Site leveled but now what?

skywalker_208

Hi Guys,

Looking for some advice on first time lawn. Have approx 1/3 acre leveled out last week. Not too stony and there was a nice bit of topsoil so its level enough but still a bit wet.

So I would imagine I know need to till/rotivate it, take any stones away etc and basically work the soil until it is a nice enough surface to sow grass seed on.

Do I need to hire one of those walk behind rotavaters or better off getting someone in with a tractor to do it or what?
Also after this stage will I need to rake it all by hand?

Thanks
I have lots of work ahead of me!

skywalker_208

I forgot about this thread so here is a gentle bump

Since my first post the rain has been so bad it is not looking likely that I will get anything done this side of Winter.

Pity coz the place will be a mass of weeds soon enough I am sure. Suppose I could just spray it all off and rotovate it in the Spring.

secman

Don't give up yet , should we get a dry spell later this month , it would still be possible to seed it. Did my own about mid sept 2years ago and it took fine. Sure the grass is still growing and will do so till latish Oct !

Secman

Welease

I am by no means a gardening expert, but we had a similar situation last year after putting in new septic tanks/drainage etc.. I don't think you need to go to the expense/time of tilling/rotovating.

After levelling, I just hosed down the garden (you should be able to skip this part lol) and raked it to break up the soil. Not heaving raking, just dragged the rake across to break the surface. I then just spread seed across the garden (3/4 acre) and it grew perfectly. We got a decent amount of growth just before winter (only took 3-4 weeks iirc), then it continued to grow and fill out this year. There were some patches that needed some secondry seeding, but by summer this year the lawn was back looking good (i think it will take a couple of years mowing etc. to get the reseeded parts from good to great though )

Westford

Not an expert myself...but just gone throught the same project.
If there's not too many stones, then don't waste time picking stones... Plus, most people reckon it's not a good idea to remove too many stones...better to bury them.
If the soil is in anyway compacted, then you'll probably need to till it or rotavate it.... I only needed to do this on the part of the site that had never been touched. Did this with a tractor & rotavator...couple of hours! After that I just used a tractor & levelling bar... This step sort of needs to be done when it's dry. When the levelling bar is used, it tends to bury most of the stones, and there's really not much manual stone clearing to be done. After the few big stones were removed, I spent a bit of a time with a rake... working on the areas where the tractor couldn't operate.....corners, close to the wall, etc....and levelling out any remaining tracks where the tractor came off the lawn.
Then seed :-)
10 days later, and it's starting to come up nicely.
Of course if you're after an award winning lawn, then I guess there's probably a few more stes you might want to add in!

BTW..If the weeds have taken control, then it's probably best to spray the whole site with round-up, a few weeks before starting the work....Although at this time of year, time is not on your side....Hopefully you can get away without doint this.

Best of luck.