First relax because it is too early to try to level your existing yard. You need to wait until the grass is growing vigorously.

The type of sand you are looking for will be a coarse grain sand with irregular sized grains. You do not want to use river bed or fine grained sand.

First question before I make any suggestions is do you have access to a riding lawn mower or lawn tractor.

First thing I will throw out there is to start simple. And you can do this now before the grass starts growing fast. Soak your yard until it is good and soft. Then use a lawn roller filled with water and make a few passes.

The rest I will save until you tell me if you have access to a riding lawn mower or not.

Did you read this link about one person's experience with leveling hybrid bermuda?

Another great thread can be found by googling "Bermuda lawn leveling with pics!!!". It's the first entry, and has the whole process with many pics.

TW, no I don't have access to a riding mower. Just one reel and one rotary push mowers. I suppose what has me thinking I can do it sooner than later is that my backyard is already greening and requiring mowing.

I thought I could use the "scalping" recommended at the beginning of the season to do the leveling at the same time. Sounds like a bad idea? If I do it later should I still scalp when it starts to green up and then again before leveling in say April or May?

Did you do the reading suggested above?

The reason for a riding mower is to pull a bigger drag.

I did yes, geat write up. I "might" be able to borrow a riding mower but not 100% sure. If not this is going to be a serious undertaking seeing how much leveling needs to be done. I might just spot level the really bad areas with a pick up truck load of sand rather than 8 to 10 yards worth.

My biggest question is can I level at the same time I do the first scalping of the year or do I need to wait until may or June? I've already mowed the backyard twice and the front yard is just starting to show signs of greening up. My scalping to start the season cant be more than a few weeks away. I'll post some pictures so you can see what I'm talking about.

pictures... I'm having an issue posting multiple pictures here so sorry for the multiple posts. This is the backyard.

backyard 2

backyard 3

frontyard 1

frontyard 2

frontyard 3

last one... frontyard 4.

Looking forward to hearing back about 1st scalp + leveling or needing to wait for later in the year to level. Also, timing for first scalp with the backyard already greening up and the front yard much more dormant. Is this normal?

An alternative to bulk sand is bagged sand. You can return unused bags.

Texas-weed has mentioned leveling dormant bermuda. I don't remember if the approach was different than what you have read or not. I have seen bermuda smothered early in the spring by applying too much compost. It was covered to the point where even bermuda did not recover until the following season.

I googled lawn leveling in Austin:
http://www.austinsmarthomeservices.com/lawn_leveling_top_dressing_dillo_dirt.htm

The service that did mine last year used a much higher sand mix.

rager ... I got quite excited and emailed that company. Here is their extremely thorough response: "we Dillo dirt only. we only level st Augustine grass ". lovely. Seems like there is money to be made in the area as no one either A - knows how to do it or B - wants to do it.

Out of curiosity do you remember who you used and what they charged? The picture looks like they did a great job.

I'm leaning towards doing it myself and renting some equipment. I've convinced a neighbor to do it with me and rent a bobcat for loading the dirt into the back of a dump trailer pulled by a riding mower than drag it using a homemade drag. Can anyone comment on time of year and if I can do it soon with my backyard already greening up? It would be great to do it at the same time I scalp the yard at the beginning of the season.

Yes, of course. They sell just the sand/compost mix too for us in ATL. I used Level Lawn http://www.levellawns.com/beforeafter_list.aspx

They charged me a little over $800 (2 years ago every one was quoting $1200).

So here is a place that seems to best know whats going on. Does "fill sand" look or sound right? It looks really chunky. They also have masonry sand. Advice appreciated?

http://www.989rock.com/products/sands.html

Here is a link that might be useful: sand options locally

I have used bagged masonry sand when I'm patching in places. As long as it isn't chemically treated like play sand. If you can find pete (not pete moss) to mix with it, that'd be great. Hard to find in GA.

Look up geo growers turf topper. They are way down south but at least the pictures will give you an idea what to look for. Mr. George is sometimes on klru gardening naturally with skip.

Kerig01,

Did you find a place to purchase the sand? I was also considering whittlesey, I have a similar lawn, about 6,000 sf of one year old tif bermuda. I can't even drop my rotary mower too low without bottoming right now. I'm following the guidelines in the bermuda bible and the lawn has done very well since it was installed, but I need to work on leveling this spring.