Your home’s lawn is a large part of your property and therefore requires certain maintenance and nutrients to help it grow strong, lush, and healthy. Nutrient deficiency can prevent your grass from looking its best by inhibiting its growth. Adding nutrients back into your soil using top dressing is a great way to give your lawn a boost.

Topdressing is great for lawns that need an extra nutrient boost, increased resilience against diseases and pests, and added moisture retention. If you live in Westfield, Watchung, Warren, and the surrounding areas of New Jersey, here are some ways top dressing can benefit your grass.

What Is Top Dressing?

Top dressing is a lawn care process of adding a thin layer of a prepared mix of soil and organic matter to the top of your lawn. It is used to level lawns when minor variations or depressions are apparent, help improve soil properties, and create a better environment for grass to grow. Top dressing can be applied either by hand using shovels to toss the dressing onto the grass or by a machine. A motorized top dressing spreader machine evenly spreads a thin layer of top dressing approximately a quarter of an inch thick across your lawn.

Top dressing is typically composed of compost, soil, organic matter, and various types of sand. If performed properly, top dressing addresses common lawn issues such as low spots, uneven terrain, compacted soil, thatch buildup, bare spots, and nutrient deficiency.

How Does Top Dressing Benefit Your Grass

This lawn in Watchung, NJ recently received a top dressing treatment.

Top dressing provides many benefits for your grass. When your lawn’s soil lacks nutrients, it inhibits the growth of your grass because it doesn’t have the ability to absorb the nutrients it needs to grow from your soil. Topdressing is beneficial for any lawn, but particularly ones with lower nutrient levels in their soil. Applying top dressing to your lawn increases the organic matter in your soil, increasing the number of nutrients in your soil and giving your grass the nutrients needed to grow strong and healthy. Your lawn’s roots will grow deeper into the soil as the grass becomes stronger. Moisture retention is another great benefit of top dressing, as it locks in moisture in your soil and decreases the amount of evaporation.

Top dressing also prevents weeds from growing by providing a barrier that’s harder for weeds to break through, thus allowing your grass to grow uninhibited by nasty weeds. Applying top dressing is also great for eliminating thatch buildup by encouraging decomposition. This reduces the chances of your lawn becoming infected with diseases and unwanted pests.

Applying top dressing after aeration and overseeding provides an extra boost of nutrients to your grass seeds and protects them while they germinate, take root, and grow strong and healthy.

When and How Often Should You Apply Top Dressing?

Top dressing can be applied any time and however often you want, however, it is most effective when paired with other beneficial lawn care services such as aeration, dethatching, and overseeding. Aeration opens up the soil, allowing the seeds from overseeding to drop down deep into your lawn’s soil where they can germinate and flourish. Topdressing then settles down into these holes and covers the seeds deep inside, protecting them from surface disturbances and provides the seeds with extra nutrients needed to grow. Early spring is the best time to perform these services to give your lawn an extra boost for the rest of the growing season.

Ready to add top dressing to your lawn?

If you live in Westfield, Watchung, Warren, and the surrounding areas, and your lawn needs an extra nutrient boost, call us today at (833) 452-9666 to get started! Our lawn care experts will apply top dressing for your lawn and perform any other services needed to keep your lawn healthy and strong all year long.