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How To Fix Uneven Lawn

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How To Fix An Uneven Lawn

How To Level Uneven Spots In Your Lawn (DIY Lawn Care)
  • Time to read: 7 min.

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You can easily fix a lightly uneven lawn, but the worse the unevenness gets, the more effort you will have to put into it, along with time and money. Topdressing, filling, and even regarding your lawn might be in order, depending on the severity.

Regardless of where your lawn is in terms of severity, there are several steps that you must undertake before you brother to address the unevenness.

Turning your lawn into the flat and vibrant landscape that you prefer requires some effort. If youre ready to get started, dont forget your work gloves.

Yes We Have You Covered Lets Fix Your Uneven Lawn Following An Appropriate Way

A lawn is a major attraction for a house as it is a vast expanse of green dotted with color in the form of floral and foliage plants. An immaculate lawn that is level, lush with grass, and freshly mowed is a prized possession of a garden owner. However, not all of us have luck in our favor at all times. So, you should know how to fix an uneven lawn with ease.

Lets go and start the proceedings!

Contents

  • Final Words to Fix Your Uneven Lawn
  • What If My Lawn Only Has Small Imperfections

    A lovely lawn, with slight blemishes, made smooth by renovation of scarification, aeration, top dressing and over-seeding.

    To smooth out and renovate a lawn that just has minor imperfections in the surface can be done by renovation during the autumn. It is usually best to scarify and aerate before top dressing so that the dressing can easily be rubbed into the dips. Top Dressing can be done by a lawn care professional or you can do it yourself. A range of Top Dressing is available, all being a blend of soil, compost, loam or sand, designed in different mixes to boost nutrition and assist in the germination of new seed. This is quite a big subject so please find more information here on how the professionals do it: or alternatively if you are keen to do it yourself a full range of top dressing products can be found here at The Lawn Store:

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    Pros And Cons Of Dethatching Lawns

    As you decide on a lawn care maintenance program, there are several things to consider when deciding if you need to dethatch your lawn. Thatch is the layer of grass and plant matter that is above the soil, but below the green, living grass. Thatch is a mixture of dead grass blades and living growth, and a thin layer of it is good for the grass. Up to about a half-inch of thatch is helpful to your lawn because it acts like mulch. It protects the grasss roots from temperature extremes and keeps in moisture during dry periods.

    But, thatch can get thick and matted over time. When thatch is too thick, it prevents light, air, water and nutrients from reaching the roots and soil. Overly thick thatch can also trap water when it rains, which can make the grass rot at the roots. All of this can lead to brown or yellow spots in your grass and other issues.

    So, the benefit of dethatching is that it can make sure that your lawn is getting the nutrients it needs. But, the downside of dethatching is that, if you pull too much, your grass wont have protection against heat or drought. Dethatching your lawn is good to do when there is more than a one-inch layer of thatch. If the thatch is more than two inches thick, you might think about contacting a lawn care specialist to do the job for you, to save yourself a good deal of labor.

    The Best Way To Repair A Lumpy Lawn That Has A Few Bumps

    Use These Tips to Fix an Uneven Lawn

    It is actually quite simple to fix lumpy grass issues and prevent them from reoccurring if you have a green thick and healthy lawn. A comprehensive lawn care program will help do this for you, make sure that it includes:

    • high-end nutrition components that thicken and fortify your grass plants,
    • regular aeration to loosen the soil and lessen heaving,
    • overseeeding to thicken the lawn and create a stronger more pest-resistant lawns,
    • and proactive insect control for Grubs and Chinch bugs.

    Spring is the best AND worst time for people worried about how to fix a lumpy lawn. The ground is soft and the grass grows quickly to cover any repairs, but snowmelt-saturated soil plus traffic on your lawn add up to new bumps. You can read more in our April lawn care experts checklist. There are tips to avoiding creating ruts from lawn mower wheels when you mow the lawn in our lawn cutting tips section as well.

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    Why Is My Yard Sinking In Spots

    As stated above, one of the most common reasons why this phenomenon occurs is saturation from excess rainfall. When a lawn has poor or nonexistent runoff, rainwater will collect on the surface, slowly absorbing into the ground below while turning the soil into a mush-like consistency thats prone to sinking.

    What can I use instead of a lawn roller?

    Use a flat shovel and lift the grass. Then put some soil under it. Add more soil than you think you need since the soil will compact.

    Should I roll my bumpy lawn?

    If you want a flatter lawn, rolling it may smooth out a few animal tunnels but only affects the first 1-2 inches of soil. The purpose of rolling is to primarily get seeds or sod to establish themselves in your soil. If you have a hard bump in your lawn, rolling wont get rid of it.

