Levelling the garden

When is it useful to level your garden?

There are several situations when it is important to have your garden levelled. The reasons are listed below.

• Preventing subsidence: Most people have their garden levelled to prevent subsidence.
• Creating a new garden: If you are going to create a new garden, it is important to have it levelled first. This way, you start with a nice, level surface and prevent subsidence. This keeps your new garden landscaping beautiful for as long as possible.
• Garden renovation: Don’t want a whole new garden but are in need of a major garden renovation? When renovating your garden, it often helps to level the garden. If you then lay your paving back, the garden already looks a lot neater and more beautiful.
• Do you want to lay a beautiful lawn with turf? Levelling the ground ensures that the lawn remains straight and level for a long time. Levelling with grass does not have to be as precise as with tiles. As the soil is often hard, it is wise to till the ground before levelling it.
• Garden paving: If you are having your garden paved again, a level surface is essential. Levelling the ground properly will prevent the paving from sinking again soon.

Step plan garden levelling

Paving your garden is quite a project and takes some time. The time it takes to clear, dig out and level your garden depends on the size of your garden. After that, your garden needs to settle for at least 48 hours. This is when the water drains out of the soil, lowering the ground surface. There are 6 steps to levelling your garden:

Step 1: Dry subgrade

When levelling your garden, it is important that the subgrade is dry. When the ground is too wet, you do more damage than good. Therefore, a landscaper will wait to level your garden until the ground is sufficiently dry. Also keep an eye on the weather forecast, so that you don’t exactly have your garden levelled when there is a week’s worth of rain on the forecast.

Step 2: Removing Coarse Debris

Once the ground is dry, levelling begins. The landscaper starts by removing coarse debris, such as stones, roots and branches from the ground. This is heavy work, so in large gardens the gardener will use an excavator.

Step 3: Digging and filling the garden

After all the rubbish has been removed from the garden, the gardener will dig it out. This is because there is often the wrong ground for your garden, such as earth where you want a terrace, or sand while you want to install a lawn. By excavating the soil first, the gardener easily lays down the right subsoil. The gardener fills the excavated area with soil or sand and then starts levelling.

Step 4: Pressing down the soil

If the new layer of soil is in place, the gardener will start pressing it down. The gardener goes over the surface with a machine or a roller. A well-pressed soil is the basis for a beautiful lawn, terrace or paving. If the soil is not well compacted, it will sink when it rains and your garden will no longer be level. Never use a vibrating plate to compact the soil, because the soil will then be completely dense and no plants or grass will be able to grow.

Step 5: Levelling the soil

After the soil has been well compacted, let it rise. This involves very precise levelling, using a board or spirit level. In large areas of the garden the gardener has special equipment for this. Reeding ensures that there are no holes, bumps or uneven heights in the ground. After stringing off, you should not walk on the ground until the turf or paving has been laid.

Step 6: Lightly rake

When the gardener has completely finished levelling the ground, the gardener rakes it lightly. This makes it easier to lay the turf, for example.

How do you level a garden with a pond?

Laying a garden with a pond takes a little more work, because the gardener first has to close the hole of the pond. For this, the gardener uses coarse construction rubble. How much of this you need depends on the size of your pond. To excavate the pond, a landscaper uses a mini excavator. After the pond has been dug out and sealed, the gardener will start levelling your garden.

Frequently asked questions about levelling your garden

1. Do I do it myself or hire a landscaper?
You can level your garden yourself, but this is hard and precise work. If you push your garden too hard, nothing will grow. With a landscaper, you can be sure of a properly levelled surface. Look for gardeners with a Tuinkeur or Groenkeur quality mark, to make sure they deliver good quality.

2. What do I do with all the waste from levelling my garden?
Clearing and excavating your garden involves a lot of garden waste. To save costs, you can dispose of the garden waste yourself. If you have to do this yourself, though, you will spend weeks filling your GFT container. Don’t feel like doing this? A garden specialist will dispose of the waste for you at the end of the job so that you don’t have to.

3. How much sand or garden soil do I need to level my garden?
Would you like to lay garden tiles or paving? Then fill the excavated garden with sand. Do you want to plant a lawn or other plants? Then use garden soil. To find out how much you need, measure the length, width and height of the hole to be excavated and multiply. Then add 15%, because the soil will settle by 15% during levelling. The required amount of sand or garden soil can be calculated by entering the following formula: length x width x height x 1.15 = the number of cubic metres of required soil or sand.