Lawn Top Dressing.
Lawn Top Dressing is an often-overlooked part of home and garden renovations, as they provide a new medium for fresh shoots to grow into in previously barren areas on a lawn. This is often highly effective in areas that experience high-foot traffic.
What Is Lawn Top Dressing?
Lawn Top Dressing involves the application of a thin and even layer of material – often a mix of sand, organic matter or enriched soil – over the surface of a lawn. Because the layer is only a few millimetres thick it will settle into the soil without smothering the turf, while providing fresh shoots of grass to spread into areas where barren spots have formed, resulting in an even and full spread of turf across the entire yard.
When used after aerating the soil, the effect top dressing has on the lawn can be expedited to have more noticeable effects sooner as the material layer is able to integrate with the soil faster
How Is This Different To Fertilising?
It’s important to distinguish that Lawn Top Dressing is NOT the same as regular fertilizing. While they both improve the health of the soil, they work in different ways and serve different purposes.
Lawn Top Dressing is used to improve the physical health of the soil. It involves spreading a thin layer of material over the surface of the lawn. These materials – often sand, enriched soil or compost – change the soils structure over time which helps with levelling the soil, improves drainage and assists the soil with breaking down organic matter. It’s about improving the growing conditions of the soil itself, not just feeding the turf.
Similar In Theory.
Different In Practice.
Fertilising is about supplying nutrients and essential elements such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to the turf itself to promotes its growth, colour and strength. Fertilisers do not significantly alter the structure of the soil as much as top dressing does.
Misunderstanding the distinction between Lawn Top Dressing and standard garden fertilising when performing the work yourself can be a costly mistake, so it’s always better to get a qualified arborist to discuss the best course of action to take when considering which of the two you should use.
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