Made A Flatter Lawn By Leveling With Existing Soil

[@TurfMechanic]

►►► Want to fix your lawn for the long haul but don't know where to start? I can help! Click here right now and get started today: turfmech.link/dont-know-where-to-start ◄◄◄

[@242-f5u]

The shuffle around 6 minutes is impressive. I haven't seen many pull that off.

[@ryan.coogler]

I enjoy how creative you are with the yard projects you undertake. Everything is done for the average person with basic tools.

[@TurfMechanic]

Thanks for the compliment Ryan; that's one of my goals, make it all seem doable for the average lawn owner. :)

[@toddsreellawn8905]

I like your videos bc it shows the resiliency of grass. You do almost everything wrong but yet the grass comes back.

[@TurfMechanic]

LOL, that's part of the learning process; I like to show people how to experiment in their lawns just as much as I like to show the correct way to do things too. It's just grass after all :D

[@AlexKunstar]

This is literally the only thing I'm willing to do on my bumpy back yard. It is currently a nightmare to walk and mow, it's fenced in and would be a huge mess to deal with new soil being brought in. I don't need it perfect, just way better than it currently is. Looks like this will be my plan of attack before a good fall overseeing. Thank you for the inspiration!! 👍

[@TurfMechanic]

You will probably find that this is easily the best option for you if all you want is improvement and not perfection. I honestly think most yard owners would find this super helpful and way more easily accomplished then a top-dressing style leveling job. A little disruption with the scarifier/power rake is a drop in the bucket compared to the benefits you'll get in a smoother lawn surface. Good luck with it Alex!

[@DirtygardenCA]

Love this, you are slowly but surely getting that front yard dialed in. By around April you're going to really start to see a flush of growth. Plus, we've got more rain rolling into late next week. The foot tamping time lapse is hilarious.

[@LawnRight]

Looking forward to the results this season! Nice to see work starting hey(we are so close here in the uk), love the idea of reusing existing soil!

[@TurfMechanic]

It's awesome to start getting back to projects! I'm starting to get impatient with that shadow cast on my front lawn though, we've got good temps for this time of year but still seeing too much shade from the house.

[@thenexthobby]

I'll be doing a crude version of this, with shovels, as part of a yard drainage project. Turns out, when you dig trenches in your yard, you now have a lot of free dirt to put somewhere else ... and I will!

[@l9ikjam]

I dealt with trying to flatten my yard for years. I had two big dips, plus a spot where a tree use to be. I put soil in those spots and a year or two later the dips would come back. One year i put the soil a little higher than the lawn. A couple of years the dips came back. The last time i decided to do 50/50 sand and soil mix. Its been almost 4 years and my lawn is still flat

[@nomargins]

Did the same thing to my tree lawn and it grew up nice.

[@SBow311]

OMG I love that cat. They're the best! I had a dude named Bob, and he would just show up wherever he wanted, and be like "sup everybody". People 2 blocks away would say "hey your cat came over and got stoned with us in the garage the other night!"

[@bigjigg5672]

"Excellent" idea (In my Mr. Burns voice) Interesting thought B, I may try this next month to level out a bit.

[@TurfMechanic]

Release the hounds! 😁

[@bigrokey]

At least you can do that it's been to cold and windy in antelope valley but i will try to level this wkend since it getting a lit bit warmer

[@TurfMechanic]

Good luck! We were chilly this week but supposed to get into the 70s starting today! So excited for truly warm weather! 🌞

[@BenjaminT.Minkler]

