Cost to till 1/6 acre

[bassmaster17327]

Someone that lives 35 miles from me wants 1/6 of an acre tilled to plant wild flowers, it is grass now and she wants it tilled and all the grass clumps raked and removed. What is a fair price to charge for that? I dont need to make a buch off of it but I don't want to work for free either

[rambler]

Would cost me a lot to travel that far, a whole lot, and not cost hardly anything to do the actual work.......

About 100 by 70 feet?

What kind of equipment do you have, I have tractor with 4 foot tiller, and a landscape rake. You experienced in working up sod, its difference than just tilling up a garden or field.

As always, random thoughts from me, take for what little they are worth.

Paul

[Yvonne's hubby]

This sounds like a time plus travel expense job to me. In my area ten bucks an hour for labor and another five per hour for my tiller, or twenty per hour for my tractor plus transportation costs. Remover to be fair..... To yourself as well as to your customer.

[bassmaster17327]

I have a Gravely Comercial 10A walk behind with a rotary plow so breaking through sod is no problem, I will have to rake it by hand

[am1too]

I would say a $100 for a day of labor, broken only for a half day. IOW 6 hours still gets the 100 smalers. In addition charge the fuel and rental cost for any comparable machine ie a walk behind tiller.

I do not think you could guarantee grass removal in one day for that amount of surface.

[uncle Will in In.]

Sp-ray it with Roundup. Let her make little cracks for the seed, and it would already be mulched to improve weed control and retain moisture.

[unregistered41671]

A no till grain drill might be best for a job like this.

[Lazy J]

I'd charge her at least $65/hour for the tilling work.

[Ozarks Tom]

That Gravely is one heck of a machine, I've had 2 over the years, and wish I still had one. I used them for everything from plowing to planting trees to burying cable.

I'd charge $25 per hour including travel time for the tilling, and $15 per hour for the raking. That ought to cover your muscle relaxers and chiropractor.

[fatrat]

I wouldn't till it at all and I certainly wouldn't waste my time raking out the old weeds and grass. It sounds to me like they are nuts. That ground has 50 years worth of dormant weed seeds in it already. Wildflowers are weeds. I'd just broadcast the wildflower seed and leave it. They will grow just fine. That's why they are called "wild flowers". You might as well call them weed flowers. If you till it you will still have all the weeds you had before. Tilling it would just be a huge waste of time, fuel and money. Tell them to just scatter the weed flower seeds and forget it. They will grow.