How you go about leveling your lawn really depends on how much TLC it needs. For moderately uneven lawns, you can level it yourself. A little effort will pay off in a big, beautiful way.
Tools you need to level your lawn
To level out a slightly uneven lawn, you’ll need a few key tools:
- Wheelbarrow or similar container
- A shovel
- Garden rake
- Soil leveling tool
- Topdressing made with organic matter
The latter, topdressing, is the process of applying a blend of sand with organic matter to the surface of your lawn in order to promote overall lawn health. See our blog post about topdressing to learn more, including how to make your own from sand and compost.
Steps to level out an uneven lawn
- After mixing your topdressing, wheel your preferred sand-to-compost topdressing over to the areas of your lawn that need leveling.
- Use a shovel to spread the mix in small piles on and around the uneven areas.
- Use the backside of a steel garden rake to even out the topdressing.
- Use a soil leveler to work the sand-compost mix into the lawn so that the grass blades are peaking through*.
- Repeat above steps across all uneven areas of your lawn have been treated.
*Unless you plan to overseed right after you topdress uneven areas, you’ll want to ensure your leveling work does not cover the blades of grass so they can continue to grow.
Sunday Tip:
Apply ⅓ to ½ inch deep of topdressing at one time to allow the grass to grow before applying additional layers of topdressing if leveling is incomplete. If your lawn is extremely uneven or if you find attempting the above yields little results, you may want to start from scratch and/or enlist the help of an excavator (or local contractor) to level the entire lawn for you.
