Help: How to even out a lawn?

[milesmachine]

Hoping for some advice from a very amateur gardener!

We have a good patch of lawn over our garden that has been hit over the years: foxes digging holes, new puppy digging, changing flower beds to be part of the lawn etc.

It has meant we have some big divots in the lawn and quite a lot of uneven patches. This hasn't been a problem until having children has mean they are constantly falling over on the uneven ground.

I know Spring is usually a good time to sort out the lawn - can anyone advise the best way/order/process to do this?

We have tried putting patches of turf over really bad areas but this has sunk over time and not really improved things!

Thanks so much

Mix 50/50 sand and mud and sprinkle it into the divots to even them out and then sprinkle grass seeds on top and water regularly for a couple of weeks.

You need bags of decent topsoil, a garden knife and a small spade. The trick for evening out dips is to cut an X in the turf with the knife to cover the whole dip, use the spade to lever back the triangles of turf under the roots (leaving each one attached on the third side) and then fill the hole with some of the topsoil so it's slightly proud to allow for settling. You then put the turf back and press down/water well. There's usually a crack where the turf doesn't quite meet up, which you fill with topsoil and a bit of grass seed.
If it's still dipped, peel back one or more triangles and add more topsoil. Repeat with next dip. If you have the opposite - do the same except take out some soil!

I agree, you can peel back the turf on the humps and remove soil from underneath which flattens those out, and do the opposite with the dents, which raises them up.

Also, it is worth staying off the lawn in really wet weather as it compacts the soil and isn't all that good for it.