Machine track marks on lawn

27-08-2022 2:36pm #1

Had a small digger and dumper truck in recently to dig a trench. They left track marks. Will they just come out naturally over time, or should I just rake more soil over them, or should I be forking it all up and rolling it?

Thanks

looksee · 27-08-2022 2:44pm

Its unlikely they will come out without help, depending on how deep they are, though the ground is so dry at the moment they are probably not too serious. You might be able to improve them by stabbing with a fork and lifting the grass/soil without actually digging or breaking the surface (works better on damp soil). Depending on how deep they are the best bet would be to rake soil into the area and letting the grass come through. It also depends a bit on whether you are talking about a perfect bowling green type lawn or a more hardwearing grassy area. Maybe put up a pic?

I had a large lorry drive up my grass recently, it appeared to leave tracks but within a couple of days it was completely gone. The ground was like concrete so it didn't actually do any harm.

The Continental Op · 27-08-2022 2:49pm

Fork at an angle of 45 degrees into the depth of the ruts and push down on fork handle. Do a good bit of that if you can before filling with good soil.

Never like using a roller, never seen it do any good except as part of a cylinder mower. Any high spots can be scabbed of level.

28-08-2022 2:16pm

Thanks for answers. It's a hardwearing grassy area, very mature garden, some on a slope, not a bowling green at all.

The most affected areas are...

IMG_20220828_140054.jpg

IMG_20220828_140104.jpg

IMG_20220828_140205.jpg

IMG_20220828_140307.jpg

IMG_20220828_140322.jpg

Incidentally, I previously asked if the excavated areas should be left fill in naturally or grass seed put down. The advice was to put down seed. But how does one "match" the existing grass, shown below.

Thanks again!

IMG_20220828_140222.jpg

IMG_20220828_140227.jpg

looksee · 28-08-2022 5:27pm

Surely that is the line where the trench was dug? Any trackmarks other than that will sort themselves out as soon as there is some rain. The main area of bald soil, leave it till the weather turns damp again, and give the dug up area time to settle. If it has sunk at all add some soil or compost to bring it back up level. I am not an authority on grass seed but I would think that a mixture for hard wearing lawns would probably be fine. Someone else might be able to be more specific.

29-08-2022 8:41am

Thanks. The brown scar is the trench...the track marks are in the couple of metres of grass immediately to the right of it looking down, left looking back up. Probably difficult to see as the grass wasn't cut for a couple of weeks, just looks a little "rougher".

The Continental Op · 29-08-2022 9:42am

The new grass from seed will look better than the old grass for a while but it will all look as bad after a growing season. I dug up a drain in the spring and reseeded. For ages the grass was greener and grew longer now you can hardly notice the difference.

22-09-2022 11:57am

The track marks did soften a bit, so forked the grassed areas, raked, seeded and raked the areas that were dug up...and will see how they integrate. Thanks for the tips!

caddy16 · 24-09-2022 3:49pm

A bit late but I had an issue with tractor wheels on my lawn and I spread and raked sand. Came back perfectly.

24-09-2022 9:58pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119659614#Comment_119659614

Might do that yet, thanks. I have tackled the big patches but still plenty of smaller patches that will need sorting.

Machine track marks on lawn

Comments