Making a level lawn

Sgt Pepper 64

I am redesigning our garden and the main lawn area is a bit bumpy and needs levelling.
How do you do that?
Dig it up and rotavate?

thanks

tomotron

Go to your local hire shop and hire out a engine driven rotavator. Be warned,if you haven't any experience on one of these machines they can be quite tricky especially if the ground is hard, they can be inclined to bounce off the ground rather than dig into it, so you will have to pull against the power of the machine to get the blades to break ground.
Anyway if the guy in the hire shop is any good he will give instructions.

When the area is rotovated you will need to rake out all stones, sods, roots, etc. then rake out top soil to desired level you may need to add some new top soil if there are any low spots that you would like to fill in.

I normally rake in some multipurpose compost in with the top soil this will ensure your lawn gets off to a good start.

When all this is done you are ready for lawn seed,( the best time to sow grass seed is normally between early April and late September) just grab a fist full of seed and sprinkle the area. repeat until the area is completely covered. Rake the seed in and roll the area with hand roller.

Or you could just buy roll out turf:)

The job is oxo!!

You will need to keep the area well watered!

redser7

How bumpy is it? Maybe it can be renovated instead of starting the whole thing from scratch. Bumps and hollows can fixed by slicing open the turf in a 'H' shape, folding it back and either scraping away soil in a bump, or adding soil to a hollow. Then fold the turf back over and water.
Any photos?

Sgt Pepper 64

redser7 wrote: »

How bumpy is it? Maybe it can be renovated instead of starting the whole thing from scratch. Bumps and hollows can fixed by slicing open the turf in a 'H' shape, folding it back and either scraping away soil in a bump, or adding soil to a hollow. Then fold the turf back over and water.
Any photos?

Well its mainly mud at the moment due to builders, but it dips and slopes, its not just renovating i'm sorry to say

Its about 7ft wide by 20ft

redser7

ah right. Well that's quite small. Save yourself the money and do it by hand bit by bit.

wexford12

For that size id clear any builders rubble and buy in nice graded topsoil easy to rake nice and level and put in a couple of beds

Sgt Pepper 64

redser7 wrote: »

ah right. Well that's quite small. Save yourself the money and do it by hand bit by bit.

Yep looking at it again, I think you are right, it just has this long "hump" in it.
I will try and put a pic up
Its not even builders rubble, just compacted mud where there once a lawn

paddy147

Before you rotivate or level off anything,you should go and dig out and pick out by hand all the rubble.

Clear the soil of the builders rubble.

Rotivating it,as is will turn all that rubble into flying objects and will just make shyte of the soil underneath.

A leveling rake is also very handy when it comes to leveling off an area.

Compost,manure and horticultural grit (good for drainage)

Sonnenblumen

Sgt Pepper 64 wrote: »

I am redesigning our garden and the main lawn area is a bit bumpy and needs levelling.
How do you do that?
Dig it up and rotavate?

thanks

How big is the area? If you rotovate you are going to disturb the soil giving yourself plenty of unnecessary work (grading, levelling, firming/rolling ground etc). If there are only some minor bumps, probably makes more sense to remove these bumps without disturbing too much of the consolidated area.

After removing the bumps, rake the top surface well to produce a fine tilth. Add a mixed layer of lawn sand and compost (70:30), add lawn fertiliser to mix and spread this over surface and level.

To avoid damage to soil structure, this work should only be carried out during dry conditions.

paddy147

Sonnenblumen wrote: »

How big is the area? If you rotovate you are going to disturb the soil giving yourself plenty of unnecessary work (grading, levelling, firming/rolling ground etc). If there are only some minor bumps, probably makes more sense to remove these bumps without disturbing too much of the consolidated area.

After removing the bumps, rake the top surface well to produce a fine tilth. Add a mixed layer of lawn sand and compost (70:30), add lawn fertiliser to mix and spread this over surface and level.

To avoid damage to soil structure, this work should only be carried out during dry conditions.

He said how big the area is.

Read post 4 again.

paddy147

If you do decide that you want to take up the grass lawn 1st,that is allready there,then a quick and easy way to do it,is by running a petrol powered turf cutter up and down the garden.

Most Hire Shops will hire one out to you for around 35 euro a day.

This will cut the grass sod clean away from the soil below and then you are free to roll it up and take it up off the garden.

Quick and Easy and no back breaking work involved.

A nice quick and easy alternative to digging it up by hand.:)

Blizzard 2010

If you live in Dublin A-Z Hire do sod cutters. they are very easy to use. I took up my old lawn last July with this machine and it save so much time.

clerk

tomotron wrote: »

Rake the seed in and roll the area with hand roller.

Where can you buy a hand roller ? what size are they approx ? cost ?

Appreciate any assistance.

Anatom

Sgt Pepper, get the roll-out lawn. You're plot seems small enough to justify the cost and you'll get instant lawn. You will need to rotovate it though. How much and how deep is up to you. As previously said above, if there's a load of builders' rubble there, get that taken up first and then rotovate.

Don't worry about getting in a roller - if you don't rotovate too deeply, you just need to rake it out properly and then dampen it down with a good long length of wood to finish it off.

I did this last year and left it overwinter before rolling out the lawn sods last April. I now have a fabulous lawn.