Top Dressing Lawns, Soil Enrichment

Top Dressing Lawns

Reasons for Top Dressing Lawns

There are only two reasons to ever top dress lawns. The first is to level uneven lawns or indentations in the lawn’s surface, and the second is to add nutrients to the lawn as part of an overall lawn care routine.

While top dressing lawns has been popular for many decades around Australia, it has often been done for the wrong reasons, which could lead to the long-term damage of the lawn.

Top Dressing Lawns to Add Nutrients

There are many richly organic soil mixes now available which can be applied to lawns to not only add nutrients, but also organic matter. Organic matter is what soil-borne friendly bacteria and micro-organisms need to feed on and thrive. These soil mixtures add yet another source of not only feeding the lawn itself, but feeding the soil which supports the entire lawn. Top dressing with these organic soil mixtures are a great benefit to all lawns, and could easily be applied a couple of times a year as an added boost to our lawn care practices.

Organic lawn mixtures only need to be applied sparingly. The topsoil mix is added to the lawn in small amounts and raked into the green leaf and thatch of the lawn. If applied correctly, the mixture should almost disappear into the green leaf altogether after watering.

Organic top-dressing mixtures should not be used to fill in any lawn indentations. This is becuase they could have the potential to create water traps inside the original depression, as well as adding organic matter in quantities which may be too rich for the lawn to handle.

Top Dressing Uneven Lawns

Levelling uneven lawns is relatively easy, but it is important to do it correctly, using only small amounts of soil in increments. Only use soil from the property or sand, and never top dress large depressions in the lawn, instead lift the lawn and add the soil underneath.

Wrong Reasons to Top Dress Lawns

There was once a belief by many people in Australia that top dressing lawns with yellow sand should be done every spring. Every Spring the lawn owner would top dress this way, and a few weeks later the lawn would jump back to life with miraculous new green leaf growth.

The problem with doing this is that it adds nothing of benefit to the lawn. All it does is add to the thickness of the thatch layer by constantly adding more sterile matter. This practice can also run the risk of creating a water-resistant effect to the soil, and as the lawn thickness is raised, the new roots sit only in yellow sand and dead lawn matter – preventing it from ever receiving adequate nutrients from the soil.

The only repair, when this has occurred, is to contact a professional Vertimowing Contractor to assess the damage and whether it can be Vertimowed, or a bobcat can remove the affected lawn and start again.

If you have soil issues or need new soil for garden beds, planter boxes, veggie patches and lawns give us  a call to see what JMF can do for you.