Topdressing and Spring Cleaning

With the intent of putting out timely information on topdressing and spring cleaning the editorial staff at Topdressing.biz got together with our USA East Coast topdressing professional affiliates to discuss what suggestions we can make to our readership as the snow has melted in most parts of the continental USA and Central Europe.

Our affiliated topdressing professionals and topdresser manufacturers suggested as part of our topdressing and spring cleaning effort, that once the brownish, yellowish looking lawn is gradually turning green to:

Spring clean up your total property

or have one of our topdressing specialists or mulch installers affiliate with us do the work for you

- Cut all dead, dry and grey stalks, stems of last year's perennials growth
- Spruce up shrubs and vines that blossom from past year's growth.
- Some Shrubs need a little pruning each early spring to remove dead or crossing stems and branches.
- In case you protected your planter/garden beds with leaves, you must remove them to the compost pile. Leaves even shredded are the composting material (even if shredded) that takes the longest to totally become digested. During the composting phase leaves can cause the plants to rot during the warmer seasons. The digesting process for leaves can take up to 18 months by the natural aerobic and anaerobic process of microorganisms and worms feeding off of them.

Spring Feeding

- Feeding your plants the natural, organic way to stimulate healthy growth, increased blossoms and higher resistant plants during the high temperatures of summer, is a must.

And here comes in your source of natural, organic plant food - your compost pile. But according o our topdressing specialists: you must ensure your compost has totally decomposed before it is applied around your just burgeoning, delicate new plant growth. No need to buy chemically coded (for slow release purpose) fertiliser/fertilizer nature has that built-in in well seasoned compost and does the same slow release thing for free.

Applying a thin layer of compost as a source topdressing material to flower beds and turf is a smart way to fertilize, as indicated above the crowns of perennials should not be covered. When topdressing the lawn in spring, you should remove all debris, trash, waste and not decomposed whole leaves and start a new compost pile together with the aforementioned winter mulch that you just collected of your planters. If you need to rake, please do it gently as you either disturb or even remove new lawn growth otherwise. Apply the topdressing material thinly as leveling lawns in spring is no recommend. The purpose of spring cleaning and topdressing in spring is to provide nutrition to the young turf grass and relief compaction pressure on the roots. Only overseed areas that are bare and make sure you keep the new growth covered with straw or fabric as spring is not the ideal time to grow grass.

Now that you have finished your garden chores of bed/planter maintenance, light pruning of specific plants, clipping and topdressing all areas of your property, you can take a break ... Not quite yet!

If you desire a sharp edge between your beds/planters and turf area, now is the best time to cut or correct and old dilapidated edges, while the ground is still very soft. Follow these few topdressing and spring cleaning suggestion you will have a nice yard for many months of the growing season to come.