Level out an Uneven Lawn With Topdressing

Areas of a lawn can become uneven over time, due to “settling” and other factors. In the least extreme cases, you will want to solve the problem by “topdressing,” which allows you to level out your lawn. Is this problem new to you? If you have never experienced it, you may need a brief introduction to it — and its solution — in order to understand what it is all about. The following exchange between a reader of my Landscaping website and a lawn care expert at Timberline Outdoor Services provides a case study that will help bring you up to speed.

The Problem: Low Spots Develop in a Lawn, Making the Surface Uneven

Reader, Springtime writes, “I have a lawn that was put on over a ledge where the house was build in 2006. Now the lawn is very uneven with dips in the surface that can twist your ankle while walking. The grass is in bad shape too and looks dead in places. One side of the lawn is sloping. What should I do?”

The Landscaping Brighton Township has given answer to this question bellow:

The Solution: How Bad Are Those Low Spots?

Most of us enjoy our turf grass lawns as a great foundation for outdoor activity. Maintaining our lawns properly is very important, in part, to ensure safe and enjoyable outdoor activity. A lawn needs to be smooth to avoid injuries that might be caused from stepping on an uneven surface. Your grass is the “floor” of an outdoor living space, and floors need to provide stability.

A level and even lawn is also easier to maintain. Who wants to mow a lawn with low spots in it, right?

Not only is it uncomfortable (as when you drive your car over potholes), but it can also cause you to scalp the grass (because, as the mower drops down when the tires pass over low spots, the level of the mower blade also drops, plunging into the higher spots and cutting the grass there much too low).

So what is the solution to the problem of low spots? It really depends on the severity: are we talking about some minor depressions, extreme cratering, or something in between? The solution differs accordingly, which is why the response must be broken up into three parts, which we will term Methods 1, 2, and 3: Landscaping Lawn Brighton MI.

Method 1 — Leveling Out a Mildly Uneven Lawn by Topdressing

Topdressing the low spots works well for leveling mildly uneven areas; it is the least invasive approach. Here is what to do:

1. According to the Lawn Care Brighton Township, in a wheelbarrow or similar container, mix up a batch of topsoil, sand, and compost — basically, a soil medium that can support turfgrass growth.
2. Apply 1/2 inch of this soil mixture on top of the low areas. Do not make it deeper than that, because this approach must be gradual, so that you do not smother the grass.
3. Rake the topdressing to spread it out evenly.
4. With a push-broom, work the soil mixture in between the blades of grass as thoroughly as possible.
5. Monitor the progress in the area. Eventually, you should see just grass, no dirt (assuming there were no bare spots before you began the process of topdressing). If it is still uneven, keep repeating these steps until it is level. If the spot is level now, then you are done.

But if you had bare spots in the area before you started topdressing it, you will have to overseed for the Lawn Service Brighton Township.

Method 2 — Leveling Out a Moderately Uneven Lawn: “Sweeping the Dirt Under the Carpet”

The topdressing process described above takes time to work. What if you have a few really low spots in your lawn? Obviously, topdressing would not be very effective, because (since you have to proceed 1/2 inch at a time) you would be waiting forever. Yet, since, it is only a few low spots that we are talking about, there would be no need to take the kinds of drastic measures described in Method 3. Fortunately, there is an lawn care intermediate method. I call it “sweeping the dirt under the carpet,” because you are essentially picking up sod (the carpet) and putting dirt under it. This method works as follows:

1. Remove the sod over the low spot (if the area is bigger than 1 foot square, cut out multiple chunks, since a piece of sod greater than 1 foot square is hard to move around without breaking) and set it aside.
2. Shovel enough topsoil into the hole that, once you replace the sod, the area will be even.
3. As you shovel the soil into the hole, add water. This will remove air pockets. The last thing you want is for the sod to settle after you have finished — which would defeat the whole purpose of the project.
4. Replace the sod and water the grass.

