Levelling the lawn

calumarthur

Hello everyone
I have excess soil from my greenhouse and shed bases which I've recently installed. I'm looking to use this soil to level the lawn a bit so I need to remove the old grass. The grass for about half the garden isn't too bad but as I'll need to turf the other half as it's very patchy from all the work we've been doing (storing sand and slabs on it for months at a time). I'm thinking its easiest to turf the entire thing. 

Question - I'm going to hire a rotavator, is it best to rotavate the old grass into the ground or take it up first? Does anyone have any experience with what I'm planning to do and can offer advice please?

Many thanks in advance.

Blue Onion

No experience personally, but I know others have.  If the grass isn't too weedy, I would just rotavate it into the soil as the top layer is often the richest.  And the grass and roots will just compost in situ, making a healthy base for the turf.  Rotovate now and again for a few weeks in a row to really break up the clumps.  Then lay some turf at the appropriate time this fall.  

calumarthur

Great thank you Onion!