Throughout their lives, lawns are best served by: the selection of a grass that suits your climate (cool season); feeding - a minimum four times a year; sufficient watering to encourage deep rather than shallow or surface root growth; and a high rather than low cut to encourage thick growth and little room for weed seeds.

Those of us who have maintained lawns for family leisure and children’s games are probably familiar with the term ‘top dressing’. While it’s not often necessary in domestic situations, it is useful to even out or level a worn lawn surface (and an important management operation in heavily used turf such as a golf course).

Coarse river sand or a sandy loam that has a similar texture to the existing soil should be spread and raked in no more than 5cm at a time so that it doesn’t cover any of the original grass leaves. Fertiliser can be included in this process if you wish.

Notable benefits are that hollows are filled in to give a level surface; there’s an improved texture at the top of the grass root zone and an improved infiltration rate, less disease and fewer insect problems.

If one type of soil is simply spread over another, as pictured, then a hard pan will develop between the layers resulting in drainage problems at a later date.

Where the removal of large weeds such as paspalum has left a patchy lawn, bare spots can be loosened with a fork, lightly raked then oversown with seed akin to the original turf.

Compacted and badly eroded turf, from too frequent low cutting and no maintainance, needs a major renovation. Ripping or chisel ploughing will aerate the ground and improve the drainage. A rotary hoe will then help reduce any large clods to a finer tilth, at the same time incorporating any additional topsoil which may be required.

Fertiliser can be applied as the final levels are prepared, worked into the surface at the rate of 60gr to the square metre.