To the untrained eye your lawn might seem to be flat and free from any bumps or humps, but as much as you might like to think this is the case, more often than not, there are bumps in your lawn that can cause a problem when mowing.
Mowing your lawn is something you will do quite a lot throughout the gardening calendar year and it is wise to check thoroughly before mowing that the lawn is bump free. Bumps in your lawn can happen for any number of reasons, the most common being loose debris, which has worked its way beneath the grass and has embedded itself in the soil.
Removing Bumps from Your Lawn
A lot of the time bumps in your lawn are caused by loose debris such as stones and pieces of rubble that have managed to work their way beneath the grass. Removing these pieces of loose material can be as simple as using a spring-tine rake to scarify the grass. Not only does this help to dislodge debris but it also goes some way to reducing the amount of Thatch build up on your lawn that can go on – if left unchecked – to cause fungal diseases such as Mushroom Fairy Ring, Toadstools, Puffballs and the like.
Scarifying your lawn is something that you should do as often as you can, particularly before and after mowing your lawn: scarifying it before hand allows you to remove debris from the grass, which would not only cause bumps but which might also cause damage to your lawn mower. Scarifying afterwards allows you to collect up loose grass clippings, which through time fall beneath the level of grass and provide a humid and moist covering under which the aforementioned fungal problems can take hold. If the bumps are not simply of a cosmetic nature and are something more substantial it may be necessary to top-dress your lawn in places.
Top Dressing
Top-dressing is the process of adding additional soil to your lawn and raking it through so that it falls beneath the grass and raises the level of the lawn. Top-dressing is an easy and cost effective alternative to digging up parts of your lawn and it is something that you should look at seriously before going down the road of excavating areas of your lawn. In a lot of cases top-dressing can help alleviate the problem at a fraction of the cost and work involved in digging out.
In worst-case scenarios however digging out may be the only option available to you. This procedure requires you to careful cut away areas of lawn, which are perhaps raised and then remove soil from underneath them. This can be done using an ordinary garden spade and a board for measurement but it is important to remember that in removing patches of grass in this way you will then have to replace them, top-dress and reseed around the area to ensure that the grass continues to grow and that all joins are filled in.
This may sound like a lot of additional hard work but it is certainly worth while carrying it out as it will give your lawn a level appearance and also make further maintenance to the lawn easier in the long term.