Levelling the top of a grave?

thejuggler

Sadly my parent passed away 6 weeks ago.

I notice on visits to the cemetery that adjacent graves where people were laid to rest maybe 2-3 months ago are now leveled out completely but our grave is still mounded up much as it appeared after burial with no obvious settlement.

Was just wondering if the cemetery staff routinely level off graves after a period of time or should I expect to see rapid settlement in the next few weeks? Maybe the recent dry weather has slowed down this process.

Am just unsure what to expect.

Isthisthingon?

Condolences for your loss OP.

I presume it is a 'grass' cemetery where the graves do not have any border?

I'd imagine the policy is different in every grave yard but in our experience the staff didn't touch the grave at all. We had to sow the grass seed ourselves or just take the chance of natural grass and weeds growing.

Either way we actually leveled off the grave too early ( about 3 months after burial) . We came back a few weeks later to find more sinkage. I would recommend leaving a good 5 - 6 months before leveling off if you can.

thejuggler

Yes it’s a lawn cemetery. A lot of the nearby graves are level with green artificial grass mats on top. I’m guessing that the dry summer has slowed down the process to some degree. Family members are keen to intervene and remove the mound but I think it may be too soon.

brownej

It depends on the cemetery I suppose, but my husband is in a lawn cemetery too. The ground staff there leveled out the graves and sowed grass seed. I visit the graveyard very regularly and have observed that the frequency of it is very arbitrary. So its not like they go around and do it after a set time. They just do it every so often. I had set grass seed and tended to my husbands grave and within a week they had been around sowing grass seed.

The artifical grass matts you mentioned would be put there by the families. I have observed in the cemetery that in the new areas there can be lots of mats and plants and little fences and all sorts on the graves. But when you look over at the graves that are a few years old they are all leveled off and lawn. Give yourself time. Dont be in a rush to do stuff.

You can always ask one of the staff in the graveyard. Funerals are usually around lunch time so there will be grave diggers around for that.

thejuggler

I’ve never seen any grave diggers at this location - just one new burial there in the last month.

As you suggest I feel that everyone is doing their own thing regards decorations and tributes.

Was surprised to find the pot removed from one of the plants we left on the grave. Someone decided they wanted a pot so just took it. Nothing is sacred.