What to do with 3 acre field with house in middle?

[Core]

My title sucked, but it's the best I could come up with.

We're very close to putting an offer on a piece of land to build a house. The land is currently farmed. It has a very gentle rise in the middle where the house would go, By gentle I mean the 3 acre field is a couple hundred feet wide and maybe 500 feet deep and rises from the edges to the middle by about 8'.

I plan on having maybe 1/4-1/2 acre around it seeded so that we have that as permanent lawn. For the other 2.5 acres I don't know what to do.

1) If I leave this field, will it start to erode? I assume that weeds will just run wild and keep the land in good shape--then I can just pay somebody on craigslist to rough mow it down 1-2 times/year and just let snakes, rabbits, whatever grow as they will--basically the same as I've seen fields look at some of the public land around here with knee high grass, flowers, whatever

2) Is this field going to absolutely brutalize my yard with untold, insane amounts of weeds, and overtake it and just be unrealistic to keep the decent lawn in the middle of wild field?

The obvious thing here is to seed 3 acres with cheap seed but I don't know how much that costs, plus I don't have a ride on mower, plus this house is already crushingly expensive and I just can't afford to spend more money on non-essentials.

Thanks for feedback

[BizCT]

Massive inground pool?

Big fenced in garden?

Baseball field for your kids (if you have any), or basketball court?

Putting green and chipping area if you are into golf.


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[kpkot]

Astroturf the whole thing 

[Nomad]

Id need to see the layout . If the house is in the middle of 3 acres , you're going to need more then 1/4 acrage of grass just to do from  the road to house .

That said my father in law like many farmers have sold off building lots, there  are tons of " yards" that boarder crop fields , over grown scrub fields and so on.

They basically go right from one to the other . 

You can find a local to cut the scrub a few times a year for cheap 

[Buckmaster7600]

Spray it in the fall. Ph test the soil give it what it needs in the spring and plant a regular hay seed "very cheep" a few days before a rain. Wait a week spread fertilizer and watch grow. Keep it mowed a few times a year and you won't have to worry about weeds.


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[Core]

House is in the middle of the field, or close to it, about 250' back.

What does "lawn grade" seed run per acre if I pay somebody to seed it?

As for the idea of cheap hay seed that sounds pretty good to me. What does that run? I assume I'd need to pay somebody to come out and till and seed all in one go? And then as years go on the field will take on some other sort of disposition as various weeds gain prominence. Hoping that as long as I mow my genuine grass would remain strong.

[Buckmaster7600]

House is in the middle of the field, or close to it, about 250' back.
What does "lawn grade" seed run per acre if I pay somebody to seed it?
As for the idea of cheap hay seed that sounds pretty good to me. What does that run? I assume I'd need to pay somebody to come out and till and seed all in one go? And then as years go on the field will take on some other sort of disposition as various weeds gain prominence. Hoping that as long as I mow my genuine grass would remain strong.

Grass "lawn grade" seed can get expensive, depends on what you want. "Hay seed" is cheap I think I payed less than 10$ for a 50lb bag and for your purpose I'm sure 50lbs an acre would be close.

Prepping depends on what you have for equipment. For that little bit you can pull an old bed spring behind a pickup and get it ready enough for seed as long as you spray it first.

The key to keeping the weeds gone is keeping them mowed. After they flower is when they seed so you can't let them get to flower.


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[Doc]

My own personal opinion is that I would continue looking for a treed lot, but that is just my own personal preferences. I often see these great houses stuck in the middle of a barren farm field with all kinds of expensive little whips for trees that the homeowner will never get to see all grown up into shade trees. Are there other reasons why you are choosing such a barren lot?

You asked about erosion control. Is the lot sloped a lot so that you have to worry about such things?

[chas0218]

Is this 3 acres a part of a larger chunk you're buying? My grandparents have a 5 acre front yard and mow close to 9 total. If you want all grass see what it would cost to hydro seed probably a lot cheaper than buying bags and you spreading it. Usually you can buy bulk seed but it usually has a lot of weed seeds. Pennington usually is the best seed to use but pricey.

[Core]

Thanks, guys.

I'm looking at as much as 3 acres of a 7 total lot. So this particular lot has a few acres barren, but then is surrounded on two sides by mature, grown trees. Only one side is currently open to the rest of the farm. I'm not delusional about how quickly new trees would grow to a decent height on that one side.

