Lay Down Thy Pallet and Walk Again

When it comes to getting a thick, healthy lawn, null beats sod grass rolls for instant gratification. Read some common questions nigh sod, followed by our step-by-step instructions on how to gear up your soil and correctly lay out a beautiful carpet of green.

What Direction Should You Lay Sod?

Make sure y'all lay your first row confronting a direct border; this could be along your yard or fence or patio.

How Long Practice You Take to Stay Off of New Sod?

Try to avoid walking on your new installed sod for almost a calendar week. (See Step 5 for more details.)

How Much Does Information technology Price for Sod Installation?

It costs about $400 to embrace a 1,000-foursquare-foot lawn (double that installed). Simply if you follow our tips for laying sod, in a couple of weeks yous'll take a dense, well-established lawn that's naturally resistant to weeds, diseases, and pest infestations.

"You lot're basically buying fourth dimension," says This One-time Firm landscape contractor Roger Cook. "You're paying for turf that someone else has coddled for 14 to eighteen months."

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Steps for Laying Sod

Read these steps to learn how to lay sod in your yard.

1. How to Set up Your Soil for Sod

Loosen the top half dozen to viii inches of soil with a rototiller. Spread 2 inches of finished compost (this may exist available for gratis if your town has a municipal compost center). Add 2 to 3 inches of sand to claylike soil to improve drainage. Till in amendments. Then, based on the results from your soil test, utilize a spreader to lay down the advisable starter fertilizer, and and so lime if needed.

2. Leveling Your Lawn

Apply an atomic number 26 rake to knock downwardly any high spots and make full in low spots so the soil is level and 1 inch below the class of whatsoever paved surface, such every bit a walkway or driveway. Water lightly to dampen the soil.

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3. Laying the Kickoff Row

Find the longest directly border in your one thousand—here, it was the fence line. Unroll the beginning roll of sod along information technology. Continue off the sod while you are installing it, and rake out any footprints as you lot go. Smooth out loose areas or wrinkles, patting down the sod and so information technology's apartment confronting the soil underneath it, with no air pockets.

four. Laying the Next Rows

After laying the offset row, use the knife to cut off half of the adjacent piece so you can stagger the short seams, as you would in laying bricks. Again, make sure to butt sections of turf snugly against each other without overlapping them. Non simply volition seams be less noticeable this style but the edges will be less likely to dry out out and die back. Apply the knife to cut out holes for in-ground sprinkler heads as needed, and to trim pieces along planting beds and paved areas.

5. Watering New Sod

Water the installed lawn thoroughly, which also helps settle the soil. Endeavor to keep human foot traffic off the sod for a week. H2o every twenty-four hours, preferably in the morning: During the oestrus of the day, you lose a lot of water to evaporation. And if you lot h2o at night, the sod goes to bed moisture, which can encourage fungal affliction. Later the offset week, cut dorsum watering to every other day, tapering off to just twice a week by the third week. Then like any lawn, give it an inch of water a week, more during hot summer months.

6. When to Mow New Sod

When the grass reaches iii inches high, it'south time to mow information technology downward to 2 inches. Because your new lawn is nonetheless fragile, utilise a walk-behind mower (rather than the heavier ride-on type) for the commencement trim, and exist sure to bag the clippings. Though you'll probably want to grow it higher in the summertime months—to encourage a deep root system and to shade out weeds—always aim to cutting off 1-3rd of the grass'due south length anytime you mow, and exist sure to utilise a precipitous blade.

7. Fertilizing New Sod

Allow your lawn about three to four weeks' growth, then feed it once more with a starter fertilizer to make up for nutrients that washed away during the heavy watering schedule.

What Is the Best Fourth dimension of the Twelvemonth to Lay Sod?

Sod can be installed spring through fall (and even in winter in mild climates). In areas of the country that favor absurd-season grasses, like the Northeast, it avoids the problem of sprouting a squeamish ingather of weeds when seeding a lawn in spring. And in southern states, which favor warm-season grasses like Bermudagrass, zoysia grass, and centipede grass, sod is the best way to comprehend the yard at any time of yr, since these turf types cannot be grown from seed.

"Sometimes sod gets a bad rap, but that's ordinarily because of mistakes people brand while laying it," says Roger. "Put downwards on properly prepared soil, it will thrive." Turf likes a well-aerated base of operations that's slightly acidic (with a pH betwixt six and 7.five) and nutrient-rich. And the just way to know what kind of soil you've got is to exam it. For almost $15, your local extension service will send a soil sample to a lab for analysis; results volition come back within a week or two and indicate precisely what amendments y'all should add and in what quantity.

