Plan on making your leveled site slightly bigger than the structure or feature that will be going on it to give yourself a little more margin of error. It may be okay to skip this step if you’re only leveling your site for aesthetic reasons and aren’t going to be using it for any specific purpose
Be sure to pull on a thick pair of gardening gloves to protect your hands while you work. Don’t worry about the holes left behind from digging up small trees and other plants. You’ll be filling these in along with the rest of your site. Consider hiring a tree removal service to deal with large trees that you can’t easily take down and uproot yourself. [3] X Research source
Dampening the grass on your leveling site with a hose may make it easier to pry up in neat, intact sections. There’s no need to remove your sod by hand if you’re going to be breaking up your soil with a tiller. One of the many advantages of this tool is that the spinning blades automatically turn living plant matter like grass into mulch. Assuming you’re not in any particular hurry, it’s also possible to kill off the grass in your work area using slower, less labor-intensive methods like smothering or applying herbicides. [5] X Research source
You can rent a motorized tiller at any major home improvement center. This piece of equipment can save you a considerable amount of time and energy breaking up and blending soil, sifting out rocks and debris, and cutting through underground roots. [7] X Research source
You’ll find landscaping stakes in a variety of materials at any hardware store or gardening center. You can use stakes of any size, so long as they’re tall enough to mark your intended level-grade line.
Be sure to tie each length of string as tight as possible. If one of your strings sags, it may throw off your readings once you attach a level. Nylon is much stronger than other common string materials like cotton or jute, which makes it less likely to sag or break. [10] X Research source
A good level line will only run you around $2-3, and is a handy tool to have around for a variety of projects.
To make more precise micro adjustments when lowering the string, try tapping the stake on the higher side deeper into the ground instead of going to the trouble of moving the string itself. [13] X Research source Establishing a level with your string first will give you a helpful visual reference that you can check while adding or reshaping the dirt at your work site.
If you plan on cultivating the ground you’re leveling, consider mixing your soil with 1 part compost and 2 parts sand to introduce beneficial nutrients and make it less vulnerable to compaction. [15] X Research source To level the ground around smaller holes, depressions, and ditches, disperse your soil equally over each of the spots you want to fill, leaving the surrounding surface uncovered.
Measure noticeably high or low patches along your level-grade line with a tape measure to get a better idea of how much soil you’ll need to displace. [17] X Research source This step is simple but time-consuming, so be patient and focus on getting every part of the soil as flat and smooth as possible. To deal with large areas more systematically, draw out your leveling site as a grid, using the stakes you put down earlier to represent the criss-crossing lines. Measure and mark high and low spots within the squares based on how much soil they need to gain or lose.
If the bubble is higher on one side of the level, it means that the terrain slopes downward in the opposite direction. Using a board as a buffer will give your level a flatter surface to rest on than the soil itself, which will naturally be a little inconsistent.
Ask about renting a roller or another tamping tool of choice when you go in to reserve your motorized tiller.
Oversaturating the soil could result in runoff, uneven drying, or other issues that could end up undoing all your hard work.
If you plan on replacing the strips of sod you dug up earlier, make sure the dirt remains 1–2 inches (2. 5–5. 1 cm) below the bordering grass. Otherwise, the grass will end up being too high in the area you just leveled. [22] X Research source You can also top off the soil with a thick layer of sand or decomposed stone if it will be supporting a weight-bearing structure, such as a deck, patio, or raised flower bed.
