Well, it’s not really a garden as such – it was a ploughed field, so it’s not completely flat, and there are some wide parallel humps in it. However, it looks really nice when the (wild) grass is cut.

The main problem is that it’s afflicted with holes and uneven bits where rabbits have dug burrows, moles have excavated tunnels, and sheep have trod in it up to their knees when the ground was soft. It makes walking on it when pushing a mower quite unpleasant – I can see me twisting a knee or something. Also, the lawn mower’s wheels can dip down into hollows or holes, making the mower either cut into the grass/soil, or miss the grass completely.

I’m not looking to turn it into a billiard smooth lawn, but it would be nice to get rid of the worst damage. I was thinking about buying a garden roller, filling it with water, and pushing it over the grass when the ground was damp. However, I’ve just read that rolling a lawn is bad for it, and I’m not even sure if it will be effectual.

I don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to it, plus I don’t really enjoy gardening anyhow. It’s a fair skelp of land, and I don’t want to get anyone in to work on it.

I’m just looking for a quick way to do a half-decent job.

Topsoil and a bit of seed in the hollows? My lawn is also an uneven mess but by the sounds of things you have quite a large area to sort out.

Yep, just get in a load of soil, rake it out so it falls into the hollows and the grass pokes through most of the rest.

Pump track ?

Would you spread the top soil with shovel and then roll it afterwards? That might be the best way of doing it, but I don’t have the time for that – it’s a big area, and I think it would take days, and it might require a mountain of topsoil.

It wasn’t too bad a few years ago, but things went downhill after a load of cows got in. The farmers don’t really bother to maintain fences. At the end of last year a few sheep got in, and they were there for a week or two before the farmer rounded them up. They make a terrible mess because they’re so heavy, and when the ground is soft the indentations their hooves make can be a few inches deep.

I did wonder if a rotovator or something might be an option!

You watched sheep roam around your garden for a week without chasing them out?

I wouldn’t roll topsoil. Just use it to fill hollows.

OR, get a farmer with a harrow or whatever they call it to just level it and then reseed the lot.

Really only one tool for the job:

Don’t simply spread topsoil and use a roller – it would be much easier to invent a time machine and pop back in time and tell the cows to “Shoo”.

And then come back, without doing any other change to the world.

Then tomorrow you could murder hitler before he came comes to power

Bigger mower or get it chain harrowed when soft but firm enough to get a tractor on. Sounds like your neighbour owes you, they are responsible for fencing against their own stock.

It makes walking on it when pushing a mower quite unpleasant

Even with lovely flat lawn/paddock if it’s a big area this is going to get old very very quickly.
Get a decent sized ride on mower and you’ll find it will be much easier and will not be affected by the holes as much.

I’m looking out of my office window at one of the paddocks that we keep mowed – it’s about 1.5 acres and I can tell you that you’re going to need some bigger equipment in the spring as the grass just grows so quickly.

These holes do tend to fix themselves over time though so I wouldn’t sweat it too much.

How big an area are we talking about?

As suggested above you have to rake the top soil into the holes and let the grass grow through it. Which means, you mustn’t cover the grass completely (which would kill it)but leave it poking through so it grows up and you keep repeating the process until its as you want it. Sounds like it will take a couple of years.

Self-levelling concrete topped with synthetic grass?

I’m not sure what area it is, but when I was using a Honda petrol mower it would take about 3 hours to get around all sections of the garden walking at a fast pace (mulching the grass). There are also some trees to cut around, and other obstructions, so it’s not a straight walk backwards and forwards with a turn at each end. There’s also a fair bit of moss under the grass, so the mower can bog down and stall in that. It would certainly help if the grass was a bit more even.

Last year I bought one of those Fiskars hand mowers (a reel mower with gearing) which is quite heavy, and which I had to push around without any engine assistance! It just got harder and harder work as the season went on, and it tired me out – I got progressively slower, and even less enthusiastic as the weeks passed! Some mornings I’d do a little bit before work after spending some time on the turbo trainer! Sometimes I had to give it 100% effort just to keep the thing moving when the grass was a bit longer or damp. I’m in Scotland, and I’m not at home during the day, so there aren’t many days when the grass is dry in a typical summer.

This year I’ll probably buy another petrol mower. I was looking at the Toro Turfmaster (30″ wide cut) but from Internet reviews it sounds like it’s not ideal, and not as reliable as a Honda.

Is there such a thing as a ‘hand harrower’? I see there are Honda Mini Tillers – not sure if they would be any good.

IME there are two ways to do it, one is to half do it and spend the rest of your life hating mowing it and the other way is to do it properly.

First sort out the fences etc so no animals can get back in, second look at the drainage (does it need doing?) and then third get it levelled. Once levelled, seed or turf it.

And then buy a sit on mower 🙂

Is there such a thing as a ‘hand harrower’? I see there are Honda Mini Tillers – not sure if they would be any good. [/I]

Aldi sold these a few weeks ago:

https://www.aldi.co.uk/gardenline-1050w-electric-tiller/p/069066008259900

Works decently enough.

I wonder if i could be of assistance actually! I’ve looked after two very similar ex-field garden lawns and have used a Ferris zero turn, agricultural tyres and cut and drop. Both gardens improved a lot over a couple of years. I’ve got before and after photos.

I no longer look after these this year and am selling the machine cheaply…! £450, a 36″ Ferris hydrowalk in good working order, used only by me for 6 years or so.

??

3hrs mowing would drive me insane!

This is a before and after, around 2 years apart, from mowing it weekly with the ferris. A lot of the unevenness flattened out in this time. Takes about 45mins to mow an acre with this.

Thanks, Dan. I’m not sure what it is, but I’ll send you a PM!

My email’s in my profile.