Mowing Uneven Ground: Expert Tips and Tricks

Is uneven ground making your mowing task daunting? Fear not. Our expert tips and tricks are here to make this challenge achievable. We have the solutions you’re looking for.

Mowing uneven grounds, this is how you do it:

For uneven lawns, raise the mower deck and cut taller before slopes to avoid scalping. Hover mowers are ideal for uneven ground as they don’t touch the surface. Use a riding mower for gentle slopes and decrease speed while raising the deck over bumpy areas.

Keep going to find out how to make mowing uneven ground less challenging. Our expert solutions are designed to help you overcome this hurdle. Let’s turn this challenge into a walk in the park.

Mowing uneven areas in your lawn

If you have uneven areas in your garden, the best way is to try to level them. Uneven lawns diminish the beauty of your house. They are also not suitable for any activity like playing or running. Rough areas are always difficult to mow. There is always a chance of scalping.

Scalping occurs when the mower deck comes close to or hits the ground. It is always challenging to mow at an even height on slopes. Mowing at slopes increases the risk of damaging the lawn as the mower blades might cut into the ground.

This happens when the front of the lawnmower-cutting deck is already over the top of the slope, and the back of the deck is not. Depending on the hill, the blades will be closer to the grass at that time. This means that the grass will not be cut evenly or may hit the soil.

• The Impact of Uneven Ground on Your Mower

This may affect your mower as well, along with damaging your yard. If you use a tractor to mow the lawn, you should never drive straight across the sloping due to the risk of tripping over. Try to dive straight up and down across the slope.

This will reduce the risk of tripping over, and it will also help in mowing across the challenging slopes. To avoid scalping on uneven grounds, raise the deck of the mower and cut the grass taller just before you reach the top of the hill.

When the lawnmower reaches the top, you can return the height to its original setting. This can help in alleviating the problem of mowing at slopes. Choosing the right lawnmower for your uneven lawn is also important.

• Challenges of Using Push Lawn Mowers on Uneven Ground

Simple push lawnmowers are less suitable for sloping areas as they cannot cut at bumps or depressions. If your lawn has gentle hills or steep slopes, a hover mower is right. Hover lawnmowers are ideal for cutting uneven grounds.

These mowers hover above the ground, making them easy to push and adept at mowing uneven surfaces. These mowers are not designed to touch the ground; thus, they can be perfect for rough ground. The Hover mower creates a cushion of air between the lawn and the lawnmower.

This air cushion helps the mower get raised from the lawn’s surface, allowing the mower’s blades to cut the grass. Unlike the traditional rotary lawnmowers with wheels, these mowers can be moved easily in any direction.

• The Advantages of Hover Mowers for Uneven Lawns

The weight of hover mowers is less than that of rotary mowers, which are easy to push/pull up and down slopes. These mowers are incredibly maneuverable since they don’t sit on the wheels. Mowing the uneven areas in your lawn can be very easy with the help of these mowers.

If you have an oddly shaped lawn or a lawn that contains many things that need to be maneuvered around, hover mowers suit you the best. A sitting lawnmower will be a better solution if you have a large lawn with uneven parts.

• Finding the Optimal Height for Uneven Areas

These mower types are less capable of cutting uneven parts, but they can deal much better with your lawn size. When you reach the uneven or rough parts, decrease your speed and increase the mowing height.

Try to find the best height for these parts, but always keep your speed down. After leaving those areas, you can return the height to its standard setting.

Causes of uneven lawn

Various natural and unnatural causes make lawn areas uneven over time. Settling, drainage issues, heavy garden equipment, and repeated mowing in the same pattern are the most common issues contributing to the lawn’s unevenness.

Lawns naturally settle unevenly over time or may agree with new construction. The small settled areas can be fixed by topdressing, but if the lawn has decided by an inch or more, you need to remove the sod, fill the settling area and then return the sod.

You might see bumps and bulges in your yard during the spring thaw if you have clay soil and live in an area where the soil freezes in winter. This issue can be solved by aeration of soil that breaks up the surface soil redistributed.

• Effects of Animals, Children, and Pests on Lawn Evenness

Animals, children, and pests can also cause your lawn to be uneven. Wild or domestic animals may create low-lying areas in your lawn. For example, your dog may enjoy digging your lawn for unknown treasures. Children and pets playing or walking across a soggy lawn may cause depression.

Pests like voles, moles, and grubs can cause holes and mounds in your lawn. Mowing your lawn in the same pattern can cause ruts to develop. Drainage issues, broken water, or irrigation pipes also cause bumps and depressions in your yard.

If you notice low spots around the areas with water or drainage pipes, you must ensure no leakage in the pipes. Similarly, a sprinkler system is a common cause of soil erosion since the water lines are prone to damage.

• Proper Functioning of Rotors

It would be best to ensure that the rotors are working correctly, the nozzles are not damaged, and the heads are not leaking. Having a thin lawn from a disease or pest problem that weakens the area is also a common cause of bumpiness in the lawn.

Patches of bare soil are created due to having a thin lawn. With time, these patches erode due to rainfall, wind, or any other activity on the lawn, resulting in depressions compared to the nearby healthy areas.

Leveling out your lawn   

Before getting started, you must assess the severity of unevenness in your lawn. This will dictate your approach towards leveling it. For example, if you have slight bumps and holes in your yard, you can fix them by topdressing.

However, if the problem is severe, you must adopt more aggressive treatment, such as re-grading. There are several methods to level an uneven lawn. Depending on the unevenness of your lawn, you can choose any of the methods for repairing it.

One common trick to level your lawn is sweeping under the carpet. You can cut out the turf’s uneven patch, add soil underneath it, and lay the patch back. In this way, you can level the lawn without having any unsightliness of bare turf, which happens with the other methods. 