The lot is not badly sloped. Perhaps 6' over 130 feet at the worst, and probably less than that.

I would like if more of the lot had trees, but it's not possible. When i say there are no lots in this school system, I mean it. Literally just one treed lot in the entire town right now, and it's so misshapen as to be of almost no value (hence reason it cannot sell for years now). This lot I'm considering is only available because I happened to find one of the low number of land owners willing to sell me a portion of his land.

 

[Core]

2 hours ago, chas0218 said:

Is this 3 acres a part of a larger chunk you're buying? My grandparents have a 5 acre front yard and mow close to 9 total. If you want all grass see what it would cost to hydro seed probably a lot cheaper than buying bags and you spreading it. Usually you can buy bulk seed but it usually has a lot of weed seeds. Pennington usually is the best seed to use but pricey.

Hydroseed looks like it could be maybe as much as $4k/acre, which is too much for me for this. I wonder if I could find somebody to just do the approach Buckmaster mentions. I'm okay with rough field type looking grass I suppose.

[Gencountyzeek]

Our last house we had built, it was on 7.5 acres of field and brush. I cleared about 2.5 acres of it and just started mowing what was there. Every year I would buy some grass seed and spread it. We were there for 7 years, and it looked like a nice lawn when we moved. U can take ur time with it if needed.

[growalot]

Quote

Is this field going to absolutely brutalize my yard with untold, insane amounts of weeds, and overtake it and just be unrealistic to keep the decent lawn in the middle of wild field?

Only if you dont work at it...lawns take a lot of work...personally I prefer a really nice low growing clover lawn like a dutch white clover... ... and pick your trees carefully and you could have a nice shaded lawn and with set backs for bow..hunting when "mama" and the kids aren't looking look into planting your Dunstun chestnuts and some nice semi-dwarf apples ,pears.cherries now...get a hedge of blue berries in...just don't lime that area...BTW dutch clover does well on acidic soils...

[ATbuckhunter]

If you can, id plant some fruit trees, grapes, berries and some vegetables. I don't like to have too much land in grass as I find it to be a waste when I could be utilizing it for food. Tree's and grape vines would be the easiest as you only have to prune once a year and then do nothing after that. 

[growalot]

Grape vines make great yard border fence lines...If not along an ag field being sprayed with glysophate or such controls same with berry bushes and patches...like black/red raspberries that need a support.

[thphtm]

Also think about planting a safe haven for the animals plant a good amount of white pine and hamlock's 10 ' to 15' apart . Sorry I did not do that 10 years ago, They love to hang out under them this time of the year.

[chas0218]

2 hours ago, Core said:

Hydroseed looks like it could be maybe as much as $4k/acre, which is too much for me for this. I wonder if I could find somebody to just do the approach Buckmaster mentions. I'm okay with rough field type looking grass I suppose.

If you plant to grass seed and every year go over with more seed you will have a nice lush yard but it might take a few years. I think if it were me I would plant it to timothy grass or pasture mix. You're looking at about 1000lbs. of grass seed for fescue, Kentucky bluegrass mix for that 3 acres as new yard.

Edited February 3, 2017 by chas0218

[grampy]

I know money is tight. But look for a gently used riding mower. At least a 42 inch cut. It will save you so much time and sweat! On our lake property, we started out cutting about three acres. Every year I cut more into the meadow to expand the yard. It was field grass but looked great from the road after cutting! Like Gencountyzeek said, buy a bag or two of seed each spring. And go over where the field grass was cut the previous year. By the time I was done over the years, I was cutting seven plus acres! And needed a bigger mower........ The lawn wouldn't win any awards but looked nice, was functional for leisure and didn't cost me thousands. Best of luck and congratulations on your new property!.

[thphtm]

Plant plenty of clover with the other grass seeds. I did and the deer are on my property just about every day munching on it , they even scrape the snow off to get at it.

This is a good time of the year to put clover seed down.

Edited February 3, 2017 by thphtm

[Doc]

1 hour ago, grampy said:

I know money is tight. But look for a gently used riding mower. At least a 42 inch cut. It will save you so much time and sweat! On our lake property, we started out cutting about three acres. Every year I cut more into the meadow to expand the yard. It was field grass but looked great from the road after cutting! Like Gencountyzeek said, buy a bag or two of seed each spring. And go over where the field grass was cut the previous year. By the time I was done over the years, I was cutting seven plus acres! And needed a bigger mower........ The lawn wouldn't win any awards but looked nice, was functional for leisure and didn't cost me thousands. Best of luck and congratulations on your new property!.

