BEST Organic Granular Compost Lawn Top Dressing

What is Granular Compost?

At LawnSavers, our lawn care experts use a high tech Granular Compost that works even better than, and without the mess and risk of using dirt.  It is an affordable and better way to add the value of traditional “soil” topdressing to your lawn.  Granular compost will:
1. Improve soil structure for better rooting.
2. Increase Microbial diversity and activity allowing them to extract the nutrients needed for turf health.
3. Add higher levels of organic matter to your lawn, which means less water usage and faster green up.
4. Reduce thatch naturally by increasing your turf’s resiliency to environmental stresses.
Our pelletized leaf litter compost is blended with Kelp, Humic acid and other unique nutrients normally found in only the finest finished composts.  These nutrients are not present in most native soils or traditional fertilizer programs.

What is lawn top dressing?

Traditional old-school lawn top dressing involving bags or loads of soil delivered to your property has many downsides.
1. It’s expensive
2. It often introduces all sorts of weed seeds and grassy-weed seeds from fields in to your lawn,
3. It’s back-breaking work, and doesn’t do much to help your existing soil!
Our granular compost will help by adding organic matter to improve your soil resulting in thicker, greener, healthier lawns.

Combined with Liquid or Core Aeration and the appropriate seeding method, it will help to fill-in and repair small bare spots on your lawn caused by stress, insect or animal damage as well as help to thicken up those areas that are thin and not looking their best. Compost provides fuel for the important microbes in your soil that digest the vital nutrients we apply and make them ‘available’ to your lawns root system for easier and more efficient uptake in the plant.

Our granulated compost improves the soil quality by feeding and growing the microbe population counts contained in the soil, without introducing weeds! Microbes are the backbone of healthy soil allowing nutrients to be efficiently utilized by the plants roots. By maximizing the effect of those nutrients, the result is healthier plants, denser roots systems and greener, thicker lawns.

Equally important, these specific nutrients aid in water efficiency and drought tolerance of turfgrass plants.

If you Must: How to Top Dress Your Lawn – Instructions for Top Dressing

The following are instructions on how to go about performing top dressing on your own. Over-Seeding & Top-Dressing your lawn is really easy. All you have to do is go to your local garden store and purchase some high quality certified grass seed with endophyte, and hopefully you can find some good ‘finished compost’ or a sand/finished compost mix.

BEFORE STARTING: Don’t use soil that you dont know the origin of! 
HINT: If you are unsure of the quality of your soil- test it first! water a small tray of soil and leave it in the heat and sun to see what grows!

• We recommend using a seed variety that is at least 50% Kentucky Blue Grass and the other portion a mix of certified perennial ryegrasses and fescues.  It will say what type of seed it is on the bag. ex. certified seed would say “Grand Slam Kentucky Blue grass” hint: the longer the name, the better the breed.
• You get what you pay for.  Purchase the most expensive seed.
• Purchase a finished compost or granulated ‘baked’ compost,  or sand/loam mix. If you cant find any finished compost- then don’t do it! Make sure you get enough to spread out evenly over your entire lawn.  Straight manures will burn the fragile germinating seedlings.
  (If granular compost- use much more sparingly according to instructions on the bag)
  Sand helps to break down clay (Coarse or play sand is ok). ‘Finished’ compost ensures that weed seeds are rendered dead and will add organic matter to the soil as well as beneficial micro-organisms.
  HINT: If you are unsure of the quality of your soil- test it first! water a small tray of soil and leave it in the heat and sun to see what grows!
• We recommend putting down 4lbs of high quality seed per 1000 square feet of grass for overseeding. (For an average lawn of 2500 square feet, I would recommend 10-15 lbs).  If you are only doing small spots, one handful per square foot should suffice. HINT: think of pepper on mashed potatoes.
• Scarify (rough up) the top inch or two of soil in the bare areas.
• Spread out the compost/soil/sand over the lawn making sure there is a 1/3 inch layer.  A wheel barrow is a useful tool to aid you in spreading out the topdressing.
  (If granular compost- use much more sparingly according to instructions on the bag)
• Spread the seed out over top of the topdressing, focusing on areas that appear to be thin or bare.   Do not cover the seed with soil. Lightly tamp down the seed into the soil to make sure the seed is in firm contact with the soil.
• Keep the seed moist for 2-3 weeks.  This may require watering 2-3 times a day.  If you do not keep the seed moist it will not germinate.   Bluegrass takes longer than ryegrass to germinate, so be sure to continue watering until the grass appears to be thickening.
• Limit traffic on these areas as the new seedlings are fragile.

Who needs it?

