How to Fix an Uneven Lawn

Lawn lovers around Australia wake their lawns from Winter dormancy with a lawn renovation in early Spring that can involve dethatching, aerating and top dressing to rectify any levelling issues.

 Through regular mowing, you probably know better than anyone where the trouble spots are in your lawn, and while its possible to spot-top dress and only look to level out affected areas, most lawn lovers will give their entire lawn a light top dress with nutrient rich top soil to add organics in to the soil profile and boost overall lawn health.

Top dressing is most commonly done with an 80% sand and 20% organic soil mix commonly known as ‘80/20’, though some lawn owners will opt for ‘90/10’ or even a washed sand, including the extremely fine USGA sand that’s commonly used for levelling sports turf.

To level a lawn, you’ll need a shovel, a wheelbarrow and something to screed the surface with – you can use a flat piece of timber, a concrete float or a lawn levelling tool which can be easily sourced online, or through traditional retailers like your local hardware store.

There can be several causes of irregularity in the level of your lawn surface, and it might be reassuring to hear that it’s not always something that you’ve done wrong. Sure, digging trenches for irrigation or moving heavy equipment across a soft, waterlogged lawn can cause levelling issues, however more often than not, lawn levels start when the lawn is laid.

Your lawn will arrive from the turf farm cut in uniform length and width rolls, however the amount of soil attached to the root system underneath can vary slightly which, when combined with a subsoil surface that might not have been perfectly levelled either, results in minor height variations over the course of the new lawn. There’s also the turf roll joins to consider, as these will naturally form low spots.

The cause of your levelling issues may also be environmental, and simply be due to natural subsidence in the subsoil layer caused by organic matter in the soil breaking down or tree roots causing air pockets.

Preparing your lawn for leveling involves two main steps. The first is assessing the severity of the indentations on a scale from Shallow to Deep and how prolific the problem is, which will dictate whether you can simply spot top dress to fix these issues, or if you’ll need to top dress the entire lawn.

The second will be to determine what variety of grass you’re working with, as your levelling needs to be suited to your grass type. Buffalo lawns for example cannot be fully submerged with top dress, so for deep indentations in a Buffalo lawn you’ll need to do several light applications of your top dress medium.

Couch and Bermudagrass on the other hand can be top dressed heavily and survive for over a week fully submerged beneath your top dress medium.

How to Fix Shallow Indentations

Shallow indentations will be localised and 3-5cm deep – likely the joins in the turf rolls from laying your new lawn, natural subsidence or wheel tracks from moving machinery over your lawn after a recent downpour of rain.

Shallow indentations can be fixed with spot top dressing. Simply apply your top dressing medium liberally to the area, ensuring you have enough material to cover around 10cm either side of the indentation. Use your lawn level tool to spread the top dressing medium evenly into the indentation and then feather it out into the healthy grass around until the area is flat.

Water in thoroughly.

How to Fix Moderate Indentations

Moderate indentations might be more prolific throughout your lawn and be anywhere from 5-10cm deep. They could be as a result of trenching to run services or irrigation around the perimeter of your yard, the result of a new footpath laid in your nature strip or heavy natural subsidence. Moderate indentations might be best fixed by levelling your entire lawn and paying particular attention to the Moderate indentations.

Unlike spot top dressing where the medium can economically be purchased in bags and brought to the site, Moderate and Deep indentations might necessitate trucking in top dressing medium from your local landscape supplies store. They can assist you with quantities if you know the size of your lawn.

If you’re going down the path of top dressing your entire lawn, spread a light dusting of your top dress medium evenly over the lawn and apply a healthier application in trouble spots. As above, use your lawn level to massage the medium into the canopy of the plant evenly, and feather out the top dress medium in your Moderate indentations to rectify your levelling.

Water thoroughly, remembering that thicker top dressing will need more than one drenching.

How to Fix Deep Indentations

Deep indentations will be deeper than 10cm and could be the scars left behind from aggressive excavation or the removal of an established tree. Unlike smaller indentations, they might not be able to be fixed on your first attempt and may be an ongoing project.

For this, you’re almost certainly going to want to truck in your top dressing medium and top dress the entire lawn, as well as start the process of levelling the more egregious subsidence.

Rather than attempting to fix the low spots all at once, consider addressing them as Moderate indentations and waiting for them to repair, then repeating the process so as not to shock the plant too much.

Flatter lawns are much easier to mow and a level lawn will hold more consistent colour and be less susceptible to scalping. Addressing lawn levels is a great way to boost the overall visual appeal of your lawn this Spring, and is a great weekend project that delivers instant satisfaction.