New bermuda sod planting

Lynn and I moved to the country to raise our family 47 years ago. It was quite rural. Now the city is surrounding us with lovely new houses.

This one is a part of a development a couple of miles down a road we travel frequently, and as we passed by earlier this week, they were getting ready to plant several truckloads of sod – two acres’ worth! We made a U-turn so I could grab a couple of photos.

The first step in planting sod is getting the ground ready. They had started here as the sod was being delivered and unloaded. The rough grading had already been done by the builder. All they had to do was to work with a box scraper to establish the final grade so rainfall runoff would flow toward the storm sewers. The man running that equipment was skilled, and he was quick.

They laid the sod in short order. Notice how smooth it was after they finished. Bermudagrass sod often browns as a result of being dug and relocated, but if it’s planted properly and watered promptly it will rebound into vigorous green growth within just a week or two. You can see that if you peer into the home’s backyard in one of my other photos. That grass has been planted a few days longer. I’ll swing by this house to get you a follow up photo in the next couple of issues.

My recommendation is that new sod plantings should be fed with a high-quality lawn food applied at half the recommended rate after the new sod has been mowed the second time. These folks may have a different feeding regime. Whatever they do, I’m sure it will be good – I was very impressed with what I was seeing in progress.