● Leveling small irregularities

Small bumps can be leveled by stepping on them during the spring months or flattening them by using a water roller. You need to fill the roller with water and roll it back and forth over the bumpy area on your lawn.

If the surface hasn’t smoothed out, add more water until it levels down. Topdressing is one of the best methods for balancing mildly uneven areas. It involves spreading the leveling mix of topsoil, compost, and fine sand.

Sand provides good drainage, while compost adds nutrients to the soil and promotes grass growth. Play sand is the best soil to use in this process. An ideal mixture for topdressing includes 40 percent topsoil, 40 percent sand, and 20 percent compost. The basic steps involved in this method are:

• Step 1. Lowest setting: Set your mower to the lowest possible setting and mow the grass.
• Step 2. Mix correctly: Mix the leveling mix thoroughly to blend the sand and compost with the soil.
• Step 3. The top: Apply up to half an inch of the mixture on the top of the low areas.
• Step 4. Rake: To spread the topdressing evenly, rake it.
• Step 5. Push boom: Use a push broom to brush the grass back and forth to work the mixture down while lifting the grass blades, as grass can’t thrive if it’s covered with soil.
• Step 6. Watering: Water the area where the mixture is applied. Avoid overwatering. Otherwise, you might wash away the mixture.
• Step 7. Monitoring: Monitor the progress in the area. You may repeat this process several times if the grass is still not even until it is level.

● Sweeping under the carpet

This is another technique to level small-medium recessed areas covered with grass. The steps involved in this method are:

• Step 1. Edges: Cut the turf along the edges of the open area.
• Step 2. Remove the patch: Remove the patch carefully, ensuring you don’t cause any root damage.
• Step 3. Spread the topsoil: Spread a layer of topsoil or potting soil over the cut area enough to level the patch with the surrounding lawn.
• Step 4. Place the patch: Place the turf patch by pressing the grass back to its place with your hands.
• Step 5. Water and monitor: Water the grass and monitor the patch carefully. The patch is under the stress of being removed, so it may take extra care to recover.

● Leveling out severely uneven lawn

If you have large depressions and bumps in your lawn, top dressing and sweeping under the carpet method will not be sufficient to solve the problem. Re-grading and establishing a new lawn might be the only option you have.

It would be best always to create a slope mowing away from your house to drain appropriately while re-grading. Your slope should be approximately two to three inches every ten feet. The essential steps involved in regarding the lawn are:

• Step 1. Slope line: Use a transit level to establish a slope line for the lawn to drain correctly.
• Step 2. Remove the topsoil: Once the slope is established, remove the topsoil from the problem areas and fill in the low regions accordingly.
• Step 3. Spread 2 inches of topsoil: To avoid drainage problems between two soil layers spread two inches until it becomes the first two inches of subsoil.
• Step 4. Spread the remaining topsoil: Spread the rest of the topsoil up to at least four inches.
• Step 5. Lay the sod: Once the final grade is established, you can lay the sod, or you can start grass from seed.

The best time to level your lawn

Spring is the best time to level your lawn and eliminate the bumps and holes in your yard. Warm days and cool nights make it an excellent season to repair lumps and bumps. This season will allow your grass to grow healthy and provide the moisture necessary to help set the soil.

It will be easy for the grass in your lawn to recover from the stress in this season. But, it can also be the worst time if the soil is soggy. Too much traffic on the lawn can cause new bumps as the ground might be very soft due to the snowmelt. So, always wait until the soil has had a chance to dry out.

Preventative measures

To keep your lawn level, you must take preventative measures to avoid creating bumps and depressions. The two main things you can do are:

• Cutting patterns: Change the cutting pattern while mowing to help you avoid creating ruts from your lawnmower wheels.
• When wet: Don’t walk or put much traffic on your lawn when it’s very wet.
• Pest control: Regularly apply pest control to your lawn so that pests like moles and voles don’t dig holes in your yard.

Remarks

To mow uneven areas in your lawn, it is essential to increase the height and lower the lawn mower’s speed. But if you have uneven ground in your lawn, it is advisable to try to level it with the rest of your lawn.

This will add to the beauty of your lawn, give it a pleasant look, and reduce the extra effort needed for mowing on rough terrains. Assess the unevenness in your lawn and choose the method that suits the scenario.

If you have small bumps and depressions, level your lawn with the topdressing or sweeping under the carpet. However, if you have steep slopes or gentle hills in your lawn and you can’t drop the lawn due to specific reasons, don’t worry!

• The Challenge of Mowing on Rough Terrain

Modern technology has paved the way for this problem. Mowing on rough terrain can be difficult, especially at higher elevations where air density decreases, causing a decrease in the power output of the mower for rough terrain.

This is because the combustion process in the engine requires a certain amount of air for combustion. When the air density decreases, the engine might not get the necessary amount of air for the combustion process, which can lead to a decrease in power output.

But thanks to modern technology, we now have zero-turn mowers designed to work efficiently on rough terrain and at varying altitudes. These mowers have a power stroke engine that works in high elevations without significant power loss.

• The Need for a Mower for Uneven Ground

So, if you are looking for the best mower for uneven ground, a zero-turn mower could be a great choice. It is a lawn mower for rough terrain designed to handle rough terrains and work efficiently even in high elevations.

This makes it the best mower for lawns with uneven ground and rough terrain. Remember, a well-maintained and leveled lawn is aesthetically pleasing and makes mowing much more accessible and enjoyable.

So, take the time to assess your lawn, choose the suitable method to level it, and invest in a good lawn mower for rough terrain if necessary. Your lawn will thank you for it!