    Top Dressing Your Lawn To Level It

    You can apply top-dressing to your lawn every year.

    This allows you to improve your soil, help your grass grow thicker and healthier, and level your turf all at the same time.

    Top dressing your lawn is a simple process that can be done as part of a big fall project weekend, combining the project with core aeration and overseeding.

    Early fall or early spring is usually the best time of year to do this.

    Preparing Your Lawn

    Make sure that you cut your grass very short before you top-dress. Shorter grass lets you more easily see and identify lumpy areas, and it makes it easier to work your soil, compost or sand evenly over your yard.

    Next, use an iron rake, thatch rake or power rake to get rid of thatch.

    Thatch is a layer of plant matter stuck to the top of the soil. It can block out the benefits of water and air from getting into the soil. This adversely affects the health of your grass.

    If you have a big yard, consider renting a dethatcher for a few hours. Your back and arms will thank you. Home Depot does 4 hour rentals which is plenty of time to do most yards.

    Spread Top-dressing on Your Lawn

    Evenly spread a layer of topsoil across your lawn. Often youll bring the material to your lawn in a wheelbarrow, dump it in piles, and then you can come back with a rake to spread the material out from those piles.

    There are a few different materials you can use to top-dress and level your yard. These include:

    • Topsoil or Loam
    • 50/50 Mix of Compost and Loam
    • Screened Compost

    Recommended Reading: What Is The Best Sprinkler For My Lawn

    What If My Lawn Is Very Uneven And Has Large Dips

    A lawn in need of some bump-smoothing help, leveled with fine screened top soil, prior to over-seeding.

    Those smaller dips up to 3-10mm can be filled in with Top Dressing, but anything deeper is a point which has certainly caused its fair share of confusion. We have received enquiries for Top Dressing to be used for leveling large areas of an uneven lawn, an application for which it would not have been suitable. We would always suggest finely screened Top Soil is a better solution for filling-in larger dips and hollows in a lawn as it will provide more structure and is less likely to sink in the future.

    Follow these steps when leveling an uneven lawn with soil:

  • Kill off the grass of undulations deeper than 10mm, with a total weed killer such as Glyphosate, or alternatively scrape the grass off down to soil level.
  • Scarify the entire lawn and remove the arisings, this will help you see clearly where the low points and dips in the lawn are. Aeration of the entire lawn to relive compaction is also recommended.
  • Measure the total area of the dips so you can estimate how much soil you need. Follow this link to the soil calculator
  • Purchase good quality premium top soil which is screened to below 10mm and fill the areas with soil, raking and firming as you go to create a smooth surface.
  • Sow lawn seed to the bare soil areas at a rate of 30 grams per square metre.
  • Smoothing Out Minor Bumps

    Lawn Care Tips : How to Level Uneven Spots in a Lawn

    If the dents in your lawn are less than 1 inch deep, top dressing is a simple way to even them out.

    The best top dressing for your lawn depends on your soil type. For sandy or loam soils, use a gritty top dressing such as coarse sand or a mixture of coarse sand, peat or compost, and topsoil. For clay soils, use a mixture of compost and topsoil. Spring and early fall are the best times to do the job because your grass will have plenty of time to grow through the top dressing.

    First, prepare your lawn by mowing it with the mower blade at the lowest setting. Dethatch the lawn with a dethatcher or a rake. If the lawn hasnt been aerated in the last three years, aerate it with a spike aerator or aerating machine.

    With a shovel or trowel, apply the top dressing to the lowest point of the depressions in the lawn. Add no more than 1/2 inch of top dressing to avoid burying the grass. Rake the top dressing to even it out over the soil, then use a push broom to work it in further and uncover the grass. Finish by watering the grass to settle the top dressing.

    Alternatively, you can fill the depression with soil and reseed the area.

    Also Check: Can You Hydroseed Over An Existing Lawn

    Will A Lawn Roller Fix Ruts

    The lawn must be wet and the more saturated the better. Then when the lawn is wet, ideally right after using the pitchfork, if you have a garden tractor drive over the humps created when the ruts were made. If you dont have a garden tractor, buy the roller and use that. Walking will work too.

    How do I fix my lawn that has been driven on?

    How to Fix Flattened Grass and Shallow Ruts

  • Loosen the soil. Find the edge of the tire marks. Loosen the soil by placing a shovel or spade fork at a 45-degree angle into the rut.
  • Lift the soil. Lift the soil until it is an inch or two above the existing grass. Carefully allow it to settle.
  • Minor Bumps And Irregularities In Your Yard

    The first thing that you need to do is mow the lawn.

    But, before you get started, be sure to lower the blades to as close as they can get to the ground.

    You want to give your grass a good, close shave, which will make the detaching process much easier, along with the filling.

