sod care
Hello,
I should be a homeowner by September and I would like some advice concerning the lawn. At the moment, the lot is basically a bunch of reddish/brown dirt. The soil does not appear to be rocky and I got the impression that it didn't have any significant rock underneath. In September the lot will have sod except for the backyard which will be dirt. First, any tips for maintaining a decent look for the parts of the lot that will already have sod? I wish I knew what type but I won't (it's probably the cheapest available knowing the builder). I'm concerned that starting this late in the year might be detrimental to the grass if we have anything other than a mild winter. I'm also concerned about the back yard. I don't want to lose my dirt to my neighbors so it is in my interest to put something down early. Is it possible to lay down sod in September and have it turn into something other than dead grass once Spring arrives? Any tips for the back yard? What about price? I read that it is around $3 to $4 for 9 square feet of sod, is this accurate? Thanks for any tips! I just don't want to waste money and/or do anything to the lawn that will cost me later on down the road. I really want something nice that my daughter can run around on (oh yeah, how do I discourage fire ants and those nasty grass hornets?). Thanks all! -- gorf |
sod care
gorf wrote:
First, any tips for maintaining a decent look for the parts of the lot that will already have sod? I wish I knew what type but I won't (it's probably the cheapest available knowing the builder). I'm concerned that starting this late in the year might be detrimental to the grass if we have anything other than a mild winter. The sod should be able to establish itself before winter. It will go dormant during the winter, but in September and October you'll have to water the heck out of it. Fresh sod should be watered every day or it will burn off in the sun. Some amount of browning is normal, and your lawn probably won't look too great all winter long, but come spring, it should come back. They're probably laying Raleigh St. Augutine sod. It's the most common type, and it's also a water hog. At The Grass Patch a pallet of St. Augustine will run you $95 plus $35 delivery if you need it delivered. (Two or more pallets pay only the one delivery charge.) |
sod care
The reddish, brown stuff is what they call chocolate loam. It is the worst crap
on the market. It is mined from low down into quarries and has absolutely no biota in it at all. I can assure you, the soil under it is hard as a rock, and has rocks. It also has clay, caliche or black gumbo soil. So, I would definitely ask the builder if you can upgrade the soil and if they can bring in several yards of compost and add that to the reddish, brown dirt. You will love me later if you do this. Also, if the sod is in full sun, you may want to also upgrade to Buffalo grass, not bermuda. At the very worst, ask for St. Augustine or Zoysia, but do not use bermuda. It is very hard to get rid of once you have it. I'd also recommend you decide where you may want to plant some trees, or other garden beds and mark those out and let them leave the sod off those areas and you can put mulch on those areas for now. Again, you will love me later. For the backyard, call The Grass Patch. Their prices are not outrageous and they install and did a great job in our backyard. Unfortunately, a month after they put it in we had a pool dug, but at least the dog didn't track in dirt every day. As for when, sod can be put down any time of the year in Austin. The key is keeping it moist till it breaks out and sets out roots. That takes about a month. It will go dormant in the winter, and very hot parts of the summer, but it will not be dead. Take a look at http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/growgreen/lawncare.htm On Sun, 23 May 2004 22:05:59 GMT, "gorf" opined: Hello, I should be a homeowner by September and I would like some advice concerning the lawn. At the moment, the lot is basically a bunch of reddish/brown dirt. The soil does not appear to be rocky and I got the impression that it didn't have any significant rock underneath. In September the lot will have sod except for the backyard which will be dirt. First, any tips for maintaining a decent look for the parts of the lot that will already have sod? I wish I knew what type but I won't (it's probably the cheapest available knowing the builder). I'm concerned that starting this late in the year might be detrimental to the grass if we have anything other than a mild winter. I'm also concerned about the back yard. I don't want to lose my dirt to my neighbors so it is in my interest to put something down early. Is it possible to lay down sod in September and have it turn into something other than dead grass once Spring arrives? Any tips for the back yard? What about price? I read that it is around $3 to $4 for 9 square feet of sod, is this accurate? Thanks for any tips! I just don't want to waste money and/or do anything to the lawn that will cost me later on down the road. I really want something nice that my daughter can run around on (oh yeah, how do I discourage fire ants and those nasty grass hornets?). Thanks all! Need a good, cheap, knowledge expanding present for a friend? http://www.animaux.net/stern/present.html |
sod care
"escapee" wrote in message
