how can i level my lawn

[weekendwellies]

Hi all, its been a while since I posted anything, but been checking out the posts from time to time.
So, I have been wondering how best to level out my rather lumpy lawn, and thought of you as the best source of answers.
It got into this state when I had the dog and I didnt bother trying to do anything other than mowing it while we had her, and after she died we still had the guinea pig, so again, I didnt bother trying to fix it. Now there is only our geriatric cat, so I thought I would try and get it looking nice again.
It is quite weedy, lots of dandelions and dock, etc.
Do I need to rip it all up and start again, or is there a less drastic way of getting it looking good again.

[taff]

mowing, rolling, de-weeding, grubbing up individual dandelions, re-seeding, de-ant nesting.....
I'd rip it up and start again but given the choice, I'd get rid of it entirely and have beds/bushes/shrubs/trees there instead.

[Peas'n'Kews]

You can try sand in the dips - the grass will grow up through and start to level out....

Invest in weedkilller and grass seed and use liberally???

[weekendwellies]

.... given the choice, I'd get rid of it entirely and have beds/bushes/shrubs/trees there instead.

thanks Taff. I have beds with various plants and also some shrubs that I am adding to also. but I would like to keep the lawn , its nice to sit out and enjoy the garden on a lawn I think. maybe I am just old fashioned like that. I have thought of getting rid entirely, but I do like it, so I am reluctant to do that.

[Two_Sheds]

I am currently trying to sort out our lawn, having tried weeding out the dandies for 4 years, but every year they come back more & more.

I've dug the lawn out and reseeded: and guess what, loads more dandies have appeared

It's also really lumpy up-and-down, so I'll be trying to fill in the hollows with MPC and reseed them

It's a nightmare, but Himself insists the lawn stays

[dominic10]

Now our dog is no longer with us we seem to have more and more forgetful squirrels who keep burying their nuts and then digging up lots of holes trying to find them. This was to be the year of the lawn - weedkiller, moss killer (using a scarifier which must be one of life's most boring tasks) feeding the lawn and then filling in the holes and reseeding the bare bits. I'll use a mixture of garden compost and sand to help drainage. I have obtained two rollers - one water filled and one of the old fashioned types made of concrete to help to level things off. Near to our house is a wildflower meadow (deliberate by our local council) so each year we seem to have a particular weed which invades sorry wildflower. This year seems to be the year of the celendine and we also seem to have a lot of daisies and creeping buttercup. We are not using our ride on mower at the moment because of the peaks and troughs and we really need to sort this out as it takes a fraction of the time to mow. All on hold now while we get the allotment up and running. I have often wanted to dig it all up a la Good Life but my hubby says no hence the allotment. It's well worth the effort but the wind and birds will always bring back the weeds.

[Farmer_Gyles]

my son and his mates used our lawn as a football pitch for years .... and as a mud slide .... it was full of big lumps and bumps, difficult to cut the grass .... one day he asked why we didnt have a nice lawn like everyone else so i mentioned the footy and he's never played in the garden since ....

i use the home made compost or spent compost from spud buckets etc to level the lawn .... it's being done gradually .... the worst holes were filled first a couple of years ago .... some of the dips have been filled now .... the home made compost tends to sink a bit and needs topping up a few months later .... need to be careful with watering though .... too dry and it turns to dust and blows away or the dogs kick it around .... too wet and it gets waterlogged and the grass won't grow .... but once the grass is growing, it's fine ....

[Glutton4...]

All you Dandelion haters - go to your nearest cheapest supermarket and buy a big bag of cooking salt.

On a warm dry morning, when the forecast is for a hot dry day, go round and sprinkle half a teaspoon of salt over the centre of any rosette-shaped weed. Over the course of the day, it will dry out, and start to go brown and die.

This works on Dandelions, Daisies, Buttercups, Thistles, Plantain and probably others too, but that's all I've tried it on.

You can thank my late Nan for that one!

[Two_Sheds]

I tried that: the foliage dies, but not the root, which regrows. Plus, the salt poisons the soil for the lawn too

[Snadger]

Depends whether its a show lawn or a utility lawn. With a show lawn would be better re-levelling and returfing with a good quality turf which doesn't contain ryegrass.
If its a utility lawn, which i suspect it is, I would aerate, apply weed and feed. When the weeds are dead and frazzled, use springbok rake to create a tilth overseed with a good grass seed mix WITH turf type perennial ryegrass included,topdress with sand to restore levels and give it all a good raking again with a springbok rake to remove thatch and help cover the seed with the sand.
Any large depressions can be repaired by cutting a cross in the depression with a spade edge, fold back each quadrant of turf, add extra sand or soil and replace the hinged turf.
Make sure to keep the lawn moist until seed has germinated or turf has knitted together.

[jono83]

sorry to butt in, I also have to do my lawn this year, lovely lush and green but full of dips and bumps. out of curiosity I thought of de-turfing, rolling up the turf levelling and then rolling the turf back out. do you think this would work?
Cheers

[Snadger]

sorry to butt in, I also have to do my lawn this year, lovely lush and green but full of dips and bumps. out of curiosity I thought of de-turfing, rolling up the turf levelling and then rolling the turf back out. do you think this would work?
Cheers

You would have to hire a turf lifter to make sure all turf was the same thickness. Your turf may look green and lush but it could be filled with annnual meadow grass which because of its shallow rooted nature, would cause the turf to fall apart when you lifted it. A ryegrass lawn will also fall apart because it is neither stoloniferous nor does it create rhysomes to hep thicken the sward. The best grasses to have in your lawn are fescues and bents which togwether give fineness of leaf and thickness of sward.

You could of course go down the old fashiomned route. Lift the turf in manageable rectangles 9" X !8" with at least a two inch thickness of soil to hold it together. You them pack each piece individually into a purpose made wooden box upside down. The box is 2" deep and metal straps are fitted to top edge. You then simply draw a scythe blade along the soil giving an even thickmess of 2" throughout.
A very labour intensive method, but on a small lawn a feasible proposition, The turves are then laid like bricks in a staggered formation on pre levelled land.

[donnakebab]

Over the years our lawn became more or less a dandelion patch. Two years ago beloved daughter got a dog and I had the idea to get rid of the lawn and do bark chippings instead. Daughter did all the work and it turned out well.

So now daughter and dog have flown the nest and I briefly thought I might lay a lawn. Over the last few days of searing heat I have changed my mind.

[Florence Fennel]

Sorry it's a bit off topic, but I tried the salt treatment to get rid of weeds/grass/moss between paving stones. It did die off briefly, but then it came back with a vengeance.

Hope you get your lawn sorted WW, it is nice to sit out on nice grass this weather.

[weekendwellies]

Update : on the back garden, I have finally come to a decision on what to do with it. I will wait until the daffs show themselves, (they are in a circle in the middle of the lawn, dont ask, it seemed like a good idea at the time). Then I am putting fabric down over pretty much the whole rest of the grass, other than where the daffs are, I will put some wood chip or mulch or something over that space, I quite like them, they are just a pain in the butt growing in the grass. Leave it until next Autumn, then dig it all over, and start afresh, planting up some veg, . Its just tooo weedy to do much else now. thanks all.

PS: I use salt on my driveway, it does need to be redone every now and again (i fill up an old flour dredger with salt, and sprinkle it around, seems to be better than just pouring it from the tub) , but it has the added advantage of keeping the moss or licheny stuff down (its north facing and in shade most of the time).