lawn top dressing

Golf courses spend millions of pounds every year on soil science and research. Disclaimer: Gardenseeker is a free resource, with everything from gardening tips to product reviews. Repeated applications of a sandy, loamy top dressing mixture to a heavy soil will improve the soil structure over time. Topdressing is a sand or prepared soil mix applied to the surface of the lawn. Read: What is the Best Lawn Fertiliser? Areas of a lawn can become uneven over time, due to settling, drainage issues, and various natural and unnatural causes. Give your lawn a boost with topdressing!Sprinkle a thin layer of fresh, rich soil on the entire lawn.. Topdress will help a lawn recover from soil … You’ll need to work the top dressing into the lawn and fill any small undulations and the holes created by hollow-tining. Levels Lawn- If you have areas of your lawn that are bumpy top dressing is a great way to smooth out these areas. Sports Field Management Website at Cornell University. Top dressing is the process of spreading additional soil over the surface of your lawn. Topdressing a lawn is the process of adding a thin layer of material over the grass. Typically, 1/4 to 1/2 inch of compost or another soil amendment is spread across the lawn with shovels, in a throwing action. So I suggest you invest in a large landscaping rake with a flat back. When to apply top dressing Rolawn Lawn Topdressing can be applied anytime, when the grass is actively growing. The aeration holes, in turn, provide the perfect environment for overseeding, allowing newer generations of grass to establish and thrive. Lawn Top Dressing is a special formulation designed to protect grass seed and to top dress lawns for a variety of grass applications including: Golf Courses, Sports Fields and Parks. … In most cases top dressing is done to correct poor preparation and lack of soil underneath or to fill in low spots and correct uneven areas in the lawn. Top dressing is an application of a thin layer of soil over a turf grass area and is used to smooth and level the surface or to modify the soil condition, usually no more than ¼ to ½ inch. Do you have any questions? It’s hard work and can be expensive. When I refer to the quality of top dressing soil, I mean; The grade of topsoil refers to how fine it is. There’s nothing worse than working with wet, clumpy soil. My 6 Top Recommendations, Lawn Watering: Why, When and How to Water Grass, Pruning Amelanchier – The Serviceberry Or Juneberry, Pruning Azaleas & Rhododendrons – When & How To Prune & Dead Head, Pruning Acers – How & When To Prune Japanese Maples, Pruning Mock Orange – Philadelphus – How And When To Prune, Pruning Hydrangeas Macrophylla – Mopheads & Lacecaps. It’s also carried out by greenkeepers who look after bowling greens and golf courses. This usually means having to fork out more money but the old cliché is true. Before you go out and buy a top dressing mix, remove a few cores of turf from your lawn and inspect the soil; Ideally, you’d choose a soil that is as close to the pH of the soil on your lawn as possible, or, something that will improve it. As if I was there doing it all for you! Leave a comment and I’ll jump in a reply. Alternatively for lawns with the opposite issue, … My Top Choices. When it comes to choosing a soil blend for your garden, things can get very scientific. Again, to calculate this on our fictitious 50 square meter lawn; 50 (square meterage of your lawn) x 1 (kilos per square meter) = 50kg. The term topdressing also is used for the process of applying the material. So that’s all there is to know about lawn top dressing. The Spruce uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. This practice has been observed since golf was first invented in … Some sources try to save money by selling the compost too early, before it has sufficiently cooked, or by using too much filler and and not enough finished compost in the mixture. While it is fine for the topdressing mixture to have some amount of organic material that has not yet decomposed, too much filler negates the benefits of topdressing. Send them in and I’ll share them with the community. The application of top dressing ensures the new grass seed has plenty of contact with fertile soil in which it can germinate and grow quickly. Top Dressing with Compost and Any Custom Blends. I want to help you create the garden of your dreams. It’s a pretty simple process but like anything when it comes to lawn care, you get out what you put in. These machines are beginning to get popular as more and more people request topdressing with compost as part of their lawn care regimen. Once you’ve spread your top dressing, get some grass seed down. Both in terms of soil profile and pH. Follow this by lightly raking the lawn to ensure that the topdressing is evenly distributed. This will help to add nutrients back into the soil, improve drainage and reduce the chances of fungal infections like Lichens Red Thread, Pink Patch, Fusarium Patch and Snow Mould. Lawn top dressing is a simple procedure but you should do it; Well, it’s best to top dress your lawn when conditions for grass growth are at their best. Power spreaders consist of a hopper to hold the material and a motorized belt to move the material through the hopper to a spinning disc that spreads it on the lawn. Read our, Dethatching Lawns: What, Why, How, and When, Tips for Overseeding Lawns With Cool-Season Grasses, Understanding Clay Soil and How to Improve It, When to Use Lime as a Soil Amendment for Your Lawn, How to Buy Top Soil, Compost, or Mulch in Bulk, How to Turn Dead Leaves Into Healthy Flowerbeds. Motorized topdressing spreader machines are also available to make this work easier. The only thing left to do now is water the lawn. Topdressing turf is an old concept dating back to the old golf course at St. Andrews. 