[PIMking]

The people that owned our house before us did a terrible job with a large portion of the yard. We have about 125 yards from the front of the house to the street. There is a gravel road that goes from the street and cuts the front lawn area into two different slots. The smaller part directly in front of the house has sod put down after the tornado but the rest of the yard on the other side of the driveway leaves a lot to be desired.

There is years of old leafs, and pine needles left. I've spent hours with a dethacher (basically raking up the old leaves and such) and a yard sweeper with the riding mower. Now I have large areas of dirt...

Basically should I get a rototiller or a pull behind tiller and till the dirt, fertilize it, then seed it? Keep in mind I will be using a riding mower because this front yard area is about 300'x150' so getting a company to come in and do it wont be financially feasible.

this is what I'm working with and the bad part of the lawn













I used a dethatcher basically as a heavy duty rake at first, then tried lawn sweeper with so so results. So today I used a regular rake to get a bunch of it up. I'm almost ready to rent a small loader or skid steer and just go to town with it digging up a good few feet to mix it all up.

Our yard is split into two, the big front yard is 106' x 252' and the gravel driveway goes down east side of the big front yard and winds to the west splitting the front yards apart. The second front yard right in front of the house is sod and good conditions. here are some photos that will show you hopefully what I'm talking about.



This is kinda how the yard splits. I'm talking about the main front yard