a few years ago I did this same process but just in my backyard, grinding up soil from high spots and just raking it a few feet to low spots, with the full intention to overseed the whole yard - however I did it way too early in the spring(@ Saint Patrick's day) thinking if I was going to do a spring seeding, I'd need to start it asap; but the existing grass wasn't fully growing well yet in the cooler early beginning of the season, and then the temps stayed too low with an extreme amount of rain that washed the new seed into 'tiger stripes' along with the loose soil and OG ....so it really wasn't till later that I pretty much had to do it all again, after I waited for the grass(now damaged from the first attempt) to be in full on high performance healthy growing like crazy mode = even if you are okay with killing off most of the grass in the spots you grind down, having something growing good or able to recover helps hold the displaced soil(and new seed) in the new spots, and the mixed in OG(from the old grass, and roots if you grind down deep enough on really high spots) is nice in the new spots to keep the soil loose and fluffy with lots of microbe action to establish a new top layer even if it will settle more on my parkway strips, I started the process(exactly as shown in this video) and did it late summer, things were much better when I had full control of the water manually - as those strips across the sidewalk had seemed to be a collection point for years of soil from up higher in the yard slope to gather as it ran down and crossed the sidewalk - odd that I never really noticed the soil flowing, but I guess it only takes Mother Nature pushing just a little 'dust' around, but every day, for it to add up after years - and it really adds up to a huge amount when you start pulling it out to move it back up on the slope above ....cool tho because it is *killing two birds with one stone* and not only is the slope in the yard smoothed and filled plus then the parkway strips leveled and lowered(some, still kinda too high of soil level, I'd have to pull an amazing amount of dirt out to really bring the level down to sidewalk n curb level) but also I didn't have to go buy and haul soil in ,,,but I've always had to count on putting down more new seed when doing this, as the grass takes too long to fill back in on its own(with the few varieties that can do that) so consider what your yards will look like with bare spots, and if you are doing it at a time of year that you can regrow new grass in those areas (I think Brian did a wonderful job of demonstrating how crazy this will all look to your neighbors, haha)

[@242-f5u]

I appreciated your feedback. I, too, have been considering doing some overseeing in spring, mainly because I want a great lawn all year. But I've worried about it being too soon, how will the grass respond to a spring dethatch, etc. I'm just going to wait until fall.

[@Leonard-B]

Kikuyu grass is unkillable! I live north of you and it's amazing how resilient Kikuyu grass is. I feel like its resistant to round up too lol I'm curious to see how you maintain your lawn now that you're in the SolCal. You've probably shared in another video or where we can access, but could you share your soil results.

[@wm005]

Excellent idea, not sure I could do this since I have Bermudagrass...

[@michaelsteele5495]

Bermuda grass is the perfect grass for this, it will spread and fill in.

[@TurfMechanic]

As Michael said I think Bermuda might be the perfect grass for this. Maybe wait for it to start growing or just a bit before it starts coming out of dormancy first though otherwise you'll just have bare dirt for a long time

[@velcroman11]

I would have placed a cover, like a tin can to prevent dirt fouling the sprinkler. The can should be a long one. You will have to press it down so it will not be knocked of the sprinkler if you hit it with the leveller.

[@brianp2572]

I’m assuming you shouldn’t do this in a cool season lawn up north?

[@TurfMechanic]

I wouldn't say that. If you did it up north I'd just wait for things to start warming up a bit. Wait for dormancy to start ending and only do it if you are ok with possibly needing to overseed a bit after the job is done since cool season grasses won't self repair as easily. Or you could do it mid spring when grass is growing vigorously and give it some good fert ahead of the job to help it grow through the layer of "new" soil.

[@toddsreellawn8905]

Don't hire out the aeration. I own a machine and fit it in my kia seltos lol. You can fit it in your suv for sure..

[@TurfMechanic]

You inspired me! Thanks; I found a rental company here where I can get a Billy Goat and a small trailer to bring it to the house myself for only $88 - much cheaper than hiring the job out plus I get to do the job the way I want it done. Thanks for the nudge Todd!

[@toddsreellawn8905]

@@TurfMechanic now that's a deal!!! Good job

[@mattb9664]

Not looking forward to seeing what the next KZbin CEO does with ad revenue generation. It got noticeably worse since the beginning of 2023. It's like all the how-to and educational videos even from smaller channels have been tagged as such and now have a premium amount of ad time. Nothing is more infuriating than reading comments and have it the comment space 'control' taken away from you while reading!

[@CCCC-tq8yo]

2 months age

[@CCCC-tq8yo]

It looks pretty bad

[@TurfMechanic]

Sure does...but not when you consider its middle of winter when I did this project...also when considering this was a vacant home for 7 months last year before I moved in.