New Lawn coming SOON

[mainelandscaping]

Guys/Gals,

Any help would be great on this one for me. I am a homeowner so sometimes I get in over my head.

I am redoing my back yard. I have sod cut the grass from the back yard I would say about 90% of it is gone, I then rented a tiller today from HD. I tilled the entire back yard, (6000 sq ft.) pretty deep, 4-6 inches. My Sod is coming on March 28th, I am in the Northeast. I have added Lime and will be adding starter fert. My question is, since I have tilled i have not raked the yard out yet, but I think I may have over done it with the tiller and went a bit to deep, the yard is very soft now, what are solutions for this since my sod is coming in 10 days, I need to firm this yard up, but how??? Sorry for the long winded story.

Thanks for any help in advance.

[Smallaxe]

Water it down. Let it dry and rake it level again. That should do it.
BTW. You can't stir up the soil too much. You should've added some compost and such to give it a good start.

[mainelandscaping]

SmallAxe,

Thanks for the quick reply. We are expected some rain here later tonight and into tomorrow I think .25-.50 inch. I also have a sprinkler system so that should do it. I added 2 cu. yards of Peat Moss to help breakup the clay. I also have 5 yards of good topsoil coming this weekend to put on top and rake in.


Thanks.

[Smallaxe]

I hope the topsoil is sandier than the clay base you are putting it on. You may have drainage problems later. Good luck and remember its all fun. :)