Professional gardeners and Arborist in San Jose know how to prepare a patch of earth for the introduction of sod. If you have chosen to take on that task, then you should follow the following tips.
Prepare the soil: Hoe it, so that it becomes loose and soft. Otherwise, any roots that start to grow will find it hard to work their way into the soil.
Give the newly laid sod plenty of water: In the absence of water, the sod’s root system will not become established. Hence, a sod-covered lawn needs more water than one filled with blades of grass. Keep the top ½ inch of the sod moist for the first 2 weeks, following the laying of the strips. After that, keep the top ¼ inch moist for 4 weeks. After you have followed that bit of guidance, water the sod-filled earth at least once a week.
Do not feed the sod’s grass right away: After laying the strips, wait at least 60 days, before using any type of feed. If there are few roots, the feed will simply sit on top of the soil. In that case, it will not serve any good purpose.
Hold off on initiation of a cutting routine: Following the laying of the strips, wait for at least 30 days, before cutting. Do that even if the grass growing from the laid strips has started to look a bit unsightly. Cutting too early could cause the grass to dye. That would result in creation of a brown lawn. The approach to cutting is also important. Use a sharp blade, and a mower with a high setting.
Limit the amount of foot traffic: Work to prevent introduction of foot traffic on the ground that contains the sod-filled strips. Cordon off the area of ground that contains the new sod. Post a sign, letting people know that you are trying to create a patch of green grass.
Is It Safe To Plant A Tree In A Sod-Covered Lawn?
Do not take that action during the year that follows the strips’ laying. In order to plant a tree correctly, the hole prepared for the tree’s roots should be quite large. Grass that has started to grow in sod does not respond well to a shovel’s pressure, followed by the removal of dirt. A smart gardener does not consider putting trees in a yard, until the lawn has become well established. That fact applies to any lawn, whether it has the traditional blades, or grass-filled sod.
Moreover, a tree professional would want to create a basin around any planted tree. It might prove difficult to shape the ground into a basin, if working with ground that was unrolled, before the sod-laying routine.