Our lawn was about 50% woods and the other 50% crop land. We did not dig the stumps on the wooded part, rather ground them. Well to begin with was the right thing but long term (20 to 22 years) worst thing to do. We are still filling rotting stump holes. Each year I say will be the last year and this year maybe it will be.
If a few small holes I find hauling dirt in trailer or fel to the area and just using shovel and rake best method. However for bigger areas that are slightly sloped find you must go bigger, dumping dirt and leveling across it slowly lower with each pass so dirt is spilled into all the low areas and not pulled out. It also helps to keep changing the direction you are crossing the dirt to keep from having ripples in it. If you have access to a pull behind blade it will work much better.
This is a problem I have struggled with, man have I got imperfections in my turf.
The video below shows a set of manual tools that appear to used on a athletic practice field so I doubt all of the ideas would work on NON FLAT yards But I do think the idea of drags is useful. In fact the area in the video looks great for British lawn bowling.
Had a friend here years ago who told me the proper pattern to leveling a yard. You go in over lapping circles, well not really circles more like ovals. Got a great laugh on him. Ole Jeff passed a few years later but his advice holds.
Run in circles, ovals what ever works for your lawn with over lapping with your fine leveling equipment. Even with box blade it can help. I very much use over lapping with a rear blade.
Y..., what equipment do you have?If you don't have anything suitable there are some easy DIY hacks I can fill you in on.Best of luck.
I have a Tractor with a loader and a rear grader blade. Right now I have the loader off and the mid mower on. But I would like to hear about DIY hacks as well
The unevenness is caused by a less than perfect original landscaping job, brush and very small tree clearing that has settled after more than a decade. The yard never had any topsoil hauled in, it is just the dirt that was scraped up when the property was stumped. Property was bulldozed and rock hounded and seeded, no hand raking. Soil has lots of small rock in it, for example to dig a mailbox post hole takes several hours and lots of sweat to complete.
The lawn depressions have not been changing in the last 5 years,
No putting green desired, just a nice reduction in bouncing on the tractor.
The down 'n' dirty (pun intended) DIY hack is to roughly top dress the lawn by rigging up a length of chain as a yoke from end to end on one side of an old metal bed frame or something similar to make a crude drag. Make the chain long enough that the front edge just starts to lift up when you drag it behind the tractor. Once you've got it set sprinkle some screened topsoil on top of the frame and start dragging it around. The frame will shave the high spots and allow soil to drop down into the low spots.
One decision you need to make is how heavy you want to top dress the lawn. Repeated light applications will allow the majority of the existing grass to just grow up through the new soil, slowly building depth of soil and roots. A heavy application will require a more serious seeding job and over the whole lawn, not just the 'new' areas that took more fill.
Best way to level Lawn: Tractor Projects -- General Tractor Discussions Discussion Forum
05-16-2020, 09:36 
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