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Writer's pictureGreg Harris

Repairing Wild Hog Turf Damage Can Be Time Sensitive

Updated: Jul 6, 2021

The Hog Damage


You wake up early one morning to catch the sunrise in the back porch of your country home estate. You grab your cup of joe and an article to read while relaxing on the back porch rocking in your favorite chair and look out over your yard and noticed something isn't right. As the sun begins to rise you don't pay attention cuz you're trying to figure out why your backyard looks like you hired the farmer down the street to run his disc harrow through your yard.



Hog Damage | Harris Establishment

Upon further inspection you notice what appears to be wild hog tracks around and you draw the conclusion that feral hogs have torn up your beautiful property. Of course they didn't seem to care where when or how they did it, your yard is now a wreck.


No worries, you think to yourself, time will heal all things including my backyard. You decide to give it a few weeks but grass doesn't seem to want to grow back. You decide to brave the terrain and take your Craftsman mower out and go hog wild on it just to realize that the damage is too severe. What do you do now?


Do you give in and plant a seasonal garden where the hogs have rototilled? Do you abandon that part of your yard and claim it as a natural preservation area. Chances are hogs will be back so do you just stop fighting and decide to yourself, "I live in the country this is just the way it is".


Why Time is Of the Essence


No you get your yard back in order and you take care of the problem. Time is of the essence in repairing your hog damage as most of the roots of your grass are still alive. Yes, some have been damaged and will die off others are buried deep beneath the soil and will die but if you can get that yard graded out and repaired chances are you'll have a lot more grass survive and grow through and ultimately you will get back to normalcy sooner than later. If you wait too long you made not only lose your grass but have to reseed or sod those areas, thus fighting an uphill battle. The next question is, how do you repair your hog damage?



Hog Damage Repair | Harris Establishment

How to Repair Hog Damage


Our process is unique but you can adapt it to yourself. We have two approaches. First approach uses a 6-foot rototiller that can run over the tops of the turned up turf to begin breaking up the soil and laying it back down.



Hog Damage Repair | Harris Establishment

We also implements a tool called a power rake or a Harley rake. This tool does not dig as deep as the rototiller and can help bring a lot of the grass back to the surface where the rototiller can bury grass. The Harley rake is perfectly suited to relevel the areas your feral hogs have torn up. Once again time is of the essence the sooner you repair those areas the more likelihood the grass will grow back and you will be restored back to normalcy. Our suggestion, get a rototiller a tractor with a box blade or rent from a local dealer a Harley rake on your tractor or skid steer and get to work. After you level the turf, try to compact it in order to get the air out of the soil. A tiller will add air to the soil. The air pockets can cause further root damage, so compacting or rolling it will help those roots make good contact with the soil again. Finally add just a little water to the area to help stimulate root growth, but careful, too much water may attract the hogs back.


You can always give us a call if you're in the central Florida area and we would be happy to come look at your hog damage and put together an estimate on repairing it.


One more thought. You may also want to address the initial problem and that is the hogs themselves.


It's time to start enjoying the sun rises again and reading that article about hog damage repairs, Harley rakes and tillers instead of looking out across your recently destroyed backyard.

Beautiful Sunrise over Pickup truck | Harris Establishment

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