growing a lawn

Darryl G

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I strongly recommend against rototilling a lawn to renovate it. It's a lot of work, brings a lot of rocks to the surface that need to be dealt with and destroys the soil structure. Depending on the depth of your topsoil you very well may end up bringing the poorer underlying subsoil to the surface too. Just not a good idea and a lot of unnecessary work IMO. You're much better off just slit seeding in most cases. You can do a couple of passes without seed in the hopper to level things out, then add seed and make a couple more, with the second one perpendicular to the first.

In cases where the lawn is uneven or has a clumpy growth habit I have have better success with using a power dethatcher (power rake) and then broadcast seeding after hand raking. A slit seeder and a dethatcher are very similar but use different styles of blades, with the slit seeder ones being fixed and the dethatcher being flail-type. You can set the dethatcher a bit deeper, but you will also have a lot more grass/debris to deal with.
 
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cpurvis

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I've done two yards using a rototiller and never had any of those problems.
 

Darryl G

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Or you just don't know that there's an easier and better way ;)

This is what I do for a living...lawn care and landscaping. Rototillers are fine for gardens. There is no reason to till that deep and have to regrade the whole area. I have never seen a lawn care professional rototill a lawn to renovate it in the 15+ years I have been business. I have seen "Harley Rakes" used. I've also seen a Toro Dingo with a soil renovator attachment used. Pretty cool machine really. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIGrYSWplxs
 
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cpurvis

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Here's the deal: I have a rototiller; I don't have a slit seeder.

I tend to use what I have on hand and it worked pretty well. My experience tells me the rototiller method works pretty good without having to rent a piece of equipment I don't own.
 

Darryl G

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Here's the deal: I have a rototiller; I don't have a slit seeder.

I tend to use what I have on hand and it worked pretty well. My experience tells me the rototiller method works pretty good without having to rent a piece of equipment I don't own.
Understood. I'm in a different situation working for profit where I can just pass any rental fees on to the customer in the interest of keeping my labor down and expediting the project. My experience tells me that the tiller creates a lot of unnecessary work in having to level everything back out and dealing with sods clumps etc., so I was trying to present the OP with an alternative. In cases where I have converted lawn areas into landscape beds I will use a tiller, but I remove the sod first either manually or with a sod cutter.
 

corvairbob

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thanks doug. i understand where your coming from. but my top soil is rather deep. i rototilled some sections last year and i never did get into poorer looking soil. and like one other person stated i don't have access to the other equipment and unlike some i don't have time or profit constraints. i can do this in a few days and rake out the weeds and dead grass after a few days and any stones the appear. and i can rake out the yard at that time. but others may benefit from your ideas. ihave not yet decieded if i'm going down that path i will see it the spring. thanks
 

Darryl G

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Never mind - post deleted
 
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