laying sod

Continuing with our backyard makeover, a couple days ago we had 3 flats (1700 sq ft) of St. Augustine grass delivered to our house.

I described the overall process a few posts back, you can check that out here.  It came down to a lot of hard intensive work over 2 days time.

First things first, prepping the yard. This consisted of mostly tilling up the existing grass (what little we had) and working the soil to be flat and ready for sod. We rented a rototiller and a roller from Home Depot, total cost $65.





We ordered the sod from Miller Grass, a local sod farm.  The sod is harvested fresh daily and the people there were super knowledgeable.  The sod was in fantastic shape.  The total cost was $611 delivered.





Once the sod was at the house the next 5 to 6 hours was carrying sod out to the yard and placing it. We had to make sure the pieces fit snug up next to each other and got patted down into the soil. We also had to do quite a bit of cutting around the trees and edges of the yard.





After all the sod was placed the backyard had instant grass! The next step is making sure to soak the yard with water for the next month to insure that the sod takes root to the soil. No walking on the grass for awhile and our water bill is going to be huge!!




Our new grass backyard:



We have a few more small projects in the back but its starting to look really good!

backyard makeover

Our backyard is in a bit of disarray. It has pretty much been neglected for several years and needs some love.

This weekend we are kicking off this HUGE project with step one in the makeover...sod the backyard. Right now our backyard is mostly dirt with a little bit of grass here and there but after next week we should have a nice new yard full of St. Augustine grass.



Here is a breakdown of the project:
Step one- create a map of the backyard and decide where all we are going to put the grass
Step Two- Pull up any small bushes or trees we are going to get rid of
Step Three- Spray all existing grass with farmer grade grass killer
Step Four- Rent a rototiller and till the soil making it softer and ready to accept the new grass
Step Five- Measure the square footage of the yard to determine how much grass we need
Step Six- Mark off the areas where we will be putting pavers for a walkway and trim for the back beds
Step Seven- Purchase and load/deliver the sod to the house
Step Eight- Put down the fresh sod onto the yard starting with the perimeter and working in
Step Nine- Roll the sod to establish root contact
Step Ten- Water, water, water



Wow, that sounds so exhausting. Luckily my dad, who has done this before, is coming in town to help out and make sure we do everything right.

More posts to show the progress will be coming.