Method 3 — How to Level Out a Lawn That Looks Like a Moonscape

Finally, we come to the most extreme end of the spectrum. Is your lawn so littered with craters that it looks like the surface of the moon? If the uneven areas are substantial enough and numerous enough that neither topdressing nor the sweep-the-dirt-under-the-carpet method will solve the problem, then you may need to do a more major renovation by regrading the area and establishing a new stand of turfgrass. To accomplish this, you need to take the same steps that you would take to establish a new lawn, except that you are applying these steps to a smaller area.

Start Sprinkler System after Winterizing

To start a sprinkler system after winterizing you must first know where the sprinkler system shut offs are. If you had an irrigation service company shut down, blow out, and drain the system sometimes it is easier just to call them back to turn it on. Many Lawn Care Wichita KS will even shut your sprinkler down for the winter and start it back up when the time comes. If you can find the main sprinkler shut off valve and have a key to turn it back on then you can turn it on yourself.

Most of the time the shut off valve for the sprinkler line is in a long irrigation tube near the sprinkler control boxes.

The most important thing when turning on a sprinkler system is to turn the water on slowly. You can cause a huge water hammer by turning the water on too quickly and this can burst fittings or pop off sprinkler heads. No matter which valve you are turning on make sure you open it slowly and give it time to pressurize before opening it all the way. The following steps of Lawn Service Wichita KS will guide you through the process to start a sprinkler system after winterizing.

1. To turn a sprinkler system on located the sprinkler shut off valves. In my area, there are stop and waste valves in the ground and then pressure vacuum breakers above ground. Both of which are usually off and can shut off the sprinkler system. You can deal with your local Lawn Care Wichita professionals.
2. Turn on the valves. The stop and waste valve in the ground requires a long meter key to reach it. Most stop and waste valves turn 90 degrees in a counter-clockwise direction to turn them on. This type of valve will sometimes leak a little when first turned on but it should be only for a short time. Keep an eye on it and make sure the valve is not continually running.
3. Pressure vacuum breakers are usually turned on with two ball valves that are located on either side of the vacuum breaker valve. The ball valve in the parallel position means it is on while the perpendicular positions mean it is off. A quarter turn is all that is needed to turn on a ball valve. Make sure it is turned on as slowly as possible.Time to check the individual sprinkler valves.
4. It is a good idea to remove the sprinkler head at the end of each line before turning on the sprinkler valves. This way if anything is in the line it will get flushed out and it will also protect against any water hammer in case you turn the valve on too fast. By this time you will have water to the pressure side of the valve and you can turn the sprinklers valves on one by one to see if there are any leaks in the sprinkler lines themselves. Sprinklers can be turned on at the timer or by using the manual screw that most sprinkler valves have on the side. But you can turn the system on slower if you do it manually at the individual sprinkler valves.
5. Take your time and go through each of the sprinkler stations because if a line is broken underground it may take some time to bubble up. Dig up and repair any leaks and replace sprinkler heads that are broken. Make any necessary adjustments to the spray pattern of the sprinkler heads. Let it run a bit and check the coverage. Some spray heads may have to be cleaned out or adjusted before working properly again.
6. Set the timer. It’s a good idea to set the watering times when you can keep an eye on the watering especially in the beginning of the season to make sure everything is working properly.

Christmas lawn care marketing ideas

Even though the end of the year tends to bring a slow down in the amount of work you may be performing on lawns, it doesn’t mean you should sit back and chill out until next year. This is a great time to create some new holiday Howell Lawn Care material to send out and begin the process of drumming up business for next year. Let’s check out how one business owner is doing just that as he shared with us his holiday marketing methods on the gopher Timberline Landscaping.

He wrote “as my mowing season has been slowing down at the end of fall, it’s been a bit quiet here so I thought I’d have a go a updating my website and preparing for the new season ahead.

I’ve tried to keep it simple and basically update my website to promote all the services I offer. I was thinking about adding a feedback section or guest book kind of thing so customers and visitors could add comments or discussion on my work etc.

