# Leveling Advice Needed



## Tfree20 (May 15, 2019)

First time posting and hoping I can get some advice from others that are in or were in a similar situation.

I'm in central Indiana with a TTTF lawn. The soil has a lot of clay in it, and it needs some severe leveling. My first thought was to aerate, pull the cores, and come back with 50/50 mix of topsoil and compost. I figured that would help add some organic matter to the soil and help with drainage, all while leveling.

What I'd like to know is if that is a good plan, or if I should attack the leveling another way. I'll be honest, I would love to use sand, but depending on who you talk to or what you read, sand is either a huge no-no with clay soil, or totally ok as long as you mix it with topsoil or compost.

Let me know what you think I'm open to any suggestions, although I'm not willing to nuke it and start over because I'm dealing with 1 year old sod that is actually in great shape. It just needs serious leveling.


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Welcome to TLF.

Severe leveling? More than an inch? In my experience that's not easy. Lifting the lawn (as sod) and bringing soil is the best for those depth.

For adding OM to the lawn, then aerate and only add good compost (hot that killed the weeds), topsoil will have weed seeds.

For small difference in depth (1/4in) you can use mason sand when the grass is growing. I did some this weekend in Indy. I've done sand in the past too without any problems.


----------



## Wlodyd (Aug 27, 2018)

I understand compost will settle, so not effective at leveling. You can aerate and fill in holes with compost, that'll help your soil. Then maybe take on leveling this fall, but probably want to separate those tasks.

I'm looking at leveling with a mix of topsoil and Mason's sand followed by a pre-em to hopefully stave off major weed issues this fall.


----------



## Tfree20 (May 15, 2019)

g-man said:


> Welcome to TLF.
> 
> Severe leveling? More than an inch? In my experience that's not easy. Lifting the lawn (as sod) and bringing soil is the best for those depth.
> 
> ...


I do have areas that need fixed greater than an inch, so I was planning on fixing those spots by lifting the sod and adding soil.

The bigger problems are where I have gaps where the sod was laid. I think I should probably add topsoil to those areas strictly to fill in the gaps. Would you agree? Should I mix in sand as well?


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Can you post pictures? I don't love the idea of topsoil due to weeds, but sometimes it is needed.


----------



## Tfree20 (May 15, 2019)

g-man said:


> Can you post pictures? I don't love the idea of topsoil due to weeds, but sometimes it is needed.


I don't know if pictures will show much because of how thick my grass is. Essentially when they laid the sod, they didn't make sure all of the seams we're together. Not sure if that helps explain.

I could just level now with topsoil and sand mixed, and put down a pre-emergent. I'd be fine waiting to overseed in the fall if that would help prevent weeds.


----------



## Tfree20 (May 15, 2019)

Wlodyd said:


> I understand compost will settle, so not effective at leveling. You can aerate and fill in holes with compost, that'll help your soil. Then maybe take on leveling this fall, but probably want to separate those tasks.
> 
> I'm looking at leveling with a mix of topsoil and Mason's sand followed by a pre-em to hopefully stave off major weed issues this fall.


I'm thinking the same thing. Might level now with a topsoil and sand mixture, then maybe again in the fall if needed. I can always add something like Mag-I-Cal to help my soil instead of aerating.


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

Please no mag i Cal for Indy soils. We have plenty of calcium already. It is likely your pH is high. Do a soil test (see signature below) to check what your soil needs.

How old is this sod? Are the gaps between sod greater than 2in?


----------



## Tfree20 (May 15, 2019)

g-man said:


> Please no mag i Cal for Indy soils. We have plenty of calcium already. It is likely your pH is high. Do a soil test (see signature below) to check what your soil needs.
> 
> How old is this sod? Are the gaps between sod greater than 2in?


My pH is definitely high, based on a soil test that was just completed this week. Any recommendations on what to add that will lower it?

The sod was installed around late March/early April of 2018. I believe I have some gaps that are approximately 2", but most are probably less than that.


----------



## DiabeticKripple (Apr 14, 2019)

I'm in the process of levelling my lawn.

I used screened loam. Ya it might have weeds, but it's cheap and so is weed killer. It also levels nice.


----------



## SNOWBOB11 (Aug 31, 2017)

DiabeticKripple said:


> I'm in the process of levelling my lawn.
> 
> I used screened loam. Ya it might have weeds, but it's cheap and so is weed killer. It also levels nice.


You have to be careful bringing in weed seeds in your soil because you can end up with grassy weeds that are harder to deal with like poa a triv or quackgrass. It's not so much the easy to deal with broadleaf weeds that are the problem.


----------



## JDgreen18 (Jun 14, 2018)

Does it matter what your soil composition is currently before deciding what to topdress to level it. For instance if you already have sandy soil why would you want to level with more sand. Using the opportunity to bring in some topsoil and or OM seems like the right thing to do weed seeds or not.


----------



## doogie89 (Apr 29, 2019)

g-man said:


> Please no mag i Cal for Indy soils. We have plenty of calcium already. It is likely your pH is high. Do a soil test (see signature below) to check what your soil needs.
> 
> How old is this sod? Are the gaps between sod greater than 2in?


I am in this situation right now. I have a pH of 8.1 up in metro Detroit, Michigan. Local nursery recommended Mag-i-cal plus but my soil test showed me as having Calcium through the roof. Looking for alternatives to slowly bring down the pH. Currently I am using Milorganite, which has lots of calcium. I may switch to just some regular fertilizer for a while. I also am putting down the GCF products, including Air8, Humic-12, Microgreene and RGS. I am just hoping those help build the new construction soil. Any suggestions for lowering the pH without calcium based products? I know sulfur is the big one, but how much and what not.


----------



## Tfree20 (May 15, 2019)

doogie89 said:


> g-man said:
> 
> 
> > Please no mag i Cal for Indy soils. We have plenty of calcium already. It is likely your pH is high. Do a soil test (see signature below) to check what your soil needs.
> ...


I was reading some other posts within the forum on lowering pH and here's what I took away...

1. It takes a long time, sometimes years, to lower soil pH.
2. If the water you use to irrigate has a high pH, then you're more or less SOL on lowering your soil pH.
3. Adding organic matter will help with nutrient availability, but may not lower the pH as much as you'd like.
4. Even if your soil pH is high, that doesn't mean you can't have a really nice lawn.

I think what I'm going to move forward with is I'm not going to worry about the pH. I have clay soil, so I'm going to start incorporating more OM when I overseed, aerate, etc. I'm also going to look at using Air8 or something similar, as well as some Microgreen or something similar. I want to improve the quality of my soil so my lawn is better overall.


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

^+1

This thread  about lowering pH.

In short, we learn to live with high pH. Use ammonium sulfate and foliar iron or Milorganite to get some color. This is my lawn with high pH too.


----------



## doogie89 (Apr 29, 2019)

g-man said:


> ^+1
> 
> This thread  about lowering pH.
> 
> In short, we learn to live with high pH. Use ammonium sulfate and foliar iron or Milorganite to get some color. This is my lawn with high pH too.


I just went through the whole lowering pH thread. Lots of good info in there. In short, it seems like lowering the pH is an endless battle with so many factors to account for. The better solutions seems to be living with what you have. My soil right now is super high in Calcium, Magnesium and fairly high in sulfur. I have little iron and other micro nutrients. My lawn looks pretty good all things considered. I do alternating apps of milo and carbon x right now with the GCF bio stim pack. It'll be interesting to see how it holds up during the summer heat.


----------

