"JohnnyC" wrote in message
...
Zone 5A, Rhode Island, Very sunny lot.

Does anyone have experience topdressing their lawn with compost? Can I do
it now? Does it help? What should I know???

I also started with a typical builder's lawn. I've topdressed with compost
several times. Here's a few tips
- do it early in the season before the grass gets too tall
- if the grass is already growing, mow short before doing it. You don't want
the compost to smother the blades
- core aerate if possible before doing it. Then the compost will fall
loosely into the empty holes and you get the compost a little deeper into
the ground
- make sure your compost is well composted. There's some stuff that's more
like ground up wood chps mixed with municipal sludge and then speed
composted (this comes from the beechwood chips from the Budweiser plant in
Merrimack, NH). This stuff was too "hot" (and a bit smelly).
- smoothing out the compost and getting the blades of grass to stick up can
be very tedious. There's a very simple device that's used on golf courses
after sand is spread. It's basically a bunch of 2x3s or 2x4s (maybe 2 or 3ft
long) that is tied together into a mat with spaces between the wood (kind of
like a venetian blind). It's dragged around behind a tractor or by hand. You
can also do this if you have an old piece of chain link fence.

-al sung
Rapid Realm Technology, Inc.
Hopkinton, MA
(Zone 6a)