When to top dress in Perth
Mid-spring, once the lawn is actively growing — October is ideal. The grass needs to grow up through the dressing within a fortnight; top dress a dormant winter lawn and you'll smother it instead.
How thick, and how much mix
Aim for 10 mm — the grass tips should still show through after spreading. That's 1 m³ per 100 m² of lawn, or one bulk bag for a typical Perth front lawn. For levelling deeper hollows, fill in two passes a few weeks apart rather than burying the grass in one hit.
The order that makes it work
Mow low first. Apply soil wetter, water it in, feed with a spring fertiliser, then spread the top-dress mix and work it in with the back of a rake or a level lawn bar. Water daily for the first week. Wetter → feed → dress is the order; each step sets up the next.
- Mow the lawn shorter than usual
- Apply wetting agent and water in
- Spread spring fertiliser
- Spread top-dress mix at ~10 mm
- Rake/level until grass tips show through
- Water daily for 7–10 days
Which mix to use
A blended lawn top-dress mix — sand with composted organics — beats plain yellow sand: it levels the same but feeds the profile as it settles. Pure washed sand is only the right call for pure levelling on an already-healthy lawn.
Top dressing reveals retic problems — dry corners that never green up usually mean coverage faults, not lawn faults. If patching the pattern is beyond a nozzle swap, our sister company can sort the system properly. Book a retic repair with PRE.