... The reddish, brown stuff is what they call chocolate loam. It is the worst crap on the market. It is mined from low down into quarries and has absolutely no biota in it at all. I can assure you, the soil under it is hard as a rock, and has rocks. It also has clay, caliche or black gumbo soil. So, I would definitely ask the builder if you can upgrade the soil and if they can bring in several yards of compost and add that to the reddish, brown dirt. You will love me later if you do this. Also, if the sod is in full sun, you may want to also upgrade to Buffalo grass, not bermuda. At the very worst, ask for St. Augustine or Zoysia, but do not use bermuda. It is very hard to get rid of once you have it. I'd also recommend you decide where you may want to plant some trees, or other garden beds and mark those out and let them leave the sod off those areas and you can put mulch on those areas for now. Again, you will love me later. All grasses have advantages and disadvantages. I have bermuda and I wouldn't have anything else. Bermuda takes traffic better than just about any other type of residential turfgrass. Since I have two dogs and two kids which are on the lawn all the time, this is a big plus for me. Bermuda is also very tolerant of selective weed killers. When I get crabgrass, I hit it with MSMA, and a week later, no more crabgrass. |
sod care
I will back you up on bermuda, I had St. Augistine in my last yard in Round
Rock and it was great in the spring and fall, but I had to water it like crazy just to keep it alive in the summer. I put down Tiff419 Bermuda at my new house and my kids and my border collie cannot make a trail in it and it takes very little water to keep it green. -D "RoyDMercer" wrote in message ... "escapee" wrote in message ... The reddish, brown stuff is what they call chocolate loam. It is the worst crap on the market. It is mined from low down into quarries and has absolutely no biota in it at all. I can assure you, the soil under it is hard as a rock, and has rocks. It also has clay, caliche or black gumbo soil. So, I would definitely ask the builder if you can upgrade the soil and if they can bring in several yards of compost and add that to the reddish, brown dirt. You will love me later if you do this. Also, if the sod is in full sun, you may want to also upgrade to Buffalo grass, not bermuda. At the very worst, ask for St. Augustine or Zoysia, but do not use bermuda. It is very hard to get rid of once you have it. I'd also recommend you decide where you may want to plant some trees, or other garden beds and mark those out and let them leave the sod off those areas and you can put mulch on those areas for now. Again, you will love me later. All grasses have advantages and disadvantages. I have bermuda and I wouldn't have anything else. Bermuda takes traffic better than just about any other type of residential turfgrass. Since I have two dogs and two kids which are on the lawn all the time, this is a big plus for me. Bermuda is also very tolerant of selective weed killers. When I get crabgrass, I hit it with MSMA, and a week later, no more crabgrass. |
sod care
I suppose I'm coming from a gardener's perspective. Bermuda, to me, is a deadly
weed. Every year I remove turf. Of the original 2000 sq. ft. of turf, I probably have less than half that now. I am a gardener, I don't just have a yard with landscape. So, from my perspective, bermuda is not a good choice. I also don't have a dog or children. In that regard, the differing opinions are fine. On the other hand, everything else I said about the soil and that junk they put under sod is all still valid. On Tue, 25 May 2004 03:49:39 GMT, "RM" opined: I will back you up on bermuda, I had St. Augistine in my last yard in Round Rock and it was great in the spring and fall, but I had to water it like crazy just to keep it alive in the summer. I put down Tiff419 Bermuda at my new house and my kids and my border collie cannot make a trail in it and it takes very little water to keep it green. -D "RoyDMercer" wrote in message ... "escapee" wrote in message ... The reddish, brown stuff is what they call chocolate loam. It is the worst crap on the market. It is mined from low down into quarries and has absolutely no biota in it at all. I can assure you, the soil under it is hard as a rock, and has rocks. It also has clay, caliche or black gumbo soil. So, I would definitely ask the builder if you can upgrade the soil and if they can bring in several yards of compost and add that to the reddish, brown dirt. You will love me later if you do this. Also, if the sod is in full sun, you may want to also upgrade to Buffalo grass, not bermuda. At the very worst, ask for St. Augustine or Zoysia, but do not use bermuda. It is very hard to get rid of once you have it. I'd also recommend you decide where you may want to plant some trees, or other garden beds and mark those out and let them leave the sod off those areas and you can put mulch on those areas for now. Again, you will love me later. All grasses have advantages and disadvantages. I have bermuda and I wouldn't have anything else. Bermuda takes traffic better than just about any other type of residential turfgrass. Since I have two dogs and two kids which are on the lawn all the time, this is a big plus for me. Bermuda is also very tolerant of selective weed killers. When I get crabgrass, I hit it with MSMA, and a week later, no more crabgrass. Need a good, cheap, knowledge expanding present for a friend? http://www.animaux.net/stern/present.html |
sod care
My advice for the backyard would be to cover the entire area with woodchip
