Landscape: Sodding Your New Lawn

By William Dittman

Let me guess you just purchased your new home. The inside is great cozy and clean. But the homebuilder left the backyard landscape for you to finish. You give little thought on the initial days after moving in. But then you notice the dirt and sand tracking on your new carpet and floors. So you decide to take immediate action. You can hire a local landscaper or you can do the work yourself.

Either way here is the instructions on how to care for your newly sodded yard.

As soon as sod is installed: 1. New sod should be watered twice per day for the first couple of weeks. The sod should be kept moist. (Not drowned, not mushy)

2. All traffic on sod should be kept to a minimum as it separates the grass seams and disconnects the root attachment.

First Mowing:

1. The first mowing can usually occur about three weeks after installation or when

sod reaches a height of 3” – 31/2” tall.

2. Adjust mower height to approximately 2,5” and do not scalp grass to short.

3. Do not cut the sod if the grass is to wet. This cause matting and slows the

spreading of root system.

4. Repeat mowing once a week during the growing season. Do not remove more

1/3 of the grass blade per mowing.

Weeding and Fertilization

1. After the first mowing, feed your new sod with a high nitrogen fertilizer. The following spring, a pre-emergent should be used in early spring to keep the weeds down to a minimum.

2. About every 6 to 8 weeks from April through October, fertilize your lawn with a well balanced (13-13-13) fertilizer at the recommended rate. The two direction is best to use to assure proper coverage and overlap. Light applications are generally better than heavy applications. More is not always better.

3. If you have crabgrass or a barnyard grass in your yard. Weed and feed will make it grow. My suggestion to kill these is get some round up herbicide and put on rag and rub on crabgrass leaf.

Other suggestions:

1. Once your lawn is established try to water longer to promote a deeper root growth and a healthier grass. But if water is running over curb you are just wasting water.

2. Watering yard during winter is important, especially during the initial planting stage. Also in the south where we don’t winterize our irrigation systems. I recommend running system weekly for a short period of time just to keep system clean and operational.

3. Also you want to be careful watering in the afternoon or night. Sod stay moist with encourages fungus to invade your yard.

4. Aeration to your established lawn helps facilitate air movement as well as fertilizer and water intake. This can be done a couple times a year.