How to Top Dress Your Lawn

Last updated April 16, 2024
Top dressing, sometimes referred to as compost top dressing, is a common practice that improves the health of your lawn. For a lush lawn, take a tip from golf course turf pros and add top dressing to your lawn maintenance schedule.
Top dressing is the process of adding a thin layer of nutrient-rich compost to your lawn, or parts of your lawn that need extra attention. When performed routinely and with aeration, the soil will improve and your turf will benefit.
Table of Contents
Helpful Top Dressing Lawn Tips
Benefits of Top Dressing Your Lawn
Begin Top Dressing Your Lawn
Choose Compost for Top Dressing
Spread Compost or Top Soil
Apply Top Dressing and Water Deeply
Helpful Top Dressing Lawn Tips

Before you begin top dressing, remember:
- Knowing your grass type helps determine when to start top dressing your lawn (fall for cool season grasses, spring for warm season grasses).
- Test your soil's pH as pH affects nutrient uptake. If the pH is off, the grass will not be able to effectively absorb nutrients.
Core aeration is the practice of making holes in your lawn to loosen soil. This
lets oxygen, water and important nutrients reach the roots, so your grass can become lush, green and healthy. Aeration can also help improve a lawn growing in poor soil or heavy clay.
Here's how core aeration works in your lawn:
- Dethatch or core aerate your work area if you've got more than 1/2-inch of thatch. Make sure you remove any grass clippings and debris before top dressing your lawn.
- Core aerate your lawn if you've got poor soil. Clay soil and sandy soil are examples where core aeration is generally recommended.
- Make sure you keep your soil damp if you're spreading seed on top of your fertilizer. Damp soil, not wet soil, is ideal.
Tip: Top dressing and core aeration can be messy. Keep kids and pets away from your lawn during these projects.
Benefits of Top Dressing Your Lawn

So what are the benefits of top dressing a lawn? If you have reasonably healthy grass you might wonder why you need to do anything at all. The answer is that top dressing can help amend soil in areas where the grass isn't growing well. Of course, you can also top dress your whole lawn if growth is sporadic or otherwise problematic.
Still not sure about the benefits of top dressing? Here's what top dressing correctly can do for your lawn:
- Top dressing can help you use less water on your lawn. Your lawn will need less water because the top dressing retains soil moisture, reduces surface evaporation and keeps the roots cool in the heat of summer. That's why many people apply a top dressing of organic material like compost to warm season grass.
- Your grass will get greener. Greener grass is common after top dressing since the soil is fed with nitrogen-rich, well-aged organic matter that enhances existing soil health.
- Weed seeds don't germinate because the top dressing blocks light.
- Top dressing can help smooth out a bumpy lawn. This is one reason using top dressing material is so common on golf courses.
- Top dressing helps keep lawn stress under control, effectively reducing thatch buildup while acting as a natural lawn fertilizer that promotes growth.
Begin Top Dressing Your Lawn

Top dressing your lawn isn't a difficult task. Typically done in the spring, top dressing is an activity you can take on in one day depending on the size of the lawn you're working with.
Before you begin, you'll need to prep your lawn so it's ready for top dressing.
- Perform a soil test to determine the soil pH and if the soil needs additional amendments. Soil test kits can be purchased in the Garden Center. You can also contact your local Cooperative Extension Service for a soil test kit.
- Dethatch lawn if the thatch is thicker than 1/2-inch. Use a leaf rake or, for better results, use a vertical mower (also called a power rake) available from Tool Rental.
- Mow your lawn so grass blades won’t bend when you distribute the compost. Make sure your lawn mower is set to catch grass clippings that could interfere with the top dressing process.
Choose Compost for Top Dressing

- The next step in top dressing your lawn is to obtain the right material for the job. If you have a compost pile, you may be able to use this to top dress your lawn. For best results with homemade compost, sift it first with a compost screener.
- You can purchase well-composted manure or fine garden compost for top dressing your lawn. The best products have small particles that easily filter through blades of grass. If you use manure, make sure it's herbicide-free, aged and screened.
- You can customize your own top dressing with a mixture of compost and topsoil.
Tip: A lawn mower, leaf shredder or specific compost shredder can help you turn your backyard compost into a fine material suitable for top dressing all types of grass.
Spread Compost or Top Soil

A compost spreader is the best tool for top dressing a home lawn. You can use a broadcast spreader, like you would for fertilizer, but it may become clogged with soil particles.
- Distribute the compost about 1/2-inch deep. If you don't have access to a compost spreader, you can use a shovel to do the same job, though it will typically take longer. With a shovel, scoop up the top soil or compost and gently shake it over the area.
- Be careful to evenly distribute the compost throughout the targeted area.
Tip: You can overseed your lawn at the same time as you top dress the lawn. Follow soil application with grass seed, then water it in.
Apply Top Dressing and Water Deeply

You can apply top dressing using a shovel in small piles around the lawn or with a composter or fertilizer spreader. The goal is to distribute the top dressing quickly and evenly. Distribute the compost about 1/2-inch deep. Gently hand rake as you go to settle the compost evenly throughout the grass.
Go over each area several times if you need to, working in sections as you go. If you've spread too much compost, work toward an outlying area where you can collect extra compost you don't want to leave on your lawn.
You can apply grass seed on the top dressing if you are over-seeding.
The last step is to deeply water the grass using your irrigation system or standard garden hose nozzle on the fine spray setting. Doing this can help stimulate new growth.
Tip: Best time to water lawns and gardens is early morning.
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