Give Your Lawn An Extreme Makeover
Golf course managers have known for years the benefits of top dressing turf. Adding a fine layer of an organically enriched mixture of soil, sand and compost over an existing lawn has numerous benefits. This process is done by golf courses, but for some reason many homeowners have never considered this process for their tired, worn out lawns. That is until Spriggs Brothers Organic Landscape came along and started telling people of the “Extreme Makeover” benefits of top dressing your lawn.
3 Steps to Your Lawn Extreme Makeover
1. Lawn Aeration - Lawn aeration is generally recognized as the best way to improve air/gas exchange and water/nutrient intake. Some aeration occurs naturally, but due to soil compaction and the heavy clay make up of North Texas soil, lawns rarely thrive without some means of mechanical aeration. Mechanical aeration benefits your lawn six ways. (1) Reduces soil compaction. (2) Decreases heavy thatch. (3) Allows more efficient watering and fertilizing. (4) Enhances root growth. (5) Enriches surface soil. (6) Decreases water run-off.
Many years ago, crude aeration was accomplished by poking holes in the lawn with a pitchfork or other pronged device. Today, we have the advantage of mechanical aerators that actually remove small-diameter “plugs” from the soil. The holes left in the turf allow moisture and nutrients to more easily reach the roots. As the soil naturally expands to fill the holes over a few weeks’ time, the surrounding soil is allowed to loosen, reducing compaction. The “plugs” are scattered on the surface and breakdown back into the lawn within a few days.
2. Lawn Topdressing - The Texas Cooperative Horticulture Extension of the Texas A&M University System has called top dressing and lawn aeration a “magical elixir” for a tired lawn. According to gardening expert Gerry Hood, top-dressing can give you a new fashionable lawn without having to pay designer prices. It’s like buying a brand new outfit for your yard, he says. You will notice the benefits within weeks and all though the summer.
Topdressing introduces new soil materials to the existing turf. Because we have a high amount of clay content in our North Texas soil, it is important to add nutritional sand and other soil amendments to loosen turf compaction and improve soil drainage. With our topdressing we add lava sand, green sand, horticutural molasses and to enhance the lawn’s health and performance. Our combination of a lawn aeration with our organically enriched topdressing will dramatically improve the appearance and health of your lawn.
Topdressing your lawn has many benefits. When used properly, top dressing lawns can suppress weeds, improve soil quality, moderate soil temperature extremes, and conserve soil moisture. Topdressing can help achieve healthier lawns without relying on excessive watering, fertilizing and chemical weed control.
3. Lawn Overseeding - Many home lawns were established with common type turfgrasses that do not meet the needs of today’s homeowner. These lawns tend to be more disease and insect prone, take more fertilizer and water or just have a plain old “worn out” look.
Newer turfgrass varieties have been developed to withstand insects, disease, drought, shady conditions and heavy traffic better. The investment in overseeding pays off by reducing the amount of fertilizer, water and pesticides required. Most importantly, a renovated lawn looks better. It stays greener and looks healthier.
For various reasons, old turf sometimes deteriorates dramatically or dies out completely. Overseeding with an improved grass seed mixture can get new turf growing in bare areas as well as spruce up areas where the turf is thin and unhealthy looking. Professional turf managers routinely overseed their athletic fields and golf courses almost every year. Although your lawn may not get the workout that golf courses, parks and athletic fields do, it can benefit enormously from overseeding every 3 to 4 years.
Spriggs Brothers Organic Landscape offers a variety of organic solutions to your lawns health. We are members of the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association, Better Business Bureau, and Howard Garrett’s Dirt Doctor’s Ground Crew”. We offer year round fertilization programs as well as one time treatments. Because we are an organic company our methods and products are 100% safe for your family, pets, and the environment. Call us today at 972/390-9362 to revitalize your lawn.
