I've been waiting to plant a lawn until March because by May the huge Elm tree in the garden (and those in surrounding gardens) blocks out most of the light. I'm planning to sow special seed for shaded lawns which I've seen for sale in my local hardware store. Drainage is poor so I'm going to dig it over and cover with compost and sharp sand. My problem is levelling the soil, I have no idea how to do this. The area is about 12m by 5m. Every one tells me I'm mad and I'll never get a lawn to grow in such an inhospitable area but I'm determined. I'm a complete novice, please help!

On Feb 23, 6:30*am, maguire21
wrote:
I've been waiting to plant a lawn until March because by May the huge
Elm tree in the garden (and those in surrounding gardens) blocks out
most of the light. I'm planning to sow special seed for shaded lawns
which I've seen for sale in my local hardware store. Drainage is poor
so I'm going to dig it over and cover with compost and sharp sand. My
problem is levelling the soil, I have no idea how to do this. The area
is about 12m by 5m. Every one tells me I'm mad and I'll never get a
lawn to grow in such an inhospitable area but I'm determined. I'm a
complete novice, please help!

--
maguire21

If it's just soil, with no clumps of grass, etc, then raking by hand
will level it. Growing grass in light shade isn't difficult, but in
dense shade, it can be diificult or impossible and other vegetation
may be more appropriate. I'd also suggest the following:

Test the soil ph before tilling and adjust if needed by applying
pellitized limestone before tilling

Buy a good quality shade mix. You may want to use two different
mixes that have different varieties of grass. Apply at the highest
recommended rate, along with starter fertilizer.

Get the seed down early. It will germinate when the temps rise and as
you know, the coming shade isn't your friend

Trim out the bottom of the trees to let as much light as possible in

Keep the area constantly wet, which in the shade probably means
watering lightly twice a day.

In the Fall, make sure to remove leaves promptly so they don't kill
the grass.

I previously had a garden where one part of the lawn was in shade 75% of every day. The lawn on the shaded side got full of moss and nothing I tried ever worked. Sharp sand and a special grass mix is worth a try, but if the results are poor after two years, it will only get worse and I would give up. As to the levelling, clear any weeds, rake it over and remove stones, fill any hollows with soil from somewhere else in the garden, get the sharp sand on there, rake again, firm it down (walk all over it in a kind of shuffling motion with all the weight on your heels) rake again, fine tune any hollows, lightly rake to get a sowing tilth and then sow your seed. If poss cover it with fine netting, otherwise the birds will eat a lot of the seed. April is a good time to sow grass seed.
Good luck ( I don't envy you!)