"dips" in lawn

[SH]

We had a lawn laid 4 years ago.

A trench had been dug for the laying of water pipe and SWA cable at 600 mm depth. This trench was back filled and I asked the landscape gardener to use a wacker on the trench before laying the lawn to avoid the lawn sinking along the trench as the trench backfileld soil settled.

I think He missed part of the refilled trench as the lawn has now sunk.

So whats my best option to fill in the dip?

1. Mix of soil and fresh lawn seed?

1. Use patchMagic (which would not be cheap)

2. carefully lay on successive layers of soil and hope that the existing lawn root system will grow into the added soil?

1. Cut a square around the dip, lift as a piece of turf, pour in sooil to level out dip and then replace the turf back down?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Have a double G & T and forget about it,

[SH]

That is not an acceptable solutionm according to SWMBO! :-)

[Tim Lamb]

In message <t7qso7$6n9$ [e-mail], SH [e-mail] writes

I did number 4 where soakaways caused dips in our lawn. I have an inherited *turfing iron* which makes the job easy. One drawback in Hertfordshire is the number of flints found in topsoils:-(

I saw a video a few years back of an American levelling his grass yard. Length of heavy steel channel and a pile of sharp sand.

I would avoid number one as lawn seed mixes vary hugely and may lead to a finer grass patch of a different green.

[NY]

Apparently the best thing is to cut a cross in the middle of the depression, peel all four edges back to the corners, fill and tamp/whack, and then relay the peeled-back turf, filling any gaps with soil and grass seed. We need to do that in a depression in our lawn - maybe the ground has moved a bit, since it's not far from the edge of a large pond. We need to fill that before one of us stumbles and takes a dive into the pond ;-)

[Colin Bignell]

Have you checked that the pond is not leaking and washing away the sub-soil? If it is, filling the depression will only be a temporary fix.

[Animal]

If you're in no rush the easiest way is to sprinkle a little soil down on occasion, not enough to kill the grass.

[4587Joey]

So trade her in on a replacement.

[Chris Hogg]

No. 4 is by far the best way, although if you leave it long enough (like 50 years!) it will magically smooth away. This has been my experience with two lawns - humps and dips do seem to even out over time - I have no explanation; perhaps it's the repeated action of mowing with a traditional mower. But 4 is pretty quick to do, and easy. Just keep the patch watered in dry weather until the roots re-establish.

[Chris J Dixon]

It depends upon the depth of the dip. I would say if it is a few mm, sprinkle soil periodically; if it is a few cm, cut a cross, peel back the edges and fill.

The latter may need a little sprinkle afterwards to achieve bowling green standard. ;-)

Chris

[Jonathan]

Or clean sand.

Jonathan

[R D S]

Hahaha, I was looking at lawn leveling methods on Youtube the other day and decided to care less about it.

[R D S]

I'm pretty sure our lawn used to be more level than it is at present. It's all over the place.

I do put the mower on it's lower setting and try to scalp the lumpy bits but parts of it are plainly sinking.

[Martin Brown]

How deep is it now and why didn't you fill it a bit at a time when you noticed that it was slowly sinking?

+1

Depends how experienced you are and just how bad the dip is.

The classic way is to cut an H shape into the offending bump or hollow and peel back the grass to add/remove soil underneath. It sounds easy enough on paper but the first time I tried it the grass expended and would not fit together again. I am lucky that it was before video cameras were common or I might have been on "You've been framed".

Gardening World explained how to do it way back. I blame them!

If it is only a couple of inches then top dressing with a mixture of topsoil compost and grit 2cm at a time will allow you to adjust levels. Snag is that is most easily done in the autumn.

[Brian Gaff]

Well, how big is the dip? If its fairly big then lifting and fixing and replacing can work, but it will never be a bowling green. Are you on clay?

Brian

[SH]

its probably 100 to 150 mm in the centre and is about 450 mm diameter.

[Brian Gaff]

Yes well, when I had a lawn flat enough to worry about such things, I removed the whole piece and used soil, tamped it down well then spiked it and put the turf back, Slightly proud, but did sink back after a rfew months. Don't mow it for a while though. However, the type of soil underneath can scupper all attempts of a flat lawn. MIne is on clay and is a bit like a meadow, but its good for the wildlife. Brian

[David]

How large is the dip? Is it large enough to fit a disapproving object with a little extra work? May need to hire a plate compactor of course.