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Top Dressing your lawn

Top Dressing of Lawns is beneficial. It encourages new basal growth of the grass plants - giving a thicker sward of grass. Top Dressing is also a good way to 'level out' the bumps and hollows in an uneven lawn.

	The type of top dressing mix to be used varies according to your basic soil type. Normally, I use equal parts of sifted top-soil, sharp sand and peat. (If the lawn is in need of a feed, or for extra 'oomph' I use multi-purpose compost instead of peat! (It it often cheaper as well!) For Lawns on heavier soil, I would leave out the soil in the mix, and use 50/50 sharp sand and peat/M.P. compost.
Mix the ingredients well - on a dry day - ensuring that there are no lumps in the mix.
	Lightly spread to mix over the lawn. It is better to do it lightly  and in several applications throughout the season, rather than 'smother' the lawn grass in one go!
I normally use the back of my wide 'Landscaper's' rake to spread the mix and 'brush' it into the grasses of the lawn. A good stiff broom will also do the trick. Make sure that the mix goes down into the sward.

	The grass should be showing through - as in this picture.
For those little hollows, apply a little extra mix. Again not too much. Far better to do these in several applications throughout the season.
	'Rough up' the area with your fingers to get that grass showing through.
This - as they say - is one I did earlier!

David Hughes