Last summer was the first summer that I lived with my bf. And I noticed that the lawn is very hard and bumpy...and the grass isn't very thick. Ideas? I know that my dad use to ride the lawn mower with a heavy rolling attachment, so that it would even out. But bf's lawn is about 20 ft by 120 ft, and we don't have a riding lawn mower. Tips? Advice?
Since the ground is already hard you don't want to go compacting it further with a roller. Compacting pushes the oxygen out of the soil, killing it and any beneficial critters living there. Sounds like the best thing to do would be to aerate to let air and water soak in. Maybe even a good tilling. Also, have a soil test done to see what you need to amend with to bring life back. Once you have workable soil again then you can start leveling it out with rakes and shovels to plant grass seed or create flower beds. Anything you put on top of it (compost, grass seeds, etc) while it is hard and compacted will just wash away since it doesn't have a chance of breaking the hard surface of the soil.
I would suggest you aerate your lawn. Aeration is the process of exposing air to your lawn in order to purify it. This will help your lawn.
