
• Do the blade spindles and other deck shafts on these smaller mowers have grease zerks?

What about a front mount Walker ZT. Might be worth a look! Lots of features.

You’ve got a real headache there. I doubt a Z-turn will save you much time. Depending On you budget, have you considered a stand on mower. Would definitely allow you to get closer to the trees and cut down your mowing time.

bkeller500 said:

What about a front mount Walker ZT. Might be worth a look! Lots of features.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. I will look into them.

I am not far from your situation as I have 4 acres and way more than a thousand trees. I ended up with a ZT mower and a small utility tractor with a front end loader and several other attachments. It's a Kioti with a 3 cylinder diesel all hydrostatic and 4 wheel drive which means it's a dream to drive and my wife can operate it all without any effort. 3 point hydraulic hitch on back with rear and mid mount PTO's. Locking rear differential too.

I know it's more money but I did not understand how much work these small tractor's can do. 12 yards of mulch, 8 yards of top soil done with way less effort and so much quicker. Moving fire wood/debris because if you have a thousand trees you WILL have some dead ones to remove and clean up!

I will say with how your trees are situated that a smaller deck on the ZT might be called for? Or a standing model as suggested above. I just have never used or owned a standing model so have no experience with them. My trees are all mainly in a forest. So the few trees scattered around my lawn area are not that bad especially with a ZT. That thing just flies!

Just something to consider?
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Maybe consider having some of those trees removed, thus allowing for more room to actually get a ZT mower (or any other type of mower for that matter) with a large enough deck (like 60"-80") to not only cut the property but also to allow less time cutting?

Yes at first it would be a bit time consuming and maybe a bit of $ having to remove some of those trees but in the long run, it'll make cutting that 4 acre property so much easier and less time consuming.

Last.....invest in a good quality ZT commercial mower with the ability to handle slopes.

If you were to do those things, it would definitely make life a lot better, for you.

Your choice.

Just my $0.02

Why on earth do you want to grow grass that you have to mow regularly with such a beautiful block of forest ?
Make some paths through it where you would usually walk by spraying with round up ( or similar ) and spreading wood chips / river pebbles etc then seed the rest with wildflowers and let nature do all the hard work

Mr. Mower said:

Maybe consider having some of those trees removed, thus allowing for more room to actually get a ZT mower (or any other type of mower for that matter) with a large enough deck (like 60"-80") to not only cut the properly but also to allow less time cutting?

Yes at first it would be a bit time consuming and maybe a bit of $ having to remove some of those trees but in the long run, it'll make cutting that 4 acre property so much easier and less time consuming.

Last.....invest in a good quality ZT commercial mower with the ability to handle slopes.

If you were to do those things, it would definitely make life a lot better, for you.

Your choice.

Just my $0.02

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Click to expand...

We bought the lot because of the trees!

bertsmobile1 said:

Why on earth do you want to grow grass that you have to mow regularly with such a beautiful block of forest ?
Make some paths through it where you would usually walk by spraying with round up ( or similar ) and spreading wood chips / river pebbles etc then seed the rest with wildflowers and let nature do all the hard work

Click to expand...

We have to mow it to keep the weed under control. It is just dark enough to limit what will grow. Also a lot of the trees are walnuts, which does not like to share their space. Have you ever delt with black snake root? It comes small burrs which will cover you and the dog.

No
But in nature those trees are highly unlikely to have had grass growing around them
Have a long chat to native plant nurseries otherwise you have just made a whip for your own back .
My patch here is mostly hobby farms on plots of 1 through to 50 acres bought by city people who want to "live the country dream"
Just about to the last one they cut out all of the scrub, spend a fortune on getting grass to grow then it becomes a mill stone around their neck and all they ever do is mow it
Some have had a think about some of my suggestion & planted out the excess grass with shrubs again and have never stopped thanking me for pointing them down that path .
Grass is the highest maintenance thing you can put in your yard .
But once they got herbs , bulbs & native wild flowers re-established the yards actually look after themselves
Around close trees we have a prostrate grevillia that will actually grow thick enough to crowd out most grasses and requires near zero maintenance
Depending upon just

I agree with the post to keep it natural, let Mother Nature maintain it. My ancestors moved into the Appalachian Mountains in the 1830s and we are still here living among the trees. A forester suggested I remove several trees and in five years I would have more shade with healthier trees. He was right! I am no expert but I do suspect you have too many trees to maintain a healthy crop. A good forester could mark what trees to remove to maintain a healthier forest, with fewer trees to trim around, and have more shade. Also, you can mow the weeds/leaves and it should look as good as grass without all the expense of grass. Good luck and remember to maintain it to make you happy, not others.

Yes,
I was not going to comment about the density as I am not familiar with US forests.
If that was a local forest then all of the thin trees , if they are the regrowth would be cut down.
I have two forests near the workshop .
Neither get touched
One is more open & the cattle maintain it ( care is required when you walk through it )
The other is totally closed so I made the effort to find out what would grow in the low light and have lots of fragrent herbs & native wild flowers in there
Most Aust wild flowers have tiny flowers and make poor household garden flowers but when viewed in madd from a distance are spectacular .
This forest is 100% self maintaining apart from the odd rabbit, fox or wombat.
During the drought the kangaroos & wallabies did come in and graze on the natives but mostly left the exotics alone.
You can work with nature and enjoy our forest or work against it and become a slave to your forest

Is the property fenced?
You might think I’m crazy but, have you thought about sheep or goats? You would have to worry about them getting into any of your plantings.

RLW_LT2138 said:

We bought the lot because of the trees!

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Uh....OK.....I can understand that.....but you also bought the problem of cutting the grass along with it.

I like trees as well and have planted a few on my property but always thinking ahead and never to allow them to interfere with me cutting my lawn (I live on over an acre).

I didn't say "remove all of those trees".....just a select few.

If you can live without some of those trees....then like what was previously mentioned....have some of them removed in order to allow proper cutting with a ZT mower.