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mitchell_rehak

UPDATE!: Lawn is in terrible condition! Help needed!

M Haker
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago

Original Post

So I decided to go with what reeljake said and just resodded the yard. To say the least, this was a pretty time consuming process for just one person.... Definitely feel like it was more of two person job, especially towards the end. So, of course, I enlisted the help of my wife. I did a lot of research before diving into this project (yet still have a lot of questions hopefully I can get some answers to here).

Part 1: Process began by removing the old lawn.

This was the most difficult part! Originally, I started with just a shovel. I decided that wasn't going to cut it.. almost immediately. Next stop: Home Depot for a sod cutter.

In the part of Texas that I live, there is a lot of rock and clay in the soil. Those factors, combined with the fact that the grass wasn't rooted very well made the process all the more difficult. The sod cutter helped out tremendously; however I still ended up shoveling out most of the lawn as it would not roll up very well.

Part 2: Tilling and grading the subsoil

After I removed the old lawn I noted that the soil was very compacted. There was also a lot of clay and rock in the subsoil. Rental time again! A tiller from home depot ($65). I tilled 3-4 times, raking out large chunks of rock and clay each time. I was happy after about round three so I added a bag of top soil and tilled it in the 4th time. Still have about 8 75lb bags of rock, clay and lawn in my garage from this part of the process, but that's neither here nor there. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of the tilling process, but once I finished I rough graded the area. Progress!

I took up the project after we got a bunch of rain in Texas, so the soil would be more moist and easier to work with. This had unforeseen consequences, though. Apparently all the rain had delayed the sod farmers' cutting. There was no new sod! I went to several different places to check out what they had in stock. It was all "dormant". From the looks of it, it was dead. I refused to put sub par sod down on the lawn after all the work I put in, thus I waited.

I called around to the three sod distributors in my area daily. Each time they were either sold out or it was the say brownish gray stuff that I had already seen before. Everything was turning green where I was, so shouldn't the sod be too? Anyway this went on for 4-5 days until I finally got some sod I was happy with.

I ended up going with the Tifway 419.

Part 3: Finally actually laying sod!

It's been about a week and three days since I put the sod down. I have been watering daily for 20-30 with a sprinkler (I do not have an irrigation system) and then hand watering ensure all areas are sufficiently wet. Some areas are starting to take root, but obviously the lack of roots has negatively affected the sod during this time. I have hear it is normal (around here) for the sod to brown a little bit and I just want to make sure I'm still on track for a good lawn this season. Pictures below:

Any advice, suggestions or comments are appreciated. Thanks for looking!

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