The second and most common benefit many homeowners topdress their lawn is to level the lawn or grass. A level lawn creates a smooth surface for mowing that prevents scalping. Scalping is when the mower cuts lower than all the green leaves leaving only the brown stems, stolons, or dirt beneath. Scalping actually removes the leaves from the grass and not only looks bad but is detrimental to the health of your lawn. Also, when sod is installed there are usually seams in the squares of sod that create uneven bumps that remain once it grows together. Topdressing helps level your lawn and and fill in any uneven surfaces while still allowing the grass to grow right back through the material. Levelling your yard also allows for proper surface drainage of water to prevent pooling.
The third and most relative to Georgia deals with our famous Georgia red clay. It is a common practice, almost always, for a home builder or contractor to remove any topsoil from a house site, leaving only compacted red clay to build upon. Our clay is great for building a house on but not so ideal for growing a lawn. So many lawns have compacted clay with shallow root systems that leave your grass struggling in the summer heat to survive. With the sod already established it is expensive to start all over with ideal soil conditions. Topdressing is the preferred method to amend the soil beneath your lawn without having to start all over again. One myth related to our clay is that mixing sand and clay will make bricks or concrete. This simply isn’t true. Adding sand to the soil changes the soil texture, and creates more pore space for air and water to move into the soil. The beneficial soil structure with high clay soils was probably lost by grading or compaction during the construction of the house. Keep in mind, that we supply sand, soil, and compost products to clients so if you have a preference we can get you the landscaping material that you need. But if you want to do a little more research, please look at the decades of research performed by the USGA, even specifically for topdressing.
Topdressing is a critical practice for turfgrasses that are used for golf, baseball, softball, football, soccer, or an appealing lawn. There are many methods used to apply topdressing to the grass. A topdresser, such as a Turfco Mete-r-matic, Ecolawn, Earth and Turf, Tycrop, or Toro is a great option for spreading topdressing. There are different sizes to accommodate large sports fields or golf course fairways down to smaller versions for golf course greens and home lawns. You can use a tractor, and one of the most popular methods is to top dress by hand with the help of a shovel.
Topdressing warm-season turf grasses such as bermuda, centipede, and zoysia grass is done in the growing season. In areas of Georgia such as Gainesville, Athens, Alpharetta, Roswell, Cumming, Lawrenceville, Flowery Branch, Braselton, and Dawsonville the best time of the year to topdress is May-August when the grass is green but leaving it time to reestablish before is becomes dormant again in October. There are a couple of methods to topdress your lawn and you can read our recommendation in a step-by-step article that explains how to topdress your lawn. However, the basic steps involve scalping your turf (cutting it on the lowest mower setting) once it greens up in color; core aerate the lawn, apply the topdressing sand to the surface, drag the topdressing with a rake, piece of wood/fence, or preferably a drag until it smooths the surface. Subsequent irrigation and fertilization will promote rapid regrowth of the turf.
