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Monday 4 February 2013

How to... Top Dress

Top Dress

Top dressing is usually bought as a mixture of loam, sand and peat, or peat alternative and there are several brands available and your supplier can advise on the mix. 

Mow the lawn short on a dry day and apply the top dressing as a dry mix. To smooth the lawn, filling in dips and hollows, you apply at 3 to 4 kilos per square metre, without smothering the grass. You need 75% of the grass leaf still exposed. 

You deposit the top dressing in mounds around the lawn and then spread with a rake, finishing with a lawn brush. If you own a garden tractor you can use a rake attachment and finish off with a brush attachment but only on a dry day on dry grass. 

Apply two loads of top dressing in spring and another in autumn. For an ornamental lawn which is regularly treated you need about half to 1 kilo per square metre and you can repeat this throughout the season to help decompose thatch on fine lawns.  

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