Choosing planting

Topdressing a lawn: why and how?

The well-kept secret of a beautiful short grass meadow

Contents

Modified the Wednesday, 13 August 2025 by Virginie T. 2 min. Difficulty: Beginner

Want to keep a lovely lush green short grass meadow? Trampling, mowing, heat, lack of water — over time soil becomes depleted, the lawn thins out, yellows and loses density. Deprived of nutrients, soil becomes impoverished, hard and compact, and herbs’ roots thin out. To prevent it from permanently turning into a doormat, as surprising as that may seem, a lawn needs feeding to grow well, remain dense and stay green: topdressing, that is spreading compost, is a single and natural technique that helps enrich soil with fresh organic matter. Why should you topdress your lawn, how and when to do it — here are our tips to keep your short grass meadow in perfect health.

Difficulty

What is top-dressing?

Short grass meadow looking sad and thinning out is sign it lacks nutrients and soil no longer nourishes it sufficiently. Topdressing consists of spreading a thin layer of topsoil or well-rotted compost over entire surface of short grass meadow. It is a natural way to maintain short grass meadow because, unlike lawn fertiliser, which supplies only nutrients and mainly benefits above-ground parts to keep herb green and dense, topdressing alters soil profoundly.

Why top-dress your lawn?

To amend soil: well-fertilised soil improves herb quality. Adding organic matter – potting compost or compost – naturally stimulates soil microbial activity, root development and helps to enrich and modify soil structure. Topdressing also helps to lighten soil.

Scarified and topdressed lawn ready for overseeding

When to intervene?

Act when your lawn shows signs of weakness, rarely before the second or third year following the first sowing. This technique is then carried out every year in spring or autumn.

What to use to top-dress your lawn?

Choose a quality multipurpose compost, or a special lawn compost specifically designed to promote germination and nourish short grass meadow. Avoid low-quality composts: compost quality is crucial. Well-rotted compost can also be spread to fertilise your short grass meadow: preferably sieve it to refine it before spreading. Both modify soil structure in the long term, loosen heavy soils and promote development of soil micro-organisms.

How to top-dress with compost?

Best to proceed after scarifying to aerate soil, that is, after scraping back the herb to remove moss and after using a rake or a scarifier to break up the felt layer caused by the entanglement of roots. Amendment will penetrate soil better.

Weed ground so weeds do not benefit from the nutrient-boosting effect of organic matter
Allow 5 to 10 litres of topsoil per square metre
Rake out 1 to 2 cm of topsoil or compost across whole surface of short grass meadow, filling all holes
Level with a rake to incorporate it well into soil
Water with a very fine spray to encourage penetration of nutrients
Reseed sparse areas with grass if necessary

→ Rakes, lawn rakes, discover the right tools for spreading topsoil

→ Discover our tools for weeding