How to smoothen a bumpy lawn

Usually we ignore bumps on our lawn. But as time goes by ignoring these bumps, mowing your lawn will start to become difficult and its usage will be limited. But don’t think that fixing it requires rocket science or a set of specialized tools. And we promise, sorting it out will be easy.

Below are the things that you’ll need to know on how to fix your bumpy lawn.

First, let’s discuss the solution that is pretty much popular - using a lawn roller. But is this method good or bad for your lawn?

Straight answer, it's bad for your lawn. It’s true that it flattens the lawn. But it can only do it on small bumps and depressions. Not on areas that are more uneven. And since its main job is to flatten out the lawn, its side effect is that it will also compress the soil. And doing this on the soil is the exact opposite of aerating your lawn. Soil aeration is important because it will let your lawn breathe oxygen and consume the needed soil nutrients more efficiently.

And we hope this explains why using a lawn roller is a bad idea on flattening a lawn.

Now we proceed on how to smoothen your uneven lawn with your hand. Do not worry as this will be easy. Doing this will save you on renting or borrowing a lawn roller and it will also provide you with an easy, long term solution for lawn bumps and depressions of all sizes.

1. Find all the uneven areas of your lawn. You can do this by giving your lawn a close cut and as long as the grass can obscure the uneven spots. You will need to do this carefully on your yard for you to see all of the bumps and depressions so for it to be fixed at once.
2. Find out the reason why those uneven areas occur. In most cases, it is because of water pooling or running off in large amounts. If this is the cause then you may consider looking into new drainage solutions and try to see where your gutters are depositing the water into your yard. Bumps are usually caused by anything that could be buried under your lawn (ex: rock, root, tunnels caused by moles, etc.) By correcting the causes of the bumps, you can be sure that your yard will remain flat.
3. Once you have found the causes of all the bumps and depressions, then it's time to fix it by placing topsoil on all of them. Try to keep the topsoil thin if there’s grass underneath for the grass to grow through. After putting the needed amount of topsoil, use a leveling rake to go over it and to break up any clumps or chunks of rock from it. Try your best to get it as evenly close as possible. You may need a leveling tool if necessary.
4. If needed, perform grass reseeding for some bare spots on where the grass does not grow through. You will be amazed on how smooth and even your lawn is once the new grass grows out from those bare spots.
5. For those areas of your lawn that have huge bumps or depressions, you will need to pour in a lot of topsoil. If this is the case then you will need the new topsoil to settle. In order for you to do this, you will need to thoroughly water the new soil, then leave it to settle for a couple of days. Remember that this is an important step for the new topsoil to remain in those areas. Then check your lawn if it remains leveled and there’s no water pooling or settling has occurred in the unleveled or low areas. If there is no water pooling that occurred then you have successfully smoothen your lawn. If not then you may level it out some more.

Here are some answers that you might have in mind before or after doing the steps above to smoothen your lawn.

Will this method fix my sloping yard?
The process of leveling a sloping yard is much more different and in depth than the leveling of a bumpy lawn that we described above. Leveling a sloping yard usually requires re-grading your lawn. And before you re-grade your lawn, you need to find the highest and lowest points then measure the angle or grade between them and correct accordingly. Re-grading your lawn is a considerable project that homeowners choose to address on a DIY basis. It would be better to hire a professional landscaping company to re-grade your lawn if needed.

Will the uneven areas remain level?
Yes. Your lawn should remain level for many years to come as long as you have fixed the cause of the unevenness of your lawn to develop in the first place.

Can I use sand to level my lawn?
Yes, but using sand will not make the leveled parts of your lawn “fully green” again. Because grass cannot draw nutrients on sand. This in turn will result with very pronounced thin spots in your lawn. That is why we recommend using topsoil.

In conclusion, by doing the steps above and using topsoil, you should be able to cover up the bumpy and uneven areas in your lawn with minimal difficulty. But you might consider doing the steps two to three times to get your lawn completely level. Rest assured it will be worth it once you have an even, beautiful yard for your friends and family to enjoy.​