The Importance of Top Dressing
To understand why top dressing your lawn is so important you must first understand why you do it. We all like to have a nice green lawn that is soft under bare feet. Somewhere nice to stroll and for the children to play on without fear of getting sharp dead grass sticking into our feet.
So What Is Top Dressing?
Top dressing is a carefully crafted mixture of sand, compost and other nutrients to assist in the growth of your lawn by supporting the root zone of the plant.
Reasons to do this include:-
- Increases water conductivity
- Improves soil structure – known as tilth
- Decreases compaction
- Adds quality organic materials to improve growth
- Smooths a rough surface
- Protects against winter cold.
Top mix is not just one third this, one third that and a little bit extra of the other. The blend must be created for each individual garden’s needs. Even the sand must be the correct particle size to suit your lawn’s environment.
Top dressing correctly does not stop here. It is also important to apply the right amount of top soil to ensure that distribution is even and consistent to ensure that layering does not occur.
But Wait, There’s More
To achieve the best results from your top dressing efforts there are other steps required for its total success. The first step after applying your top dressing is aeration. Multiple core aerification that passes in different directions is highly recommended if you want to increase growth.
Aerating may also be used to rejuvenate compacted soil in high traffic areas. In some cases where traffic may be heavier, it may be necessary to actually till the soil and mix your top dressing with the existing soil.
Another important part of this puzzle is to ensure that the right balance of moisture is available to assist in your efforts. Not enough moisture may mean that the actual organic materials in the top dressing may take moisture away from your lawn, thus creating drought stress.
Professional Advice and Service
Don’t despair! We know that all this sounds confusing but honestly, it’s as easy as falling off a log. Bacchus Marsh & Redgum Garden Centre is experienced in helping you assess what sort of blend you require.
Our friendly and professional staff members are here to help you grow your Garden of Eden. We can mix up the right quantity and quality of top soil and deliver it to you at very moderate prices.
Comments are closed.