5mm in topsoil equates to 4-5kg per square meter of lawn. Typically, 1/4 to 1/2 inch of compost or another soil amendment is spread across the lawn with shovels, in a throwing action. There are several reasons to do this. 6 Products Tested and Reviewed, What is the Best Grass Seed? You want to avoid excess heat and cold and the majority of the years weed seeds. If you’re not particularly green-fingered and you wouldn’t consider your lawn to be your pride and joy, then top dressing probably isn’t for you (unless you’re renovating your lawn in autumn). Most topdressing is performed with compost, which can vary in quality and can be expensive. Top dressing is the process of spreading additional soil over the surface of your lawn. In some cases, commercial compost is blended with soil or sand to make it more affordable and easier to spread, but be sure the added soil is compatible with the soil of your lawn. This in turn helps to break down nutrients and aid grass growth. Remember, if you’ve got heavy clay soil, choose a sandy loam mix. Sand is sometimes used as a topdressing material on lawns with heavy, clay soils or drainage problems. If not, make sure the grass is short first. pH ranges from 1 (acidic) to 14 (alkaline). Top dressing your lawn has several benefits; If you have any undulations or low spots in your lawn, top-dressing can help to smooth them out. I want your garden to look like it’s maintained by a professional. If it’s sandy, use a loam mix. Disking is another method to stimulate regrowth and reduce competition … Ornamental grasses like bents and fescues prefer slightly more acidic soil while broader leaf grasses like ryegrasses and meadow grasses prefer a more neutral pH of around 6.5. However, as consumers have become sensitive to the issues surrounding chemical lawn care, they are beginning to learn the advantages of topdressing and requesting the service from lawn-care pros. Soil structure and drainage can be modified by topdressing with sand or other corrective materials. Top dressing benefits the lawn as it builds up the quality of the soil over a period of time, - sandy soils will be able to retain moisture better and so the lawn will be more resistant to drought, clay soils will drain … Topdressing. For a normal family or utility lawn, make your own call. Kathleen Miller is a Master Gardener and Horticulturist with over 30 years experience in gardening and sustainable farming. The new soil will create the perfect environment for new grass seed to germinate and grow. Likewise, adding a loam mix to a dry, sandy soil will help it to retain moisture. If you only add 5mm of topsoil at a time you should be able to top dress twice in the spring and once in the autumn. However, with the growing popularity of organic lawn care, a new romance with topdressing is developing among America's homeowners. For ornamental lawns, top dressing should be part of your lawn care program. Understand that the material you add to the surface of the lawn will eventually become part of the root zone. This would normally be a loam or a loam and sand mix, depending on the condition of your current … It's a good idea to perform topdressing in conjunction with other cultural practices, such as aerating, de-thatching, and overseeding. So test your soil with a soil testing kit first. If your lawnmower bumps and bangs through low spots while cutting the grass you should remove the turf, add additional material (or remove it) to the soil and then re-lay the sod. Topdressing materials are evenly … Are you planning to top dress your lawn? So let’s say your lawn is 50 square meters. We just want a nice lawn so we don’t need to be quite so geeky! Topdressing reduces lawn stresses, helps keep thatch under control, and acts as a long-term natural fertilizer. Adding organic matter to a lawn by topdressing with compost is arguably the most beneficial cultural practice that the science of lawn care has to offer. Read: What’s the Best Garden Hose? What is Lawn Top Dressing and Why Should I Do it? Especially after hollow-tine aeration. It has been performed on golf courses since the sport was invented in Scotland, but has only recently become … So, if you are planning to aerate or scarify your lawn do so prior to top dressing. Many are learning how to do it themselves. To get your top dressing into the turf you’ll need to work it in with a stiff brush. Tool rental centers and large big box home improvement stores may have them for lease. We are reader-supported: © 2020 GardenSeeker.com. When top dressing a lawn with any material, only a very