Grass Sodding ideas
As one friend (fiend?) said: Only a Madman would do it that way...
I was in a situation where we were going to be in a house for only 4 years at the
most, but we wanted a lawn for the kids. One of the kids was only with us 1 more
year, and two were only with us 2 more years. What to do?
According to friends, a sodded lawn 1 month old is about the quality of a seeded
lawn 2 years old. So if we seeded, it was estimated that it would be 2 years before
we could "heavily" use and abuse it. That wasn't great given that in 2 years, 3
of our 4 kids might have moved out of home
One other quick factor, at this house, I had initially tried to do it the cheap
way and seeded. And worse, I was doing several acres then, so I seeded it at the
minimum the package suggested. If you seed: Don't use the minimum - use the MAXIMUM
instead. Don't go cheap, the results aren't worth it.
So of course, we decided to bite the bullet and buy sod. (about 1/2 acre of sod
- very large property obviously.)
However, I've never been one to do it by the book. I'm always looking for a way
to improve. AND I like to experiment and pass the results on to others, and possibly
take advantage of the results myself some day in the future. So I spent an extra
$75 and bought a 50 lb bag of seed as well. (If you decide to copy and have an average
sived home, probably $10 or $20 worth of seed will do) - realizing that when And
here is what I did:
1. Before laying the grass - I "underseeded" the sod with grass seed. My thought
was this: If there are areas where the sod is thin or dead - the seed will sprout
and grow up through the sod and revitalize it. Also I thought that the grass
in even the thick areas would grow up through and help anchor it earlier and better.
2. After laying the grass, I had areas where there were gaps. I made up a mixture
of grass and dirt and then hand placed it in the gaps.
At the end of 2 weeks
- all my gaps have very thick lush grass (did I use too much seed?)
- idea 1 seems to have worked as well. What is interesting is this: The seed package
suggested it would take 2 to 3 weeks
- the areas around the lawn, where I seeded at the recommended rate, have a little
bit of growth, but nothing spectacular. So far the sod+ underseed is clearly the
winner given my objectives.
Compared to the cost of the sod, this was a minor extra outlay, and it seems to
be an improvement, at least for someone who was inexperienced
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