Why Are Landscapers Declining Sod Install in April?

[Anonymous]

You should move this to the lawn & garden forum.

That said, it gets HOT here, and that may be why.

[Anonymous]

Built home last year. Installed sod early March. Only had water it ONCE. A year later perfect grass. Yes, Oct is best time but March-April close second. I would avoid May and thereafter UNLESS you get a sprinkler system. Get a new contractor. He is an idiot.

[Anonymous]

Is it too late for seed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it too late for seed?

Not at all. Do it today or tomorrow before rain Sunday.

[Anonymous]

I have 30,000 square foot lawn. It's a losing battle to try to keep that watered yourself without a sprinkler system. You'll be out there moving sprinklers constantly (you'll be a slave to a stopwatch if you do it right) and will still overwater, underwater, etc. You'll constantly monitor weather reports for any sign of watering reprieve and end up cursing rain holes. And May weather can easily go super hot and in a drought in our area, which means those roots won't take. A 30,000 foot install will be very expensive and a huge financial risk, time commitment on your part.

My advice to you would be use the money and muddy plot now to get a sprinkler system installed this summer, then seed in fall. It'll take longer for it to all come together, but the long term results will be MUCH better at a cheaper overall price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Built home last year. Installed sod early March. Only had water it ONCE. A year later perfect grass. Yes, Oct is best time but March-April close second. I would avoid May and thereafter UNLESS you get a sprinkler system. Get a new contractor. He is an idiot.

It's almost 90 today. So, not totally crazy.

[Anonymous]

Just make sure you water it several times per day
Especially hot days like today.

[Anonymous]

Seed in spring here is a waste of time. Seed only in fall.

Sod in spring is generally ok but it needs to be watered for months. And have a good soil prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they’re a reputable companies that offers a guarantee, of course they won’t install in April. You will need to water incessantly all summer to keep it alive, and when you don’t and the grass dies, you’ll be calling them to re-sod at their cost.

+1 Yes, and add to that the risk of a bad review.

[Anonymous]

We put sod down in April and it did just fine, but we have a sprinkler system.

[Anonymous]

Imagine having laid sod on a 30,000 foot lot heading into this week's weather. It would have been impossible to protect with a risk of losing most of it.

[Anonymous]

Just install it yourself. Super easy. I always see bueno workers around Home Depots that would be willing to help for cash too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can install in April, of course. Landscapers are not gardeners. They're people who profit off people's ignorance of gardening to make a profit. Just make sure to water CONSTANTLY. Otherwise your grass won't take.

It often won't take even if you do it all right. I wouldn't consider sod unless I had a sprinkler system or a very, very small yard. I'm an experienced gardener and I have a hard time getting sod to live and I'm retired. I've seen neighbors pay to have their lawns scraped and replaced with sod and watched it fail. We've been in drought for the last how ever many years and with constant high temps, you can't stay on top of watering it well enough unless you have a sprinkler system.

I wouldn't consider sod now with the temps we are seeing. Get a big bag of coated seed and start throwing it down everywhere and water when you can. Some of it will take. One trick is to always put down grass seed before we get more than a little snow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We put sod down in April and it did just fine, but we have a sprinkler system.

100% of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can install in April, of course. Landscapers are not gardeners. They're people who profit off people's ignorance of gardening to make a profit. Just make sure to water CONSTANTLY. Otherwise your grass won't take.

It often won't take even if you do it all right. I wouldn't consider sod unless I had a sprinkler system or a very, very small yard. I'm an experienced gardener and I have a hard time getting sod to live and I'm retired. I've seen neighbors pay to have their lawns scraped and replaced with sod and watched it fail. We've been in drought for the last how ever many years and with constant high temps, you can't stay on top of watering it well enough unless you have a sprinkler system.

I wouldn't consider sod now with the temps we are seeing. Get a big bag of coated seed and start throwing it down everywhere and water when you can. Some of it will take. One trick is to always put down grass seed before we get more than a little snow.

I said much of the same above. In fact, I replaced a bad patch with a couple pieces of sod this spring, watered them a bit and they benefitted from a couple good rainstorms, and one of the pieces is still brown and failing. I didn't baby them because my sprinklers turn on next week, and I'll just try again. But it would have been a disaster if it was an entire lawn.

Also, very good and not well-known tip. Seeding when it snows can be a good, though counterintuitive, practice. When the snow melts, it sucks the seed down into the soil where it's primed to germinate when the temps turn.