Leveling the lawn

While I am not too concerned for areas far away from my home, I believe the area around my home is best when it is level. I don't want to worry about rolling my ankle every time I walk out my back door if you catch my drift.

I have found two solutions that have worked for me, but I still am getting into the groove of 'properly' leveling the ground. If there are deep ruts or a significant grade that needs to be changed, I tend to utilize a screened topsoil to build up the bulk of the dirt. If there are small divots, I will go the cheaper route and utilize sand.

This all started after I started getting my hands on good quality soil for my raised garden beds and needing to use any leftovers each year. The extra dirt has been used to gradually flatten my lawn area and gently guide rain away from my house. A little bit of seed thrown down and you would never know that there was soil moved around.

I don't have a fancy landscape rake, which might be neat, so I use my garden rake to level out spots. I'll walk to a distance and eyeball the divots/slopes and come back to fix it up more. I'm not looking for perfect but something practical.

What about digging a new pond/swale and using the soil from that?

You probably already know this, but I’d make sure to have a slight grade away from structures for 10+ft to ensure drainage. As mentioned above, a pond, swale, or rain garden that provides soil for grading the lawn could also catch french drain runoff to infiltrate. In fire prone areas like mine, roof runoff going to a wetland or well hydrated garden around the house (at least 6ft away from structure) can be a good approach.

M Ljin wrote:What about digging a new pond/swale and using the soil from that?

I think that would be an excellent idea to source dirt right from home and for the cost of only some sweat equity. I have a bit of an awkward spot where I live that consists of only a third of an acre total and I have to be creative with my solutions.

I dream of a day where I have a house on a hill, with ponds and terraces galore. That dream also conveniently has heavy equipment and my back is made of titanium.