As described elsewhere, your lawn is an ever changing and sometimes thinning mat of a multitude of grass (and weed!) plants. Grasses are continually dying and germinating.

Over time your lawn changes to reflect the following:

• Your original lawn seed mix but at much reduced proportions
• Grasses that have seeded in you soil before you laid your lawn
• Grasses that have been blown or carried in (eg birds)
• Grasses that prefer your growing conditions

Many of the weed grasses can be clumpy or coarse in habit.

If you would like a slightly more uniform, finer and denser lawn, then you should oversow with lawn seed after top dressing.

To oversow, you should first scarify and then apply top dressing

Your scarification will have “opened up” the lawn allowing the new grass seeds to germinate. The top dressing gives a perfect seedbed for germination.

You should overseed with a grass mix reflecting the direction you wish to take your lawn.

For example, you could overseed with a drought tolerant grass, a fine grass or maybe just a modern, disease resistant general hard wearing grass seed mix. Remember, you get a free pack of grass seed when you buy Top Dressing from TurfandStuff

There is much debate about what rate you should overseed at. Apply a rate of about ½ of the normal sowing rate but if you have heavily scarified or are late in the season, slightly more can be applied to compensate.

The seed should be applied by mechanical Lawn Spreader and not by hand, as re- spreading later is very difficult.

It should then be worked in by dragmat or lute

If the weather forecast is dry, a light watering for 1-2 weeks will aid germination.

There is no fertilizer required as the compost from the top dressing will provide enough nutrition.

Remember to mow as if it is a newly seeded lawn, wait, sharpen blades and start high with a rotary mower.