- If your yard has undesirable vegetation, such as Bermuda grass, plan to spray the area multiple
times with an herbicide with glysophate as the active ingredient, while the Bermuda is actively
growing (summer) to kill the Bermuda. This process can take time. Bermuda does not normally die
from a single application of the chemical. After multiple sprayings over several weeks, the
dead Bermuda can be scraped up and removed from the yard.
- If you have a shady yard and have difficulty growing a thick, healthy lawn, you may consider
thinning the canopy by removing lower tree branches, or by removing the trees themselves.
- It is always helpful to know what you are working with. Your local extension agent can provide a
soil sample test kit, or you can hire a private service/lab to perform a soil analysis for you.
After collecting soil samples, sending them for analysis, and receiving the results, you can
amend the soil as recommended in the report. Soil samples can be taken Here.
An explanation of your soil sample results can be found Here.
- Remove Existing Vegetation/Debris: Bare soil is best for installing new sod. One option for
removing existing vegetation is to rent a walk-behind sodcutter from a local rental store and
using it to cut the existing lawn off the ground. Another option is to use a garden tiller to
till up the yard and then rake the vegetative debris out of the tilled soil. A third option
would be to rent a skidsteer or hire a skidsteer operator to remove the existing grass/debris
from the area to be sodded.
- Loosen soil. Tilling soil to a depth of 4 to 6 inches is optimal for sod installations. If you
can only loosen a few inches deep, that is preferable to not loosening the soil. The roots of the
grass plants can more easily travel and grow into loosened soil than a soil substrate that is
tight or compacted.
- Grade soil:
- Rough Grade: Depending on the area to be sodded, some sites may require extensive grading with
slopes being worked or changed to provide the best drainage of the site, while other sites
may require less rough grading if drainage is not a problem. To create the rough grade,
land-moving equipment may be necessary. After this “rough” grading has been completed, a
smooth “final grade” is important to promote a successful sod installation.
- Final Grade: The final grade is the soil surface upon which the sod will be installed.
Raking the loosened soil smooth not only creates a smooth lawn end-product, but also allows
the new sod to have good contact with the soil below, which aids the roots in finding water
and nutrients. We suggest that rocks or debris larger than a quarter be raked out of the
loosened soil to prepare a nice final grade.
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- Similar to tiling a floor, plan your installation so you are working out from one point in the
yard or surface to be sodded such that you don’t have to walk on newly installed sod to lay more
sod. We suggest picking a long, straight edge to start the installation. If there isn’t a
straight line to help you start laying sod, create one by laying a row of sod near the edge of the
lawn and filling in the nearby areas (such as along a scalloped flowerbed) with pieces of sod you
will “cut-in”.
- To help “hide” the seams between the sod pieces, we suggest laying sod in a brick-work pattern.
When you start the second row of sod, cut one piece in half and lay it next to the first full
piece in the first row. This will stagger the seams in the installation so they are not as
visible and begin a brick-work pattern to follow throughout the yard.
- Pull each piece of sod as close to the nearby pieces as possible. If the sod has been rolled up a
long time, the edges of the sod may not want to lie flat, so you may use force to push the seams down
and into each other.
- Cut-In: At the end of rows and along flowerbeds/walkways/driveways/etc, a sharp implement such
as a hatchet or straight shovel can be used to trim the sod pieces to fit and create a crisp edge.
We call trimming the sod pieces “cutting in.” The more cut-ins a yard has, the longer the sod
installation can take. If you are installing sod in the heat of the year, you may want to start
watering the larger areas you have already installed while you are still working on cut-ins along
the edges or in other areas of the installation.
- Curb Appeal: A final suggestion with respect to the placement of the sod pieces with respect to
aesthetic value only, we have found that the seams between sod pieces are less visible when you
look at a house from the street if you lay the pieces parallel to the street. The most important
aspect of installation is that you make sure the pieces are in close contact with each other and
with the soil below (see Rolling Sod). (The smoother the final grade, the less significant
rolling becomes.)
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After the Installation
Rolling sod insures that the sod is in good contact with the soil below. When Lavery’s installs sod,
we roll the sod after a large area is installed and just before the customer starts watering the sod.