Where to Buy Sod

So information technology's fourth dimension to buy your sod. Depending on where y'all live, you tin can society information technology from a garden centre or directly from a sod subcontract. Information technology will generally be a mix of two or three turf grasses, called for optimal colour, texture, and heartiness (be sure to tell your supplier if your g'south in partial or total shade). Ideally, sod should be delivered within 24 hours of beingness cutting and exist laid the aforementioned day. Measure your grand carefully so you can order the correct corporeality, with some overage (about 5 pct) to account for cutting around curves.

Practise I Demand to Rototill Before Laying Sod?

Aye, unless it's a small area. And you'll need other tools. Count on one weekend to gear up the soil for sod and another to lay the turf. If your thou is covered with patchy grass, you'll need to remove it first.

This is best done with a sod cutter (available from your local rental yard for about $lxx per day), which slices it off below the roots. While you're at information technology, you'll want to rent a rototiller (about $55 per day). You'll also need a sod-cut pocketknife with a ii-inch blade, a spreader, an iron rake, compost, and other soil amendments, including fertilizer and lime, depending on what your soil assay dictates. Two people should be able to embrace 1,000 square feet in a day; get extra easily if you plan to lay more than that.

Tips From Sod Farmers

Here'southward some communication from the pros for DIY sod installation.

• Because sod is perishable and dries out quickly, many farmers cutting their turf in the middle of the night so that information technology tin be delivered and installed the same mean solar day. To proceed information technology moist, consider watering the sod subsequently you lay the showtime large area and move the sprinkler around the lawn as y'all complete each subsequent section.
• Even sod farmers can't tell how moist soil is past looking at a lawn. Use a soil probe (many types are available at home and garden centers) to cheque moisture levels. Afterwards a thorough watering, soil should be damp 3 to 4 inches beneath the surface.
• Strong turf needs plenty of dominicus; shade-grown grass is weaker and more susceptible to illness since information technology stays covered with dew longer. Water shady spots less ofttimes and reduce fertilizer by 25 percentage.

Laying Sod Around Curves

Harry Bates

Neat green rectangles of sod fit tightly against each other when laid in straight lines, but they won't conform to a bend, such as around the border of a bloom bed. Some people cutting the sod lengthwise into strips that can exist bent around a curve, but This Onetime House landscape contractor Roger Cook says smaller pieces like that are more than likely to dry out and die than ones that remain full-width.

Instead, Roger makes his sod curve the way a tailor might, by cut a sprint or two in a full-sized piece. With the sod laid side by side to the curve, he grabs a couple of spots forth 1 edge and pinces them together to make the sod follow the contours of the bed. This creates a triangular upward fold that he slices down its crease with a razor knife. Ane side of the cut goes down against the footing; he lays the other flap on top of information technology. Using the cutting edge of this flap equally a guide, he saws the knife through the sod and removes the triangular piece underneath. At present, the flaps meet and—voila—the cutting disappears.

Soil Testing

Before you spend a lot of money to lay downward sod, spend a little bit to take your soil tested. Then you'll be certain you're providing the best environment for your new lawn to thrive.

A do-it-yourself kit from a garden center will give readings on pH (how acidic or alkaline your soil is) and the levels of crucial nutrients—nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. Just for the about accurate and complete results, have your soil tested past your county extension service or state university. They'll analyze a sample from your k and send you a study, like the i shown at right, detailing the soil'south pH, texture, and food levels, and recommending how to correct whatsoever deficiencies. And information technology but costs about $15.

Soil tin exist tested year-round, merely it's all-time done in the spring or fall. To collect a good sample, dig at to the lowest degree 5 holes, half-dozen inches deep past 2 inches wide, in various spots in your yard. Equally y'all go, avoid or remove whatsoever grass, weeds, thatch, or roots. Mix all the samples together, then put about 2 cups of the mix into a nada-seal bag and send it to the lab.

The more data you give with the sample, the more useful its recommendations will be. Notation what kind of turf grass y'all'll be using; whether the one thousand gets lots of shade, sun, or foot traffic; or if the soil has been recently disturbed due to construction. Just don't look until the last minute to have a exam done. Information technology takes about ii weeks to get the lab's results, and then you'll need some more than fourth dimension to right the soil, if necessary, before your sod goes down.

Where to Detect Sod Farms

Chip Lane
Pine Island Turf Nursery
Pine Isle, NY
800-700-8873
www.pineturf.com

David Millar
Ruddy Hen Turf Farm
New Carlisle, IN
574-232-6811
www.redhenturf.com

Jutt Howard
NG Turf
1487 Blackness Dirt Road
Whitesburg, GA 30185
770-832-8608
https://NGTurf.com

Landscape contractor

Roger Cook
1000 & R Tree and Landscape Co.
Burlington, MA
781-272-6104

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Source: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/gardening/21015374/how-to-lay-sod