How to level out yard?

[BigEddy]

In my experience - the problem with tilling is that the soil gets tilled too deeply and while it starts out smooth, over the next year or 2 it compacts differently in different spots resulting in the bumps and holes you are finding. A better solution is a rotary rake (harley rake) which does not fluff up the lower layers as much.

I would think you need to roll your lawn, to compact the soil and flatten bumps. Best done early spring after a few days rain. I would recommend aerating after rolling. Core aerating will bring material to the surface which will tend to fill in the holes. If there are too many holes, then top dressing and raking are the only options.

The advantage of the harrow and chain drag, or the rotarty rake are that they only fluff up the top few inches so uneven compaction is minor.

 

[dqdave1]

I do not know how rough the yard is , but it sounds like you need to do something. Spring is the best time to accomplish what you need to do. You now have a good base to start with. You need to have screened topsoil brought in. Hopefully you have a landscape rake. The best way is to have a set of gage wheels on the landscape rake. The rake then acts like a roadgrader, plus it will not tear up the existing grass as bad and it will fill in low areas well. As you do this expererience will show you the proper settings for the rake. After you are happy with the raking, overseed the yard again. In the spring it will green up quickly and you will have a great yard. Tiller was run too deep originally. A very common error when useing a tiller for a yard. A depth of 2" is all that needs to be tilled for a yard. Then landscape rake it and seed, unless you have a preseeder or power rake. Good Luck

 

[Investorguy]

Yeah I would start over. I'm planning on doing my lawn this summer too, but I went and bought a used harly rake. i've just used it a little bit so far (too wet still) but it seems to leave a nice smoot and slightly compacted surface. It really is an amazing machine for this task.

But definitely round it all up first, unless you want the same grass to come right back up. I learned this the hard way too.

 

[LBrown59]

<font color="red">Did you drag it with a drag going over it several times in all different directions after you tilled it? </font>

 

[JimMorrissey]

Round Up isn't going to kill the millions of seeds in the soil that will pop right up. I like the idea of the harley rake to prep the bed, but I'd just overseed it with a good local mix after it's dragged well with the rake....keep mowing and it should be fine, especially if proper weed-n-feed is used the next year. Even the cheap weed-n-feed has worked amazing for me on an established lawn.

Send some soil to the local university or test center and see what they say about it acidity. We have fairly basic soils and with some lime the grass bolts up. Worth the couple of bucks to research this.

 

[miltrade]

Update: I have had considerable luck using my flail-mower to level out my yard, believe it or not.

We have had a ton of rain here in Virginia. I have been keeping my tractor (JD4200) rigged up with my flail-mower, which is extremely heavy and has a metal roller on it to press down brush after it is mowed. When the ground is saturated after a lot of rain, I go ahead and drive the entire yard several times with the mower lowered to the ground and angled so that I get maximum weight distributed down on that roller.

It has really done wonders. I have continued to mow with my Husqvarna 54 inch riding mower and the ride is getting smoother and smoother. It has had no negative effect on the grass whatsoever. It pops right back up.

Now there are no mounds or bumps but there are depressions or small "potholes" around the property. All I have been doing is filling them in with topsoil as I find them. I keep a can of landscaping spraypaint with me on the mower and I mark them then go back later. Some people said to gradually fill them in to preserve the grass, but I just level them out, tamp it down, and throw some grass seed on there. Some of the ones I did a few weeks ago are already being crowded over by the existing grass.

I think with this method it is not going to be necessary to redo the lawn.

 

[rdln]

why didnt you like spraying the existing vegetation with roundup?

 

[miltrade]

I didn't spray the yard because I was an idiot and listened to somebody that said to till the existing lawn under. That was BS, I should have just sprayed it and tilled/scraped no more than an inch off the top.

 

[RonR]

Mil,
Don't be hard on yourself! We all live and learn.

ron