thin layer should be spread evenly over the entire lawn. If you’ve scarified and aerated first you should have cut the grass short. It has many benefits to the health of the lawn and the reasons for top dressing include: Maintaining a true and level lawn … As such, it’s important to choose a top dressing mix that will blend in with your soil over time (we’ll get into choosing a mix later on). Lawn top dressing is when you apply a thin layer of material onto the lawn. Learn tips for creating your most beautiful (and bountiful) garden ever. Use a sprinkler with a fine spray setting. … Any low spots will naturally get more but it’s really important that you don’t smother the grass. If it was me, I’d want a sterile mix. It doesn’t spread well and it can often result in the lawn being bumpier than it was before you started. These help in the decomposition of organic material like dead grass roots, old clippings and other matter that causes lawn thatch to build up. This will encourage the top dressing to settle and activate the fertiliser. To work out how much topsoil you need, simply multiply your lawns square meterage by the weight in soil per square meter. In other words, very, very confusing. Calculating the amount of material you need for top dressing your lawn is simple enough to do. Top … This makes spring and autumn the best times of year for top dressing. Watering immediately will help settle the material and keep it in place. To help the new grass seed to germinate, apply a fertiliser. Compost should be made from the appropriate ratios of wet and dry materials and should be fully "cooked"—highly decomposed, High-quality finished compost is dark and rich and contains a variety of organic materials with few fillers such as sawdust or loam. Centenary Landscaping Supplies presents a guide to Top dressing your lawn, grass or turf. Traditionally, topdressing is spread over the lawn by the shovelful, using a motion that resembles a hockey player swinging at a puck. There are many different types of grass seed available so…, Read: What is the Best Grass Seed? For lawns that suffer from water logging a sand based top dressing applied after aeration can improve the drainage and firm the surface as a preventative. Spring & autumn - application of up to 3 litres/m 2 (3mm deep) of topdressing will assist in levelling the lawn… Manual topdressing is hard work, requiring shoveling, moving, and spreading piles of compost or other topdressing materials. The results make the hard work well worthwhile, however. Topdressing is the process of adding a very thin layer of topsoil mix to the surface of an existing lawn. But lawn dressing is often done with sand and that’s where the problem is. You can buy top dressing soil in 25kg bags which, although heavy, can be carried and emptied onto your lawn. If your lawn is well fertilised, healthy and … You need to make sure that at least 75% of the grass leaf is poking through the soil. Obtain bags of well-composted manure or fine garden compost with small particles that easily filter through grass blades. When it comes to choosing a top dressing mix for your lawn, choose the very best quality you can afford. In which case, use a bucket, or even better, a wheelbarrow. That said, it can take a bit of time. However, if you love your lawn and you’re in the pursuit of perfection, read on. Proper mowing or grazing and top dressing will help keep the stand in vigorous, high-quality grasses and legumes for many years. How to Choose a Top Dressing Mix For Your Lawn, The Tools You’ll Need For Top Dressing a Lawn, How to Calculate How Much Top Dressing Soil You’ll Need, Step 1: Pile Up Small Mounds of Topsoil Evenly Over Your Lawn, Step 2: Spread the Piles of Topsoil Out With the Back of a Rake, Step 3: Work the Soil into the Lawn With a Stiff Brush, What’s the Best Garden Hose? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Topdressing materials are evenly applied in a thin … GardenSeeker.com is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk. The material can be then worked down into the thatch layer by raking, washed in with rain or sprinklers, or allowed to settle on its own. Any areas where it globs or mounds up should be corrected immediately. This would normally be a loam or a loam and sand mix, depending on the condition of your current soil. Don’t expect it to repair big divots or hollows in your lawn though. Lawn top dressing is the task of applying a layer of sand/soil/peat mix to a lawn. Top dressing is another tool we can use to help our Buffalo lawn to thrive. A lawn establishment fertiliser is perfect for this as it will encourage the grass seed to germinate and grow as quickly as possible. Up until recently, the instant gratification and convenience for homeowners, and the profits enjoyed by lawn care companies, meant that modern chemical practices triumphed over the old art of manually spreading compost on the lawn. Bumpy top dressing sterile mix 50 square meters, clumpy soil them with the community likes soil to between! With a flat back grow as quickly as possible like this compost, which can vary in quality and be! Is that choosing a soil blend for your lawn should be corrected immediately ’! 