Levelling a garden - how..?

When you say level do you mean make the top surface smooth or make the whole thing without any slope? What end result do you want? If it is all going to be grass and you don't mind the slopes then the rotavating approach will probably work, if you want to get rid of the slopes it depends on how much of a slope there is and how they meet the edges of the plot. What is the growth like? is it decent grass/meadow, or is it the remains of a building site? Is there any soil?

If the garden, or even part of it has a slope, you will not remove the slope by rotovating, you will need to get it terraced or some other form of terraforming, which will involve a digger. My own garden has a significant slope but the surface is pretty level - ie there are no humps and hollows in the grass.

We are probably talking at cross purposes here, a photo would help.

In asking about the grass I was trying to establish if there is a good soil layer, the fact that it is mossy suggests there is a problem that rotovating might not help. Its impossible to know without looking at it and more information.

I have about 1/3 of an acre which is largely level (not sloped) but very rough. I suspect it is the result of 15 years of rabbits occasionally visiting and doing a small amount of digging each time. None of the holes or dips are big enough to trouble the lawnmower at all, but it’s not a surface the kids would be in a hurry to place football on- as it’s annoying rather than unsafe.

it also has significant thatch in parts.

Do I get a load of top soil or sand and scatter it out and rake it?

Do I just roll it?

Or just kill off and reseed?

I’d agree with that. When I bought my house, the garden was wild. The grass was up to my hip and it had tree branches woven through it from an old oak tree that overhangs. It was also littered with holes, I think from grazing sheep.

I strimmed it a few times before using the lawnmower. I filled the biggest holes with bags of horticultural sand Woodies were selling off. Then I got 20 tonnes of top soil and used the wheelbarrow and the rake. It was an awful lot of soil to move but luckily I had help. I sprinkled some fresh grass seed and walked a roller across it. That was two years ago and I’m really happy with the results, it is a pleasure to mow and the kids can play on it without risk to their ankles.

Very rough guess would be 25 yards x 40 yards. We used ~4 or 5 tonnes of the soil to raise the edge of the garden up to meet the curb we were putting in.