• Customers who have had heat, drought or mechanical damage stress on their lawn.
• Customers with poor soil, especially in new developments with ‘builders soil’.
• Primarily clay or sandy soil to supplement and/or restore organic matter.
• Customers with small bare spots caused by mild to moderate insect and grub damage.
• Customers who have a generally thin lawn.

When should I top dress my lawn with compost?

• Granular Compost top dressing can be done any time of year! It doesn’t burn or smother.
• Soil based topdressing can and should only be done during cool weather when lawns are not experiencing any stress, and when weeds are fully under control.
• Ask your LawnSavers Plant Health Care Expert for their advice.

Benefits of Granular Compost

• Your professionally fertilized lawn will naturally try to fill in bare patches on its own, however adding compost top dressing expedites the process.
• Assists in repairs when combined with OverSeeding and PowerSeeding while reducing the chance of weeds invading your thin lawn.
• The result is a greener thicker lawn –Sooner!
• Healthy lawns treated with our granulated compost break down problem thatch faster reducing insect issues and improving lawn growth.
• The process to prepare the compost Guarantees it is absolutely weed-seed-free and contains no insect eggs or larvae.

How does compost top dressing work?

•  We spread the highly concentrated granules of our unique dry granular Organic “Finished” Compost. (looks like large ‘coffee’ grinds, or dark brown fertilizer granules) *see pics above
• We highly recommend our aeration service first, but it is not necessary
• This is also the opportune time to combine our custom blended seed for lawns that have bare spots or a thin appearance. (you can substantially increase the germination of seed with compost nutrients.)

How much does it cost to top dress my lawn?

Our prices for granular compost top dressing start at:

• from $95.50 for up to 1000 square feet.
• $174.00 for up to 4000 square feet.

Applying Compost is a proven maintenance practice in the golf course industry and the same principle also applies to commercial and residential lawn application. Good results are realized when a adding organic material to your existing soil and established lawn in conjunction with aeration. Reseeding of the area often follows. This process improves microbial activity, increases water-holding capacity of the soil, reduces soil compaction and helps improve the degradation of thatch. 

LawnSavers Organics Dry granular Lawn Dressing is a unique formula, consistent in both its chemical and physical characteristics. The product is milled & screened and dried producing a product with an easy to handle texture, free of foreign objects with no objectionable odors and is complimented by the extra fertility bonus. The composted organics that make up LawnSavers Organics Lawn Dressing is loaded with a natural source of N-P-K (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium). One application will provide a generous supply of essential nutrients and the visible quality of the lawn will normally increase significantly! The recommendation for best results is one application in the spring and another in the fall, depending on the condition of the lawn.   Using LawnSavers Organic compost Lawn Dressing helps achieve the ideal physical soil conditions while adding natural fertility in proportionate amounts.

LawnSavers Organics Lawn Dressing is produced using advanced composting technology. Starting with a properly balanced mixture of nitrogen and carbon materials from leaf litter operations the process is monitored for temperature, moisture and oxygen. Optimum composting conditions insure that temperatures are reached in the process to kill weed seeds and harmful pathogens. An average of 90 days is required from start to finish of this high quality product and is followed by additional processing to arrive at the final topdressing material. Third party, accredited labs conduct the industry standard analysis insuring that guidelines set out by the Canadian Council of the Ministry of the Environment (CCME) are met.

LawnSavers Organics Lawn Dressing Benefits:

• Contains high organics content
• Includes vital Humic acids
• Decreases thatch
• Increases the effectiveness of fertilizers
• Provides slow release of macro nutrients
• Natural slow release of organic N (nitrogen) makes for a safe fertilizer option
• Longer periods between watering is possible
• Improved drought tolerance
• Overall plant vigor is improved
• Improves plant root structure
• Nutrients are held in the root zone for a longer period
• Helps suppress plant diseases and soil pests
• Increases beneficial microbe population
• Improves soil structure
• Increase soil health and natural conditions
• Increases micro-nutrients
• Increases soil aeration
• Helps form soil aggregates
• Increases in CEC (cation exchange capacity)

Contact Your Local Lawn Top Dressing Company Near You

At LawnSavers we provide top dressing services in the GTA near you using granular compost. If you are looking to top dress your lawn this year contact our team to set up a consultation today.

Check Out What A Happy Client in Mississauga Says About Us on HomeStars!

I have used LawnSavers for many years now (so long ago, I don’t remember when we started) and have never had to follow up with a service that was not done or not done right. They are prompt, friendly, professional and on the ball. I get an email informing me of their upcoming service day and a report after the technician leaves that tells me what service was done and what I have to do to maintain the lawn such as water less or more. Highly recommend them!

A Happy Customer in Mississauga!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Total Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 416 reviews