mulch and wait to decide what you want to do back there. It will keep you from loosing any dirt. It will be easy to rake up when you decide you want to put grass somewhere. Also you will not mind having it there if you decide to put in a deck or other hardscape later, digging up freshly laid sod to put in a deck is a pain. This comes from my own experience putting in some buffalo sod in the backyard in August. It was hard work. It took lots of water, even for buffalo, to keep it alive until winter. -mark "gorf" wrote in message ... Hello, I should be a homeowner by September and I would like some advice concerning the lawn. At the moment, the lot is basically a bunch of reddish/brown dirt. The soil does not appear to be rocky and I got the impression that it didn't have any significant rock underneath. In September the lot will have sod except for the backyard which will be dirt. First, any tips for maintaining a decent look for the parts of the lot that will already have sod? I wish I knew what type but I won't (it's probably the cheapest available knowing the builder). I'm concerned that starting this late in the year might be detrimental to the grass if we have anything other than a mild winter. I'm also concerned about the back yard. I don't want to lose my dirt to my neighbors so it is in my interest to put something down early. Is it possible to lay down sod in September and have it turn into something other than dead grass once Spring arrives? Any tips for the back yard? What about price? I read that it is around $3 to $4 for 9 square feet of sod, is this accurate? Thanks for any tips! I just don't want to waste money and/or do anything to the lawn that will cost me later on down the road. I really want something nice that my daughter can run around on (oh yeah, how do I discourage fire ants and those nasty grass hornets?). Thanks all! -- gorf |
sod care
In a perfect world, I would have buffalo grass because it takes less water
and when it receives enough it is beautiful blowing in the wind. It actually looks like surf moving towards a beach. However, life is not perfect. In my first home, they sodded buffalo grass (I forget which variety), but once homeowners on either side of me planted St. Augustine, over a period of several years it encroached onto the buffalo until half my yard was each. Buffalo is also more susceptible to weeds and trails are easily created.. I had originally planned to put out a pallet of buffalo grass in the backyard, then I came home one day and my wife told me she was pregnant. Instead of a $400 pallet of buffalo, I went with a bag of really "good" bermuda. It worked fine for kids and dogs. I understand escapee's gardener's perspective. To paraphrase, "one man's grass is another man's weed." Much as I like Bermuda "in the yard", I hate it in the flower and vegetable beds. Thank goodness for cheap mulch. So, to recap, I recommend bermuda if you want the traditional grassy yard. It doesn't require as much water as the St. Aug yard I have now, and it doesn't have trails worn in it as easily as buffalo. If you do plant buffalo, make sure that your neighbors' grasses don't encroach upon it. Use beds or edging to keep them apart. BTW, a prior poster recommended putting down wood chips in the interim. I wish I had done that. I moved into my yard in March of that year. By May, the weeds had taken over the topsoil in the backyard. I pulled nearly all of them by hand, and it wasn't pretty or fun. |
sod care
"escapee" wrote in message
... I suppose I'm coming from a gardener's perspective. Bermuda, to me, is a deadly weed. Every year I remove turf. Of the original 2000 sq. ft. of turf, I probably have less than half that now. I am a gardener, I don't just have a yard with landscape. So, from my perspective, bermuda is not a good choice. I also don't have a dog or children. In that regard, the differing opinions are fine. On the other hand, everything else I said about the soil and that junk they put under sod is all still valid. For your situation, Bermuda is definitely not a good thing to have. If you have more garden than turf, you'll spend too much time keeping the Bermuda out. I have probably about 1000 sq ft of garden, but about 20,000 sq ft of turf. I've just learned to live with Bermuda's invasiveness. I run an edger around my garden beds once per week. Once you get into a regular routine, it's not that bad. The problems start when you let the Bermuda go for too long. |
sod care
"Noman" wrote in message
... snip advice Thanks everyone for the excellent advice. I hadn't even considered different kinds of grass for the different ways of using the yard. Just one more thing I don't have to learn the hard way... thanks again! -- gorf |
sod care
Included in my Idiots Guide to Grass Ca
Let your fertilizer spreader rust over winter. Then, when you fertilize in Spring you accidentaly give a double-dose to the grass! St. Augustine wasn't too happy with it, but the Bermuda really took off and tried to weed that St. Augustine right out! Dark green, deep, thick...but not necessarilly legal :) John "gorf" wrote in message ... "Noman" wrote in message ... snip advice Thanks everyone for the excellent advice. I hadn't even considered different kinds of grass for the different ways of using the yard. Just one more thing I don't have to learn the hard way... thanks again! -- gorf |
sod care
"John T. Jarrett" wrote in message
... Included in my Idiots Guide to Grass Ca Let your fertilizer spreader rust over winter. Then, when you fertilize in Spring you accidentaly give a double-dose to the grass! St. Augustine wasn't too happy with it, but the Bermuda really took off and tried to weed that St. Augustine right out! Dark green, deep, thick...but not necessarilly legal :) Bermuda loves nitrogen! It will go to town on the stuff. I learned the same hard lesson about rust on my first fertilizer spreader (back when they were all metal). I have three plastic ones now and I still rinse them out well after each use. |
All times are GMT +1. The time now is 08:07 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
GardenBanter