Help! Lawn looks like 'Perfect Storm'!

I'm very new to gardening and after moving in to my current house six years ago I'm finally getting to the stage where I am able to think about the lawns.
When I moved in, all the grassed areas (I have lawns to the front, side and back of the house, and they are vast!) were knee high with coarse grass and the back gardens, which are by far the biggest, were shoulder height with brambles. Over the years I've managed (a little more each year!) to get the brambles cleared just by cutting them back and constantly keeping the areas mown, they do come back in spring/early summer which sets me back a bit each year. So, I now find myself with short grass which is full of moss and weeds to the front and side, and very patchy to the rear of the house. However, by far the worse part is that walking from one side of the lawn to the other can have me differing in height by two/three feet in places! From bits in the middle that for some reason have huge peaks (maybe only a couple of feet in diameter) and then massive troughs where a border once lay and also dotted around the main body of grass. In places, the grass is a couple of feet above where the path is and it gets to maybe 6-10 inches below the path where the border was, again with peaks and troughs dotted around the lawn. It definitely resembles a rough sea! Although the back garden gets a lot of sunlight, I do have privet hedges which on one side which are about 15ft on side and 12 on the other and at the back. The front gets plenty of sunlight all day long.
So, I guess my question is (if you haven't fallen asleep!) do I need to rotavate? If so, how do you go about rotavating?! If not, is there a less back breaking way to get a lawn where my kids won't break an ankle?!
Also, turfing isn't an option as the area is huge and it would prove far too costly, so, when is it best to lay grass seed?
After taking six years to get this far, I'm not looking for a quick fix! But I would like to see some progress this year!
Thanks to anyone that has some advice!

 

Hi Nicola, welcome to the forum!

If it was me, I'd be inclined to tackle the height of the hedges as 15' seems incredibly high for a privet hedge. It must be casting a lot of shade which may be why you have so much moss in the lawn - grass needs quite a bit of light to grow well. I'd have thought 8'would be plenty high enough to give you privacy.

I can't quite visualise the bumps and troughs in the lawn - any chance of a photo? We love photos.

 

Thanks for your reply and very warm welcome!

Yes, the hedges are definitely an issue, I had someone cut them back quite considerably last year but I've yet to tackle them this year, the problem is they're also very thick so I can only get a few feet on my sides down so they remain ridiculously high on my neighbours sides. Now I've got the grass down they'll be easier to tackle and that's next on my list!

I'll try to post some pics now, I'll just get on the laptop!

 

Rotavating works like a plough, so you will end up with a ploughed field, I am wondering given the huge varieties in height, is there anything under there which grass has over years grown over, thinking rockery etc, can you poke anything ,thin metal tube, through the soil at some of the high points to have a "feel" for anything .

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Nicola,
if only there was a magic panacea...... ,
Jenny Namaste

 

Thanks everyone!

Pamsdish - I'm fairly sure that there will be a plethora of 'treasures' hidden under there, when I was cutting the brambles I found all sorts, from parts of uPVC window frames to scaffolding!

Jenny - magic would be great but I'm happy to get grafting!!

Ok, I'm attempting photos, bear with me!

 

Hope these help but they're not very clear apart from showing the forest that is my hedges!

 

Good photos. I must say it's not nearly as bad as I was imagining! Any idea why there is a bare dry patch up in the right hand corner?

 

That's where I only just finished getting rid of the thigh high grass!!

The pictures don't really do it justice to be honest, you have to walk on it for the full experience!

 

As Pamsdish says, have a poke around for hidden objects. Maybe, if it's a newish house, there's builder's rubble etc. You could use soil/compost with grass seed mixed in to fill in some of the trenches. Eventually that would even things out.
Or, you could totally replan the garden, building paths or borders over the worst bits so they don't matter any more. Not a quick fix, admittedly!

 

Nicola your lawn is not huge at all - my parents had their lawn rotated and returfed last year which is larger than yours and it wasn't expensive. It was well worth it as it looks great now.

Maybe returf one lawn area each summer to spread cost would work well.

S