All the grass in my lawn is natural from simply mowing. I can't tell you what the particular variety is, but I can say that after a few seasons of mowing what used to be a wheat filed back when I was just knee-high to a grasshopper. The wild grasses, and goldenrod gradually gave way to a very hearty grass, and all broadleafs died out with the continual weekly mowing. Over the years, I have seeded the more stubborn areas with whatever cheap, cheap, grass seed that I could find on sale (price so low it was damned near free). No fertilizer, no supplements at all except for hand broadcasted cheap seed.

Driving around the suburbs, I see a lot more lush lawns with a more even color and thickness, but I really do like the cost of my lawn, and it really looks quite managed. So areas outside your main lawn, you may want to think about just mowing it until it turns into all grass. But you will have to invest in a rider, even if it is used.

[Core]

19 hours ago, growalot said:

Only if you dont work at it...lawns take a lot of work...personally I prefer a really nice low growing clover lawn like a dutch white clover... ... and pick your trees carefully and you could have a nice shaded lawn and with set backs for bow..hunting when "mama" and the kids aren't looking look into planting your Dunstun chestnuts and some nice semi-dwarf apples ,pears.cherries now...get a hedge of blue berries in...just don't lime that area...BTW dutch clover does well on acidic soils...

Believe me, the tree stand is already placed in my mind (in fact, it will go where the existing one is--somebody had one there already).

Going to make a final offer today and hope the landowner hasn't had second thoughts since  This property's neighbor is a house with 20 acres of trees, which is another reason I want the property. I should have pretty good privacy long-term.

I also DO like the idea of fruit trees, absolutely I think some apple trees would be great. Deer also like them!

I think if it were me I would plant it to timothy grass or pasture mix.

Nice! I talked to a co-worker who has 4 acres and he said do this, too. Timothy was cheap.

If I can't get the land owner to drop the price at all I may ask him to do this as part of the deal. Costs him way less than it would me, given I'm a city boy with a push mower at this stage.

You've all allayed my fears that I'll be forced to drop big money on hydroseed. I'll definitely go the cheaper route and if I have to drop any serious money it will be into a mower (which I'd need anyway).

[Jeremy K]

The obvious choice is a motocross track ,after that I'm out of ideas. 

EDIT: I had one more idea , I always planned to have spots in my next yard that have designated 3D targets . I'm thinking small somewhat landscaped islands scattered around at various distances that I can shoot at from the back of the house . Have some buddies over ,cook on the grill ,drink some soda and take turns shooting.

Edited February 4, 2017 by Jeremy K

[stubborn1VT]

Lots of good suggestions.  We planted what was locally called "conservation mix" for hay.  Timothy, fescue, clover, and orchard grass.  It makes nice hay, and if it's mowed weekly, makes a decent lawn.  I'm sure you could find something like it pre-mixed from an Ag/seed store.  

Doc is right.  Most plants, other than grass, won't stand up to weekly mowing.  

I'm all for Dutch clover as a lawn.  It won't get tall, handles any amount of mowing, keeps blossoming for the bees, and deer like it.  Not real expensive either.  

Good luck with getting the deal done.  Then the fun starts!

[Core]

1 hour ago, Jeremy K said:

The obvious choice is a motocross track ,after that I'm out of ideas. 

EDIT: I had one more idea , I always planned to have spots in my next yard that have designated 3D targets . I'm thinking small somewhat landscaped islands scattered around at various distances that I can shoot at from the back of the house . Have some buddies over ,cook on the grill ,drink some soda and take turns shooting.

This is one thing I hate about my current house. I can't even shoot my bow. I am not buying a house just to be able to (I could lease incredible and at the mortgage diff between what I have now and future), but it's one example of how I feel "trapped" in my current home in the suburbs. That does sound awesome. I want an adjustable target on a motorized clothesline so I can stand on the deck and not even bother walking

[Steve D]

Bite the bullet and build a pole barn to keep your "new" rider mower or zero-turn in. With any house it is going to be "pay me now or pay me later" Might as well start off on the right foot. With your spare time you can look for a better job for the wife