By Olivia McClure | LSU AgCenter
So you’re tired of looking at your patchy, stressed lawn. It never quite recovered from last year’s extreme heat and drought, and you’re green with envy of your neighbor’s verdant grass.
If you’re tempted to rip up your entire yard and start over with fresh sod, you’re not alone. LSU AgCenter agents have been getting lots of calls this spring and summer about this very issue. Here’s the good news: April to October is the ideal window for laying sod in Louisiana. And yes, it is a project you can accomplish yourself.
Before you get on the phone to the nearest sod supplier and place an order, though, there are a few things you should consider. For one, make certain you actually need to resod the lawn — which is an expensive, laborious undertaking. Is the whole yard, or large sections of it, damaged or dead? If so, new sod is probably your best bet. But if you are looking at problem spots smaller than 2 feet across, you likely just need to improve surrounding grass growth so it can fill in the dead area. April through August is a fine time for fertilizing turfgrasses to reinvigorate them.
If you’re intent on installing sod, you need to decide what kind of grass you want. In Louisiana, most of our yards are composed of one of four warm-season turfgrasses: bermudagrass, centipedegrass, St. Augustinegrass and zoysiagrass.
If your lawn gets full sun, bermudagrass and centipedegrass will perform best. Bermudagrass, often used on athletic fields, has a fine texture and grows and recovers quickly. Centipedegrass, on the other hand, grows slowly and is nicknamed “lazy man’s grass” for its low-maintenance nature. It also has a lighter, lime-green color than other turfgrasses.
For yards partially shaded by trees or two-story houses, think about St. Augustinegrass and zoysiagrass. These won’t grow in total, all-day shade but can handle periods with less sunlight. St. Augustinegrass’ defining feature is its wide blades. Zoysiagrass displays a blue-green shade. It has high silica content, which will wear down lawnmower blades faster than other grasses.
After selecting a type of grass, you need to find someone who sells it. Be sure the sod you buy is of good quality and be aware that it needs to be installed within 24 hours of delivery. You have to be ready to go.
Resodding a lawn is a bigger task than some folks care to handle themselves. If you hire the job out, choose a reputable landscape contractor. But if you’re of the do-it-yourself spirit, follow these seven steps to ensure success.
1. Soil test. Soil fertility can affect how well your grass grows. Submit a sample to the LSU AgCenter Soil Testing and Plant Analysis Lab to find out whether you have nutrient deficiencies or your pH level is too high or too low. You can pick up a testing kit from garden centers and other retailers throughout Louisiana. Simply follow the kit’s instructions for collecting your sample and drop it in the mail. The lab staff will then send you a letter containing information on any problems they’ve identified. You can correct these issues with amendments in step 3 below.
2. Eliminate competition. Whether you use herbicides or elbow grease and hand tools, get rid of your old lawn before installing a new one. Remove all grass, weeds and debris so you can start with a clean slate. Sod must have good contact with the soil underneath.
3. Amend the root zone. Tilling up the soil is ideal. But if you have trees, their roots make tilling impractical, so you can just use a rake to loosen at least the top inch of soil. Next, incorporate up to an inch of organic matter such as peat moss into your existing soil. If any nutrient deficiencies were identified in step 1, mix in fertilizer or other needed amendments now.
4. Grade the yard. Low spots will hold water and stress your new grass. Work the soil so that the center of the yard is its highest point. Gravity is your friend here: If you taper off toward the sides of the yard, water will drain off with ease. The grade doesn’t need to be extreme; think somewhere along the lines of a 1% to 2% slope.
5. Lay the sod. Dampen the soil with a sprinkler or hose. Starting along a straight edge such as a fence or a sidewalk, grab a piece of sod and lay it down, then continue this process till you’ve made your first row. For your second row, stagger the blocks of sod — you want to position the pieces the way a mason lays bricks rather than in a grid pattern. This will make the finished product look more uniform. Don’t leave gaps between pieces of sod, and don’t overlap them either. You may need to cut some pieces to size to fit around curved hardscaping or as you near the edges of the lawn.
6. Irrigate, irrigate, irrigate. For the first couple of weeks, you’ll likely need to water your grass three times a day. Run a sprinkler for five to 10 minutes first thing in the morning — just enough to soak the sod layer. Come back around lunchtime, pull up a piece of sod and see whether it’s dry. If it is, run that sprinkler again for a few more minutes. Repeat this routine in the evening. After two weeks, you should begin seeing some roots growing into your existing soil. Once this happens, you can back off on irrigation. Switch to watering every other day, then go to a couple of times a week. Adjust this schedule as needed if it rains — or doesn’t.
Why is irrigation so crucial for new lawns? It helps to understand how sod is harvested. Sod companies grow grass in open fields from seed. When an order comes in, they use a sod harvester to cut 1/2-to-3/4-inch pieces of soil plus the grass on top. This removes about two-thirds of the grass’ root system, making it especially prone to drying out — and dying. Just don’t get carried away. Waterlogged sod is vulnerable to fungal diseases. Pay special attention to this issue if you are dealing with St. Augustinegrass, which is particularly susceptible to large patch and gray leaf spot.
7. Keep off the grass. For the first two weeks post-installation, don’t walk across the lawn. Also, hold off on mowing until the grass is at least 3 inches high. If you can stand waiting a bit longer, even better. Cutting this delicate grass for the first time will cause it some stress. By letting the yard grow a little higher than you would normally allow, you’ll give your young grass more time and energy to develop a bigger, stronger root system to support it in the coming years.
