What are the advantages of topdressing my lawn?
Washed river sand is a popular choice for top dressing turf due to its excellent drainage properties, fine particle size, and it’s generally easy to access in Tasmania while being relatively inexpensive. There are many quarries around that grade the sand well ready to use in on awns. Often quarries will wash the sand that removes silt, clay, and organic matter, making it an ideal material for improving turf vigor and presentation of lawns.
Benefits of using sand for lawn topdressing
- Promotes uniform growth and surface leveling
Top dressing with sand helps smooth out rough or slightly undulating areas on a lawn, providing a more uniform surface. Sand is fine in texture and easy to work with making it easy to distribute across your lawn, filling in low spots while still making it possible for your grass to grow through it.
- Improves drainage
One of the main reasons for using sand for top dressing is its ability to enhance drainage. When sourced correctly the sand particles are uniform and can greatly improve your lawns drainage ability, allowing water to move freely through your lawns growing medium. This is especially beneficial for lawns that have heavy or slow draining soil that retain excessive moisture.
- Reduces the build up of heavy soil sticking to everything
Due to the fine, free draining nature of sand, once spread across your lawn, especially once done a couple of times it naturally acts as a buffer between the heavy soil and your family’s shoes and equipment such as mowers. This is particularly helpful if your lawn soil gets very muddy through the winter months. Adding sand topdressing is a great way to keep this problem under control.
- Assists in distributing doggy deposits
With the presence of a good sand layer in your lawn’s surface can greatly assist with the aftermath from your dog’s deposits and assist to move it through your lawns surface faster resulting in less burning of your turf from your dog’s urine due to the free draining nature of sand.
- Prevents disease and fungal growth
Turf diseases are moreso an issue in compacted, poorly drained soils. The addition of sand to your lawn through ongoing topdressing improves aeration and drainage. Through water moving through your lawn faster reduces the possibility of your lawn getting disease.
- Dilutes thatch
The addition of sand to your lawns surface naturally dilutes the thatch layer in the surface also known as the organic layer that sits between the turf surface and the soil. Each time your lawn is top dressed with sand the thatch layer is diluted further.
Finally
When topdressing your lawn with sand, a thin layer should be spread evenly across the whole area. The standard rate is around 1/3 of a cubic meter of sand per 100m2 of lawn area. It’s important to top-dress your lawn when it is actively growing so the grass grows through the sand in a reasonable timeframe ensuring the sand does not sit on top of the lawn too long. The best time for topdressing is either spring or autumn. After the sand is applied, wait for it to dry, then the final process is to rub the sand into the turf using a level lawn, a broom or a straight edge – there should be a reasonable amount of grass showing through the sand once the whole process is finished if the right amount of sand has been applied.