I’m also about to send Christmas cards and a fridge magnet calendar out to customers and just a card to people who I quoted for but didn’t get the business. The inside of the cards mention to visit my site for a discount, I am offering them 10% off any job they hire me to perform. The promotion ends 3/31 of next year.

I got the fridge magnet idea from visiting homes of customers and members of my family who happen to have fridge magnets from traveling or visits to places as some people like collecting them. This is the first time I’ve tried the Christmas card & fridge magnet marketing idea.

As a result of this I thought what an ideal opportunity for promotion as I figure lots of people like to have a calendar of some sort around the house, so why not a fridge magnet! After all, people are always going to the fridge or need to check the calendar for a date. So every time this happens they’re gonna see my advertisement and are more likely to give me a call first when their garden or lawn gets out of control.

This is another reason why I went for a 12 month ad in the local community magazines as well. People read the magazine all year long and they will see the my ads. If you are there month in and month out, people are more likely to see and remember it more than the advertisement that appears once….I believe this is known as TOMA (top of mind awareness). What that means is if you see a brand or advertisement enough times, your subconscious stores the information even if you are not looking for that product or service at the time, you are somehow familiar when you do require it.

I also sent them out before December as you’d like to be the first Christmas card they get this year and won’t get lost among st all the other ones that land on the doormat for Christmas. As for Christmas cards , it is method of thanking the lawn care customer either for their business for the past year or raising the awareness of those who didn’t give you the job this season. Toledo Lawns.

I designed and ordered the cards and fridge magnets online as there are plenty of printing shops that offer some good deals on cards and magnets at the this time of year.

In order to figure out which lawn care marketing method is performing the best, I do try to keep a track of where my referrals come from, but inevitable I sometimes forget to initially ask. From a quick review of my clients and where they got my contact information from I’d say that most have come from Google Adwords, 2nd would be the advertisements I placed in the community magazines, third is dropping my business card flyer through peoples mailboxes, and finally word of mouth at the current time.

Tips For Winter Lawn Care

In most of the country, the grass is dormant in winter. The racial season of the fresh season is often exceeded in the field of grass to maintain a Lawn Mowing Brighton Township. In the north it is too cold that the grass grows, so we wait patiently for the spring – sometimes under the snow cover, sometimes not. The care of the grass, however, is not entirely in winter.

Winter Lawn Care

1. Fertilize

Apply fertilizer with a spreader.

If you move the machine back and forth on the lawn, grasp the handle as a trigger and release the pellets when firing. Follow the instructions on the fertilizer package. Just adjust the recommended amount by Landscaping Lawn Brighton MI. Be careful because too much fertilizer can burn your grass.

2. Aerate the lawn

Provide some extra air for grass roots by listening to your lawn – to make dirt swords on your lawn to plant holes to sow seeds. You can rent a motorized aerator or a manual version.

3. Spread Cool-Weather Grass Seed

Buy grass seed that says “cold season” or “cool time” in the package, like most hinges. You can sprinkle the seed through the lawn with the same spreader you used for the fertilizer. Try to spread the seed evenly, so you will not get grass seeds later.

4. Stir and water the lawn

Drag a rake over the lawn to clean the bottom clogs and cover the seeds a bit. Water the grass with the hose spray.

Then keep the soil moist – do not let Lawn Service Brighton Township it dry.

More Winter Tips

Wipe it off. It is very important not to leave debris, leaves or toys on the lawn. These things can lubricate the grass, create disease conditions and invite insects, mice and other harmful pests.

Slowly cut the height of your mower with a hook or two (.5 “- 1.0”) a few times. Excessive long grass can avoid the disease causing the disease and the risk of frostbite and thaw damage. However, do not overlap the grass and screw to expose the crown of the plant to extreme conditions.

Note the traffic. Under the snow cover, or exposed to the elements, inactive grass will tolerate a moderate amount of traffic, but a heavily worn path will be slower to grow in the spring and to cause compaction.

