autumnspring |
09-13-2015 12:15 PM |
Re: top dressing lawn leveling
It really depends on how much you have to do and how good your back is etc.
I would not top dress with manure because to do it right 1-2 inches over your entire lawn area, to get proper results it needs to be stirred into the top 6-8 inches of soil. The builder refused to do it when I asked. You lawn especially in the southern villages is probably the worst soil in central Florida-sandy alkaline clay.
It can be leveled by top dressing BUT, if you do not plan on killing off the grass,
you can only raise the lower areas by 1/4 to half an inch per month. Your lawn will be going dormant in a few weeks. Not the best time to be doing this. You could probably put one coat of top dressing of a 1/4 to a half inch and be ok-do the rest next spring.
If, little to do, you can cut the low spots with a shovel and put soil underneath. Soil-you can buy top soil-quality varies quite a bit. You can mix organic material into our poor sandy clay. Organic material-compost-manure-peat.
I WOULD NOT TOP DRESS WITH MANURE. For easy lawn care you want the grass roots to go down 6-8 inches. We need to water and fertilize so often because the soil is so poor below the one inch they put down with the sod.
If, you want to apply manure-a good way to add organic matter, you need to get it mixed into the soil deep enough.
Manure by the truck load is always far less costly per volume but, you need a place to store it OUT OF THE RAIN. GARAGE FULL OF MANURE-MY WIFE WOULD PLANT ME UNDER IT.
Black Cow is a quality product-it is quite expensive. It is also very clean and low oder about 5.95 for 50 lbs. Pro Green available at Lowes is close in quality and if I recall it is 1.78 a cubic foot. Rough conversion 1 cubic foot is 35 lbs. Walmart had some manure for like $1.59 for 50 pounds. It is very low quality full of stuff like roofing shingles etc AND IT STINKS.
Sparr on route 44 has some good prices on some items-Black Cow 4.95 for 50 lbs. PERLITE 4 cubic foot bag about $14 a two cubic foot bag at Home depo is like $16.
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