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Photo Credit: ©2000 Dolezal Publishing/Tim Butler

Using a long-handled shovel, pick up some mulch and swing it in the direction of your turf, then pull it back suddenly. The mulch will spray off of the shovel head and spread across the grass.

Once you’ve dethatched and aerated your lawn, it’s time to rebuild its overall health by adding necessary nutrients to the soil. You’re off to a good start if you’ve let all of those unsightly plugs of grass and soil pulled up during the aeration process stay right where they fell. They break down in a couple of weeks and return much-needed nitrogen to the lawn bed.

Aeration holes make wonderful conduits for passing necessary nitrogen, oxygen and other soil nutrients to the root zone. This stage is the perfect time to topcoat your lawn. You can use organic compost or a mix of fine (rather than chunky-style) peat moss and weed-free topsoil, with 1 or 2 parts playground sand mixed in to help with texture and drainage if your soil is claylike.

Don’t forget to also check the pH balance of your lawn’s soil and apply either lime or sulfur to correct any imbalance. And if you need to overseed and renew a scraggly lawn, add grass seed to the topcoating before dispensing.

Spread the mix evenly over your lawn to a depth of about ¼ of an inch. (Follow the photos and their captions to learn how to apply the topcoat with a shovel or drop spreader.) After you sufficiently coat your lawn, lightly rake – or even sweep with a stiff broom – the topcoating into the soil surface. Brush off as much of it as possible from the leaf blades so light can penetrate, and make sure the topcoating fills in all the depressions in the soil, including the aeration holes. When you’re finished, water your topcoating thoroughly (either by hand or with your inground irrigation system).

Combined with dethatching and aeration, topcoating is the single best thing you can do to improve the condition of your lawn’s soil. A layer of topcoating, if repeated annually, will gradually build up a kind of super soil layer that will support and feed your lawn. So this simple step not only renews your turfgrass – it ensures its future health.