Tire marks, whether from a lawnmower or a larger vehicle, make your lawn look unsightly and compact your soil. Once the mark is there, you start to wonder, how to remove tire marks from your lawn? And if the marks are deeper, the reasons for your worry only grow!
You can repair tire marks by loosening the soil beneath them with a pitchfork. Give the area a light watering after you’ve finished this.
If there are any ruts that are more than 4 inches deep, you will need to treat them more aggressively. Experts recommend, reseeding or replacing the sod, but that is not necessary for the average lawn.
How to Remove Tire Marks from Shallow Ruts
Shallow ruts that are less than 4 inches deep are usually fairly simple to repair.
Take your spade fork and gently loosen the compacted soil layer with it. There’s no need to dig too deeply with your fork because there’s only a thin layer of compacted soil here.
With your fork, locate the rut’s edge, set it at a 45-degree angle, push it a little deeper into the soil, and then press down on the handle.
Using the fork to pry up the earth and sod in this manner should lift it. Continue until it’s about an inch above the rest of your lawn’s level, as when it “settles. Once the lawn settles, it’ll be at the proper level.
How to Remove Tire Marks from Deep Ruts
The process is slightly more involved if a heavy vehicle drove over your lawn. Especially if it was wet, and you’re dealing with deeper ruts. It’s possible that your lawn might become uneven, but it’s still possible to restore the lawn to its former glory.
Loosen Up The Soil
First, loosen the compacted soil (this will make step 2 easier). Place the fork at a 45-degree angle along the rut’s edge once more. Push the fork deeper into the ground to loosen the compacted soil.
You’ll now need to clear any remaining grass out of the way. Doing this will help you fill in the rut more easily. You can do this by cutting down one side and each end of the rut with an edger.
Make sure you get right down to the soil by cutting through the thatch. Then scoop up the grass with your fork and fold it over onto the lawn. You’re now ready to fill the void.
Fill In The Area
Now that the grass is out of the way, loosen up the soil in the rut even more to give the new grass the best chance of rooting and flourishing.
Combine your topsoil and sand (or compost) in a 50/50 ratio. This will ensure that the area drains well and is resistant to compacting in the future.
Fill in the rut with this mixture, making sure there are no gaps, and then fold the grass back down onto the newly laid bed of soil, pressing it down firmly so the grassroots are in contact with the soil beneath.
The grass should sit just a little higher than the surrounding lawn once you’ve done this. It will be level once the ground settles.
Seed The Area
Most of the time, you’ll also need to seed the area. Make sure you use the same type of grass seed. Go over the area carefully with a rake to ensure the seed is spread evenly.
Following this, the most important thing to do is to water the area on a regular basis to give the grass the best chance of taking root and flourishing.
Keep an eye on this area for a while to ensure it doesn’t sink below the rest of the lawn.
If it does, you may need to follow the steps outlined above for shallow ruts to bring it back up to level. In the worst-case scenario, you may need to re-cut the sod and add more soil moisture.
How To Prevent Tire Marks in Your Lawn
We are sure you came here looking for solutions on how to remove tire marks from your lawn, and the next best thing we can offer is – how to avoid them in the first place. Here are some pointers:
Avoid Mowing When It’s Wet
Mowing your lawn when it’s wet, or dragging other types of heavy machinery over it when it’s wet, is one of the surest ways to create a nasty-looking rut on your lawn.
These items will sink into the ground as a result of their weight, leaving unsightly marks all over the place. Don’t do it until it’s completely dry.
Switch Up Your Mowing Pattern
There are numerous lawn mowing patterns to choose from. Each time you mow your lawn, approach it from a different angle. This will allow the ground to recover and ensure that rut repair is never on your to-do list.
Avoid Using Aggressive Tire Treads
A tire with aggressive tread patterns will provide you with better traction. However, in order to achieve this, these larger treads sink deeper into the soil and damage more grass, leaving damage in the form of tire tracks all over your lawn.
A simple solution to this problem is to replace your lawnmower’s tires with tires that have a pattern similar to the tires that came installed from the factory.
Can Tire Marks Kill Your Grass?
Since you are looking for how to remove tire marks from your lawn you are probably also wondering what happens to the grass if you don’t make any attempts at all. As long as the vehicle hasn’t been parked on the grass for an extended period of time, your lawn should be fine.
Although it will survive, it will be flattened, and yellow patches may form near these areas as a result of the blades of grass being smushed together. All in all, the grass will lose its luster.
When grass isn’t spread out evenly, the grass on top steals sunlight from the grass beneath, which can result in yellow spots.
Although a quick drive across the grass will not kill it, this is not the case when it is frosty outside.
When there is frost on your lawn, the water inside the blade expands, making the grass extremely fragile. Driving, or even walking, on a frosty lawn is extremely damaging to the grass.
Final Verdict: Can Tire Marks Go Away On Their Own?
Fortunately, the majority of the time, the answer is yes! That being said, it is unlikely to occur overnight.
This is a difficult question to answer because it is dependent on the weight of the vehicle, the width of the tires, the type of soil, and the speed at which the vehicle was moving across the yard.
Your lawn should be able to heal itself as long as no one parks or drives on it on a regular basis. You can always fix it yourself if that doesn’t work.