Save time. Peat is very resistant and can tolerate an extreme winter, but certain conditions can be harmful in the long run. Perhaps it may be useful to extract a small exposed ice at a low point if you know that a winter storm is approaching or freezing.
Winters can often be unpredictable and can put your grass through some extreme Landscaping Brighton Township conditions during the winter. It is best to make sure that the grass heals, that it has good grass laid down, must control the weather and aims to build in the maintenance of its sidewalks and snowmen.

Lawn Care Tips For Late Summer

1. Type of weeds & geographic location

Find out what kind of grass you have before you start reading what kind of grass food to run. In many countries such as the United States see the plant site for the state and municipality. This helps determine the growing season for grass and shrubs and landscaping. It will also show information on water, land and light requirements in its geographical locations. Howell Lawn Care has a significant impact in this regard and has very reputation too.

2. Signs of anxiety

When you are referring to your planting area, now is the time to look at the climate of your lawn. The end of summer usually means hotter sunshine for the longest part of the day. Track the lawn to see some areas lack water or be attacked by insects or seasonal diseases. Consider hiring a groundbreaking service if you are not familiar with local emergency conditions that may support your gardens. Shade trees overhanging your home, and can help shade plants in your home that require the day, while those who are not protected, plants should be stable.

3. landscaping tips

For many households, especially in suburbs or areas with more stable elements of continuous grass – shrubs and flowers is a great option to continue to soften its country with texture. Look at your local nursery for plants growing in the sun or semi-shaded areas planted near the house. Shrub can withstand time throughout the year, not just summer. This ensures that your plants are maintained throughout the year. According to the Howell Landscaping flower shrubs are a great alternative to grass lawns as they give a variety of “show” colors throughout the year.

4. Soil test

If you find that your lawn does not grow or act like its neighbors, it can mean many things. A lawn care can be performed on a ground test or take other ways to improve your lawn. Directly around your home may lack enough nutrients, ph levels and other natural balances needed for healthy foundation development. Aerated periodically needed to grow or melt in its soil. This helps in the air over the earth and can help lawns in the need for greater stimulation of growth and healthy nutrients.

5. Solve problems next time

While you can not think of it, your lawn Passing cycles and all the work you are doing now, the result is not seen until next year, if not next year. Therefore, prepare your future summer lawn in preparation for the future. Many ants are common in hot climates. Every homeowner has their own way of treating pests: chemicals, natural solutions and other drugs are common. Howell Tree Service will suggest that whichever you choose, make sure that the first sign of the problems. Brown spots, dilution and chew of grass blades of grass pest signs that can ruin the lawn for the next season.

6. Selecting fertilizer for the late summer lawns

Her late summer grass needs another fall or winter vegetable lawn. Depending on whether you are trying to build a pit or fertilizer need to solve a problem, depending on your location, lawn situation and other local factors. Visit your nursery store or home improvement and take pictures of your lawn problem areas and can help you find the right fertilizer for your country. A “Weed and Feed” generic -A variety can be good for their neighbors, But pest control is required. Also, check out tips before buying and distributing fertilizer.

7. Attractive rustic country

For many homeowners who have a natural landscaping theme at home, a lawn can be fun. Wild flowers and shrubs still should be finished and cleaned to maintain a neat appearance in his country. Find out if your country’s mulch and gravel beds are closer to home and wild flowers and shrubs go far at home. It helps keep the intentions of his country without finishing their plants continuously. You may also hire Timberline Landscaping professionals if these are in your Michigan.

8. Be sure to cut correctly

While you may not think that lawn mowing may have an impact on the growth of your lawn or your health, think again. Mowing with a dull spray above the grass and show the poor and neglected mower. Grass cutting may result in too much sun to guarantee the root of your lawn and cause burns. Like a man with short hair no hat in direct sunlight – the same is true if the grass is cut too short or “extortion”. Make sure your mower is set to setting your lawn proper height.