We use a mechanized roller that an operator walks behind. A manual roller is fine too (early versions
are a water-drum attached to a handle that you push through the yard). Rolling helps smooth seams
between sod pieces and remove air pockets between the sod and soil. If you have created a smooth final
grade and do not have access to a roller, the success of your installation should not be compromised
because you can’t roll it. If you have a rough final grade and no access to a roller, there is a
higher chance that the sod pieces may not be in full contact with the soil and the roots may not take
hold in those areas.
All sod installations should be watered immediately upon completion. The only exception to this rule occurs
in winter-time installations. Winter installations have more flexibility for two reasons, 1) the sod is not
under heat stress in the winter, and 2) winter-time TYPICALLY means precipitation! Winter sod installations
should be watered if no precipitation happens within a few days of installation. Winter sod installations
will involve less watering as moisture lasts longer in the cool times of year.
- Plan to water by inches. Everyone’s water pressure is different, so instead of recommending, “water
your new sod for two hours everyday,” we recommend watering by inch measurements. If you have built-in
irrigation, it should be calibrated for inch measurements and you can program it accordingly. If you
are watering the old-fashioned way with sprinklers, plan to invest in rain gauges to figure out how
long your sprinklers have to be running to get an inch of water on the newly installed turf. (Empty tuna
cans make a good substitute for rain gauges and can be placed throughout the area being watered to
find out how long it takes your system to deliver one inch of water.)
- Amount of watering depends on the time of year. Winter installations require the least amount of
water, summer installations require the most, and spring and fall installations can vary depending
on natural rainfall and temperatures.
The table below is based on average temperature and precipitation for Southwestern Virginia; adjust
watering routine if weather patterns do not hold true, for example, in droughts/heatwaves. Plan for
each watering event to involve one inch of water.
| December through February |
Water after installation; if precipitation is forecasted within a few days
of installation, should be OK to wait to water, but watering at installation is always a
good idea. If typical winter precipitation occurs (occasional rain/snow throughout winter),
you may not have to water at all after initial watering. |
March through May |
Water after installation. Water one inch about every third day for
the first month, decreasing frequency in second month. |
June through September |
Water after installation. Water one inch every other day for the
first month, decreasing frequency in the second month. |
October through November |
Water after installation. Water one inch about every third day for
the first month, decreasing frequency in second month. |
Rules of Thumb:
- Plan to water newly installed turf for about 2 months.
- Use common sense; if it rains the day you were planning to water, skip the watering and depending on
the amount of rain received, wait a day or two to get back into your watering routine.
- We have found that sod gets rooted quickly with thorough waterings that are spread out over time
(every other day in warm times of year, every few days in cooler periods). We consider a thorough
watering to involve an inch of water. An inch of water is typically enough water to wet through a
piece of sod and down a few inches into the soil below. You can water everyday, but sometimes this
can cause the grass roots to get lazy and not grow as deeply into the soil. By staggering the
waterings, the roots are encouraged to follow the water down into the soil, fostering deeper root
systems. For summer installations where temperatures are extremely high and moisture is lost quickly,
watering new sod everyday may be necessary if no natural precipitation is occurring.
- It is not good to over-water to the point that the area is sloppy or water pools on the sod.
A sloppy watering is one where if you step on the sod after (or during) the watering, your
foot sinks down into the sod/soil just like you are stepping into mud. If you take your weight
away and the sod/footprint stays down in the soil, you have most likely over-watered. When water
pools on top of the sod you may have a drainage issue, also, if it is summertime you can actually “cook”
the sod when the sunlight heats up the water laying on top of the sod.
- Time of Day: In summer months, watering sod earlier in the day is preferred, but not mandatory.
We suggest watering in the morning hours to allow the water applied to soak into the soil
(minimizing loss of water due to evaporation), and to allow the moisture remaining on the
above-ground portion of the plant to evaporate during the heat of the day. Allowing the
plant blades to dry during the day helps slow down the growth of fungi (like brown patch)
that thrive in the heat of the summer and love warm, moist plant tissue to feed upon. If
watering can only be performed later in the day, it is better to water whenever you can
than to not water at all!
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To get an idea of how much sod you will need, think of the area to be sodded as separate shapes like rectangles
and triangles(see pic below for details). First measure the sides of the rectangles and triangles that make up the area you want
to sod. Then enter the measurements into the calculator below, one area at a time. Click "Add Area" to
add each to the sum of areas shown at right. Your estimated total area will be shown in the box.
Remember, this is an estimate only. A Lavery's Sod Farm representative will confirm the amount of sod you need.
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