There are a number of different ways to restore uneven lawn surfaces, and each different method will depend on just how uneven the lawn surface is, and how much work we want to put into levelling out our uneven lawns. Overall though, it is not a difficult process, no matter the condition of the lawn surface.
Slight Unevenness Of Lawns
With any small undulations in a lawn surface, we would simply top dress the lawn with a suitable lawn soil. We could do this with soil already at the property if we only wanted to fill in small areas to help even out the lawn.
Alternatively we could top dress the entire lawn surface all at once. Top dressing the entire lawn has the benefit of helping to improve the entire lawn soil, while also filling in any small areas of the lawn which may have depressions, so that we end up with an even lawn and an improved lawn too.
Speaking to our local soil supply shop should provide us with good advice as to which soil to choose to top dress our lawns in our local areas. We would need to buy soils in bulk from the soil supplier and not in bags from the hardware store, as a large quantity of soil is required in top dressing lawns and we’ll get the greatest bang for our buck by a country mile by visiting the soil suppliers for our needs.
Filling In Larger Lawn Depressions
These would most likely be better suited to being filled in individually, and most likely with soil from the same property. No real explanation required here, it’s just filling in a hole with some soil, compacting it down and watering it in, and then waiting for the surrounding lawn to grow over the top of the affected area again if we’re growing warm season grass for our lawn. For those growing a cool climate or bunching type grass then we will need to re-seed the affected area.
Filling In Even Bigger Lawn Depressions
If we’re wanting to fill in any deeper holes again, we may want to consider removing the lawn from that area with a spade first. Then filling in and compaction the area with a suitable soil, and then replanting the old lawn back into place again.
Levelling A Sloping Lawn
In some cases we may have a naturally sloping lawn, and we may choose to put a small retaining wall around the lawn area as a part of overall garden or yard improvements. In this situation we’re going to be faced with a new problem, whereby we may be filling in an area of lawn with new soil to a depth of one or two feet deep, or more, to level out the sloping area with the higher area of the turf.
In such a case we have a few things to consider.
Do we want to just put the new soil directly on top of the old lawn area? This would be perfectly fine for a lawn which is in poor health and condition and is thinned out, as the old lawn will rot away without any problems.
For a denser lawn with a denser thatch layer, we could be creating a problem for some time to come if that old matting and thatch holds onto too much water or prevents water from draining away quickly enough so that water-logging doesn’t occur in the new upper areas of lawn. In such a case we may want to consider running a rotary hoe over the old lawn first to break it up and leave it to rot in the new soil.
If we’re replacing all the old lawn with a new lawn type after the levelling has been completed, then we would simply remove all the lawn in the sloping area at the same time as we remove the other lawn from the higher area.
If we’re keeping the same lawn type, and if the sloping area of lawn is in good condition, we can dig the sod out in pieces, set it aside, and replant it again when we level up the sloping lawn area with new soil.
After all the new soil is added to level out the area as we’d like, we would then compact the soil. A heavy water filled roller from a hire shop would do the trick, as would us stomping down the new soil with our own feet in boots. We need to new soil to be firm enough to walk across without us sinking into the soil under our own body weight.
We would then use perhaps a simple long piece of pine from the hardware store to run across the area to level out the soil as much as possible.
We then plant the old removed lawn back again, or put down new lawn or seed, or just let the existing lawn to grow back over the repaired lawn area at its own speed and in its own time.
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