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I actually did a section about 75 * 20 today which was some clay and mostly backfill full of rocks. I tilled it once, picked up rocks, tilled it again, picked up rocks, dropped a yard of soil conditioner (should have used 2 or 3), lime and grass seed, tilled it, raked, laid grass seed and raked again. All told it took probably 8 hours over two days. Not terribly difficult. What I learned was the more you till, the better the soil gets. Over and over and over in my case.
Well, the lime was about $3, the seed about $25 (but I probably used only half) and the soil conditioner was $24/yard (1 yard).
So in total, ~40.
The tiller is mine, so that was free, other than gas and time.
I would check craigslist. Sometimes you can find people giving fill dirt away for free. You should however make sure the dirt doesn't have stumps in it.
Thanks for all of the suggestions! If I wasn't clear earlier, the part of my back yard would be used for planting grass. It's currently on a slight slope. NRG, I'm thinking that it may be building backfill as there are a lot of stones in this particular part of my yard. My goal would be to till this up now, remove the stones, add some organic matter, let it settle and plant at the end of the season.
Another possible alternative since you are doing it for seeding is:
Go to a couple of local construction sites and see if you can find someone who will bring some soil in and even it out. You might be able to get it done for a couple of hundred bucks. If you go with a landscaping company it will be a lot more. I have a mini tiller and used it to prepare my back yard for seeding and garden plots. You are getting a lot of good suggestions. Remember it you rent a large tiller you will still have to even the resulting work out if you want to seed a lawn. You have a lot of good suggestions and may want to add gypsum to the mix.
These guys might be worth checking out for some who are looking to till a large garden: Time To Get Your Garden And Yard Ready (http://raleigh.craigslist.org/grd/1093822232.html - broken link)
I tilled up part of our rocky, clay backyard last year for an enlarged flower garden. We have a rotary tiller that attaches to the 3 point hitch/rear power-take-off shaft on our diesel tractor, so it went well. There were alot of small to mid sized rocks getting kicked up and making a racket. The key was setting the skids high, so that the tines dug low enough to get a good till. If the skids or setting is too high, you might not break the soil up as much as you'd like.
I just ripped the soil on our veggie garden area yesterday right after the rains (too wet; it was more like mud-bogging than anything else!--but fun as heck) and look to till some manure and topsoil in once it dries out sufficiently.
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