All too well do we remember seeing a crime happening in front of an expensive home in the Washington, D. C., suburbs when a contractor sodded part of a west-facing, sunny lawn during the bleak days of January. Even though we were seeing a disaster in the making, we decided it wasn’t our job to warn the homeowner that sodding a lawn in the dead of winter was irresponsible. We wondered if the homeowner had a signed document from the idiot contractor that any and all dead sod come spring would be replaced with fresh sod, installed at no additional cost to the homeowner. Lo and behold, everything was dead by April, and a crew (the old one or maybe a new one) was back in mid-May to redo the lawn!

This “data sheet” sets the record straight about properly sodding a lawn, whether you do it yourself (which you can), or you hire a contractor to do the work. The regimen is the same for both.

Before laying sod, prepare the lawn surface. There can be no hills or valleys on the surface if sod is going to survive. The surface must be smooth, almost as if you had gone over every square foot of soil with a plow to even things out. If you aren’t prepared to go to this extreme, you’re better off hiring a licensed contractor to prepare the lawn surface and lay sod. The most inconsequential mistake you make on the lawn quickly becomes the most tragic eyesore in the neighborhood, and everyone who glances at your lawn will know it.

Watering

Once sod has been laid, the responsibility for managing the lawn becomes your priority. How you water will save or kill the sodded lawn! For sod to survive, roots must quickly penetrate and become established in the soil below. Watering is the key to sod survival!

Other Cultural Practices

* Rely on a slow-release lawn fertilizer to nurture the sod through the spring and most of summer. In you are sodding anytime in May, rely on a half-rate application of the label. In mid-June, however, treat the lawn with Milorganite to carry turfgrass to late August without problems. Apply 10 pounds of Milorganite per thousand square feet to supply six-tenths of a pound of nitrogen; organic nitrogen at this time is your best choice.

* We can’t offer a blanket schedule, but late May or early June is the best time to treat the lawn with a year-long insecticide to take care of egg-hatching grubs of Japanese beetles, also to prevent the loss of healthy grass to chinch bugs and sod webworms. Your best choice is granular Merit (imidacloprid), one application of which protects your lawn to Thanksgiving. Apply Merit just before a heavy thunderstorm for best results.

* Adjust your mowing practices. From Memorial Day onward through early September, grass should be cut to three inches and no lower. Clippings should be left behind since they will decay to humus in a week’s time. Besides, you are returning miniscule amounts of organic nitrogen to the lawn, not trashing the valuable minerals.

* Finally, water thoroughly in times of drought, but soak well to dampen the soil to a depth of four-to-five inches From late May to September, avoid triggering lawn disease problems by watering only in the early morning hours, certainly before 10 a.m. Afternoon and evening watering are counter-productive to maintaining trouble-free lawns over the summer.

* If you manage your lawn, install a new mower blade in late May so the grass looks perfectly trimmed week after week. A sharp blade protects your lawn against top-browning of grass blades, an open invitation to summer disease. Cut every 7-10 days through the summer with a sharp blade; have the old blade professionally sharpened over the summer.