Seed or Sod

[Komskies]

Originally Posted by Sliver

I don't agree with this. That's a recipe for a horrible lawn IMO.

Dump loam, landscape rake it out, weighted roller, lay sod, water, enjoy.

And if you have a bunch of weeds growing on your lawn would you just dump loam on top of them and call it a day? The roto-tiller is to rip up all the weeds and loosen the soil. Loam is still a good idea because the builders give you crap backfill full of rocks.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Komskies

And if you have a bunch of weeds growing on your lawn would you just dump loam on top of them and call it a day? The roto-tiller is to rip up all the weeds and loosen the soil. Loam is still a good idea because the builders give you crap backfill full of rocks.

Well obviously you don't lay your sod over top of weeds. Kill them first with some weed killer that becomes inert before you dump your loam and lay your sod. Or if you're not into chemicals just trim the weeds with a weed wacker and rake up the mess before dumping the loam. Weeds aren't going to grow through sod.

Roto-tilling your dirt just creates a giant extra step that will only make your soil lumpy, which is the exact opposite of what you want to do. The only people who do this are people that don't know what they're doing.

[Tiger]

it is not a sod vs seed debate... best thing to do is place your top soil down, seed it, add a high phosphorous fertilizer (which can be hard to find) and then sod over top. The seed grows through the sod eventually and helps your sod stick better. my backyard that I did that way is great. My front lawn that the builder did I can cut out and the roots are not really any deeper than they were 8 years ago.

[Northendzone]

i have seen some comments about levelling the yard, to be clear, you will want to have some type of slope in your yard to ensure it drains. i.e my backyard slopes towards my drainage swail.

also, when i did my yard, i rototilled becasue the dirt was like concreete after month of walking around on it. i then raked it, laid sod and rolled it with a water roller - turned out fine.

[GFG4Life]

Seeding a lawn will produce a better stand of turf down the road if you tend to it properly. Sod will give you almost instant usability but maybe not provide the healthiest turf.

Seed establishes itself in the soil conditions that it will grow in and adapt to. Sod you're taking from the healthiest, balanced growing conditions and putting it into likely a soil without the best PH or nutrient balance. Without rototilling or at least aerating the soil you sod on you could run into compaction issues and your root depth could be shallow, leading to thatchy conditions which is a great host for disease, weeds, black layer and weak turf.

[undercoverbrother]

Sod. It is worth the money.

Make sure you rent a roller. Till soil, rake, roll, put down a new sod fertilizer, put down sod, roll again, then water, water, water, water, water, and when you think you have watered enough, water again.

WATER!

[return to the red]

only thing to add is irrigation, must have irrigation

[automaton 3]

I've done both. Seeding is cheaper and ok if you have lots of time to invest. As someone else mentioned, if you go that way make sure to kill any weeds first, and I ended up spraying for weeds a few more times until it started filling in.

Other then then that, sod all the way. Far easier.

[Calgary4LIfe]

You can get good results both ways. I think the basis is to lay down some good loam - poor soil will grow poor grass. Poor grass makes it easy for weed seeds to find a patch of dirt and germinate. Strong and healthy grass will actually out-compete weeds, and will not allow weed seeds the room to germinate and start.

You will have to weed a little bit more (sometimes a lot more) with seed. However, you definitely can achieve a very good looking lawn. Get good seed, good loam and make sure you water it properly.

Mixing in some good compost will help with the water retention as well. You will not have to water as much in the long run, and will save you some further $$ over a couple of years anyways. Definitely a good idea to do this regardless if you are using seed or sod, in my opinion.

[Rathji]

Amazing how many strange opinions about how to lay sod are out there. If this thread continued on much longer, I wouldn't surprise me to see someone suggest a voodoo doll and a lock of a maiden's hair.

- Get your yard mostly level with whatever dirt your builder left you. Make sure that everything slopes away from your house and is packed down as much as possible. You don't want to be filling big holes with screened loam if you can avoid it, especially near the house and/or in sheltered areas, where you will get the most settlement.

- Get some screened loam and level it nice with a good landscape rake (rent one from Home Depot) - Make sure it isn't too thick, the purpose of this loam is to make your ground level and give a little bit of a base for your sod to take root in, your grass isn't going to care if it is 6 inches thick, but you sure will when it all settles down and you have a yard that looks like an idiot sodded it.

-Roll your loam, especially in areas where you put more than a couple inches. This is optional really, but it helps prevent settling and shifting when you lay the sod, plus you will have the roller for afterwards.

- Lay the sod. Don't order it on a hot day if you can avoid it, but if you can't make sure the pallets don't dry out by spraying with a hose. If your sod is dry, it will shrink, making gaps. Start laying at the bottom of a slope and don't walk on the loam before laying the sod, ie stand on the sod you previously laid to lay the next piece. Stagger each row by at least 30% of a piece length, so it holds together nice. Use either a utility knife or linoleum knife to cut your sod, and keep any cut peices to at least 2-3 inches wide at the narrowest, to avoid it drying out later.

-Once the sod is laid, roll it once in both directions.

-Water it as soon as you can. For 2 weeks, water every day, long enough so that if you were to step on the grass you would sink in 2 or so inches, but DONT step on your lawn, not even to move your sprinkler. This means that you are going to want to position your sprinkler so it gets the entire lawn at once, or purchase an extra hose/sprinkler so you can just change them at the tap.

- Put some liquid fertilizer on it right away. I can't remember what brand/ratio we used, but ask at Home Depot etc and they can tell you what is best. Get the stuff for new plants. I will see if I can contact our old horticulturist to find out, and edit this post when she responds.

Don't use garden mix, compost, or anything like this. Regular screened loam has the right mixture of lumps, rocks and loam to do the job right. If you use something that is too fine like garden mixture, it will pack down like mad.

If sections of your sod start showing gaps, even when you are laying it, that means it is drying out and you need to water more. If it is crazy hot, you might want to get someone to water when you are halfway through the room. Don't get super stressed if it happens somewhere and by watering it doesn't fix it. You can, and should be expecting to, top dress any holes etc with some loam in a few weeks. You can seed afterwards, but it shouldn't be needed unless the hole is pretty big.

Make sure you get your sod at a place that specializes in it, preferably some place that gives you a guarantee of some type. You can get sod at a random big box store, but they don't care about selling sod, so not only will you pay more but you will likely get garbage product. I always used Manderly (South) or Blue Grass (North), but the pricing might be different for non-contractors, so shop around. Chances are you will get the best rate from one of those 2 places.

[The Fonz]

Originally Posted by Tiger

add a high phosphorous fertilizer (which can be hard to find)

Just go to your local agri-products retail (Viterra, Cargill, etc). Ask the them for a pail of 11-52-0-0. It's the purest form of phos available.

Just slip the guys $10 or something.