There are many aspects that can contribute to a perfect lawn. Regular mowing, scheduled watering, quarterly fertilizing, proper drainage, and seeding if necessary. But there are some other maintenance procedures you can include to get your turf strong, green, lush, and soft. With that in mind, we at Mickey’s LawnScapes would like to shine some light on the benefits of lawn top dressing to aid in the quest of the perfect lawn.
Is Top Dressing a Lawn Necessary?
To begin with, understating what top dressing is essential, as most don’t know. The top dressing is a sand or pre-treated soil mix that is methodically applied to the surface of the lawn. This process is also known as top dressing. A thin layer, generally ¼ inch or less, of top dressing materials are evenly applied a variety of reasons, including smoothing the surface of the lawn, reducing thatch buildup by supporting decomposition. Top dressing is ideal following treatments like seeding, over-seeding, or sprigging to protect early developing plants as they get established, and to help avoid winter desiccation. The top dressing material filters into the holes opened during the aeration process, which speeds the turf recovery. To reach maximum results, the composition of the soil used in the top dressing should closely resemble that of the soil sprouting your grass.
Does Top Dressing Improve the Soil in My Lawn?
If you are looking to modify your soil profile, top dressing can assist your efforts over the course of several years. When undertaking this task, the top dressing soil composition can differ from the composition of the current soil. Top dressing is often used in conjunction with core aeration, with a coarse-textured material, being often either sand or sand-organic mixtures, are applied to high clay content, which are fine-textured soils. To alleviate compaction problems and optimize water, air and nutrient movement into the soil is the goal that is accomplished with the use of top dressing. If not performed accurately, the top dressing for soil modification can have negative impacts instead of beneficial gain. The same material determined for ideal top dressing materials must be used throughout the entire process to ensure the efficient consistency that maintained adequate water movement and encourages root growth.
Lawn Top Dressing Mistakes
A fine-textured soil forming a layer on top of a coarse-textured soil is often the most common mistake that produces inefficiency. The water’s ability to reach the turf-grass’ roots is hindered due to the fact that the water moves throughout the top layer of soil texture before it absorbs into the bottom layer. Additional issues arise if the process of applying the top dressing is done poorly or inadequately; uneven depths of material across the lawn will emerge. Water and nutrient will deter accessibility creating wet and dry areas that impact the turf’s growth and the overall lawn’s esthetics. The existing thatch layer can be buried by applications of excessive volumes of top dressing material, as well as too frequent applications. This can make the turf more susceptible to drought, heat and other such stresses if the soils is without proper aeration, which will can potentially cause the roots grow into and within the thatch layer rather than extending into the soil profile.
Lawn Maintenance Services, Landscaping & More in Amagansett, Aquebogue, Baiting Hollow, Calverton, Cutchogue, East Hampton, East Hampton North, Greenport, Jamesport, Laurel, Mattituck, Montauk, Nassau Point, Northville, Northwest Harbor, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Southold, Springs, Wading River, Westhampton Beach in East End New York
If your lawn could use a top dressing, contact the professionals of Mickey’s LawnScapes and let our experts evaluate the soil and get the right top dressing and apply the perfect mixture so your lawn can reach its full potential and the beneficial gain. Call us today!
