The Best Time Of Year To Topdress Your Lawn For A Healthy Landscape

If you want to have a fantastic yard, topdressing your lawn can be well worth it. Often performed on golf courses, the process of topdressing requires you to add a thin layer of compost or sand to your lawn. This helps to improve the health of the soil, level the surface, and make your lawn look more lush. Topdressing your lawn is the easiest way to get better-looking grass, improving its fertility and stimulating growth. It can also reduce thatch buildup and help your lawn retain moisture. Not only that, but topdressing can also help improve drainage when matched with techniques to aerate your lawn for healthier grass.

Spring or fall are the best times to topdress your lawn for a healthy landscape. Aim to topdress your lawn in spring for a warm-season grass type, such as Bermuda grass, or fall for a cold-season grass like Kentucky bluegrass. It's ideal to topdress your lawn during the growing season once you've started mowing your lawn weekly. During the late spring and early summer, your grass is going through periods of high growth and will benefit from the process. If your lawn is healthy, you may only need to topdress once a year. However, you can topdress twice, once in the spring and once in the fall, if you have any drainage or soil problems. Remember not to topdress too often or in the wrong season, as this can cause more harm than good, and it may ultimately damage your lawn.

Before topdressing your lawn, perform a soil test. Verify that the pH is at the appropriate level to absorb nutrients successfully – between 6.0 and 7.0. Then, mow your grass short and remove any remaining clippings. If the thatch layer is thicker than half an inch, you can aerate your lawn. This will help allow the topdressing material to get through once added. You may also want to overseed the lawn at this time. 

You'll need to choose a topdress material to use on your lawn. Compost is a great choice, but there are some great reasons why you should add sand to your lawn as well. You can add sand if you have heavy clay soil and the drainage needs to be improved. Alternatively, you may want to add peat moss to increase the soil's acidity. You can then use several different methods to spread the topdress over the lawn. One option is to shovel the material and then fling it evenly over the lawn, ensuring it reaches ⅛ to ½ of an inch. Or consider using a compost spreader or broadcast spreader to spread the topdress instead. When you're finished, water the lawn using sprinklers or a spray setting on your garden hose, and the job will be complete.