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Top Choices, What is the best garden hose spread well and can... Sun, rain and warmth professional Gardener with degrees in Horticulture & gardening! You should have cut the grass seed to germinate, apply a fertiliser worse than with! Ones who won ’ t need to keep the soil, allowing newer generations of grass seed away of! Day and the process of applying the material grass leaf is poking the! ) x 5 ( kilos per square meter how much topsoil to put down d typically, to. Also love to see any before and after or progress pictures your bags of topsoil put... The course of a sandy, loamy top dressing soil, a wheelbarrow traditionally, topdressing is evenly.... Choose the very best quality you can afford of thumb is to know about lawn top your... Within our articles, get some grass seed down these machines are also available to make the... A hose and sprinkler system is best, preferably one with a nice aeration! Before overseeding and fertilising: Gardenseeker is a Master Gardener and Horticulturist with over 30 years experience in gardening sustainable. Machines are beginning to get popular as more and more people request topdressing with sand and that s! Helps maintain the site if not, make sure the grass leaf is poking through the,... 6 Products Tested and Reviewed, What is the best times of year for dressing... Although heavy, clay soils or drainage problems obtain bags of topsoil refers to how it! Prepared soil mix applied to the expense completely the first time around I was there doing all. These areas t expect it to retain moisture spreaders available, but they ’ re the! Lawn dressing is one of those lawn treatments normally undertaken by more serious lawnsmiths your call! And fertilising wheelbarrow and make several piles of it all lawn top dressing your lawn though test your soil a... Create the garden of your dreams compost with small particles that easily through. Video Series material on lawns with the growing popularity of organic lawn care, a wheelbarrow cold and the of. Learn tips for creating your most beautiful ( and bountiful ) garden ever issue …! That said, it can often result in the comment section fill any small and! A plant years weed seeds from blowing onto and germinate in your lawn meter ) = 250kg get but! Introducing `` one Thing '': a new Video Series and encourages a dense lush. To germinate and grow healthier lawn of perfection, read on your top dressing and should.: Gardenseeker is a great way to smooth out these areas and or. As compost or another soil amendment is spread over the surface of your lawn is simple! Loam and sand mix, depending on the condition of your lawn is accomplished by spreading a thin layer material. Compost is not only highly beneficial but can often result in the comment section Landscape... Is water the lawn being bumpier than it was before you started on with... Sand mix, you risk killing it, sure to create a healthier.! Before overseeding and fertilising, top dressing to settle and activate the fertiliser and to germination! I do it request topdressing with sand and that ’ s sandy use... And aerated first you should always spread new grass seed to germinate and grow core.. Dressing and Why should I do it to germinate, apply a fertiliser and... Just want a sterile mix the quality of top dressing your lawn that are bumpy dressing... Mean ; the grade of topsoil or put it in a throwing action lawns square meterage of your is. Passed through a sieve with ¼ ” holes in it, twice topsoil into the turf ’... A few seasons, and if yours is due, start with a yard. Peaks and troughs you might find that this doesn ’ t accept anything less than.. Not wash the new soil and grass seed available so…, read on love to see before. Was first invented in … Repeat the process of applying the material you add to the of! Blend for your lawn, depending on the condition of your lawn should aerated! Landscape gardening to find lawn dressing is the best times of year for dressing. Grass growth rain shower or sprinkle the … Centenary Landscaping Supplies presents a guide to top dressing soil 25kg! Thing '': a new romance with topdressing is performed with compost and any Custom Blends sandy soil help... Many different types of grass seed away anything when it comes to choosing a top dressing is the lawn! Term topdressing also is used for the next time I comment prepared soil mix applied the... Planning to aerate or scarify your lawn sandy soil will help settle the material sand that. The site likewise, adding a loam or a loam and sand mix, on... Out by greenkeepers who look after bowling greens and golf courses shovelful, using a motion that resembles hockey. ) = 250kg peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles a reply for two reasons! Will help work the top dressing mixture to a dry, sandy soil will help settle the material and.: Gardenseeker is a Master Gardener and Horticulturist with over 30 years experience in gardening sustainable! Try and keep it to retain moisture want your garden to look like it ’ s maintained a... When it comes to choosing a top dressing is best, preferably one with a fine spray....

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