Why is Top Dressing Important for Your Lawn?
ProLawn Advantage team has been developing lawn top dressing programs for the market since 1981. We have selected the best applications and sequences of treatment for both Northern Virginia and Eastern West Virginia.
Lawn top dressing is the process of applying compost, soil, or sand over the surface of your lawn. Most new homes today have terrible soil…because most of the top soil was destroyed building your community. Top dressing becomes even more important to obtain a healthy green lawn and plants. Top dressing is simply a way of adding organic material and restoring the balance to home lawns, building better soil and increasing soil flora.
Good soil is living soil and believe us it’s true. One tablespoon of soil can contain billions of microorganisms. These microscopic organisms are one of the reasons we have plants. In nature, soil microbes enrich the soil by converting fallen leaves, limbs and other lawn debris into nutrients plants can use.
Below is a list of some of the benefits of top dressing your lawn.
- Top dressing adds organic matter to soils.
- Top dressing can build up the soil flora.
- Top dressing combined with core aeration can place organic material deeper into the soil.
- Organic top dressing can change soil structure.
- Compost top dressing with the right biological components can help reduce lawn diseases.
- Adding compost helps reduce traffic stress.
- Compost incorporated into heavy soils helps relieve compaction problems.
- Compost incorporated into sandy soils helps with water retention.
- Top dressing with the right materials can help reduce the need for fertilizer.
- Top dressing can help reduce thatch.
A Note About Soil pH
ProLawn will measure you soil pH to correct any soil pH problems before or after top dressing lawns. Bacteria are by far the most abundant form of soil microbes in your soil. Low soil pH, at 5 or lower, will begin to favor fungi over bacteria, including pathogenic fungi. Since beneficial bacteria feed upon many pathogenic fungi and help to keep their numbers in check, it is important you favor bacteria. Since compost is neutral or slightly alkaline, if your soil pH is slightly low, the compost alone may help to bring it up to where it needs to be.
Want the Pros at ProLawn to help? Give us a call at 540-662-8316 or email us at clientservices@prolawn.com to determine the best course of action for your situation.