    You can either dethatch your lawn throughout or just dethatch the areas youre focused on repairing.

    Some sites will advise you to just dethatch the areas that are problematic and need fill, however, its a good idea to just do the whole thing, as it can create more problems in the future.

    For minor bumps throughout the yard, all you need to do is fill them in as necessary. The best material to do this with is topsoil.

    The problem is, that you need to go with the right kind of topsoil, which is what matches your existing soil the closest.

    Its also advisable to aerate the lawn before you start placing fill as well. This will help your lawn to breathe and it will help it repair itself, specifically in the areas that you are going to add fill.

    Move Around the Lawn Filling all of the depressions with your matching topsoil .

    Reseed the areas that you filled in after your rake, smooth, and tamp them down. Be sure to water the area when you are finished.

    Also Check: How Much Do Robotic Lawn Mowers Cost

    How To Level Tree Root Bumps

    If the bumps caused by tree roots are reasonably close to the tree, it might be best to reach a compromise with your leafy friend and implement or expand a mulch bed around it. The mulch will cover the root lump, forming a smooth gradient from the tree down to your grass.

    Unfortunately, this means youll be sacrificing a bit of lawn space, but at least youll be able to cut the remaining grass without worrying about crashing into roots and blunting your mowers blades.

    It saddens me to say, but the only alternative is to pick a side. Do you want a nice, level lawn, or do you want the tree? I know, I knowyou want both, right? Ive been in a similar situation before, but Im afraid it has to be one or the other.

    If you picked option A: a nice even lawn, fire up your chainsaw, because that tree has to come down. Once youve cut it down to size, its time to deal with those meddling surface roots by grinding them away.

    Id recommend using something along the lines of this DEWALT grinder fitted with a masonry grinding wheel. Those surface roots can be some tough customers, but this setup will make short work of them.

    My advice is to grind them as deep below lawn level as possible in order to give your grass the best chance of thriving when you fill in the void with top dressing and overseed.

    No one enjoys harming trees, but the silver linings here are that a small patch of lawn is easier and cheaper to maintain than a tree, and now you have years of firewood for free.

    How To Level Your Bumpy Lawn

    Repair Uneven Lawns

    Right then, youre almost ready to get out there and make your stand against your craterous lawn. Theres just one final stepassessing the severity of the blemishes. The level of deformation will determine what methods, tools, and materials youll need to use.

    If youre only dealing with a few bumps, depressions, and gentle unevenness, all youll need is an affordable spreading tool , some topdressing, and some grass seed.

    On the other hand, if your lawn looks like youve been keeping a pride of lions in your yard, you may be faced with a complete regrade.

    Recommended Reading: How To Estimate Lawn Mowing

    Fixing An Uneven Lawn

    Have you found a lump, bump, or hole in your lawn? This is a common problem for most homeowners. Lawns can settle over time and become less-than-perfect no matter what type of grass you have. The good news is you can fix an uneven lawn and amp up your curb appeal in the process. Heres what you need to know to get the job done.

    Correcting A Severely Uneven Yard

    If it looks like your yard was caught up in a WWII bombing, then you have two choices.

    The first is to call in a professional.

    At the very least, you can pick their brains and find out how they would approach the problem and try to correct it.

    The second is to regrade the lawn yourself.

    For something severe, you will probably need to rent a bobcat with a front-end loader and excavator attachments.

    You will also need a transit level, which is relatively cheap to rent:

    • You want the ground to slope away from your house for drainage purposes
    • Establish your slop with a second person using the transit level
    • Use the bobcat to scrape away your high points
    • Use the soil from the scraped high points to fill your low points
    • Try to add layers to low points in two-inch increments
    • Use whatever hand tools you have handy to till each additional 2 layer into the layer below it

    Depending on how bad your yard is, you may not need the bobcat but if you dont want to use one, its all about the hand tools, which will make for some back-breaking work.

    Remember, its best to fix uneven lawns in the spring, so it should be nice and cool outside for some hands-on work.

    A bobcat is a lifesaver, however, and they are very easy to operate, even with dual attachments mounted on them.

    They arent brutally expensive to rent but you will want to make sure that everything is prepped so that you can rent it, do the job, and get it back in a single day.

    The fact is, you can do most of the work yourself:

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    Abc Can Fix Your Bumpy Lawn

    As you now know, it takes quite a bit of labor to fix bumpy lawns and prevent bumps from coming back. If you arent sure you are up for all that hard work, contact ABC Home & Commercial Services. Our lawn care team has the training and tools to flatten out your lawn. We can also come up with a lawn care schedule so your yard will continue to be healthy and have that flat, green carpet we all are hoping for.

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