Four simple steps to ensure you get the lawn you’ve always wanted.
Your sod is ordered and you’re finally ready to stop looking out your window at that dirt. But don’t get ahead of yourself; before you unroll your new lawn, you’ll need to prepare your soil for sod in order to get the best quality out of your turf. Follow along for our official step-by-step guide to best prepare soil for sod.
Before you start, make sure to plan ahead, as the best soil preparation takes a couple weekends to complete on most yards.
1. Start Fresh
If you’re not starting from fresh ground and have an existing lawn or weeds, eliminate any growth with a glyphosate herbicide. It’s important to kill off weeds completely, as they’re typically tenacious and can re-emerge through sod if they’re not fully killed before you lay your new turf. Killing weeds and vegetation will give your turf the clean slate it needs to take root upon installation.
2. Ensure Drainage with Gradation
Once you’ve removed any vegetation from your yard, you’ll need to make sure it drains correctly to avoid flooding. Most yards need a 1-2 percent grade – a decline of 1 or 2 feet per 100 linear feet – to ensure water drains from your foundation and doesn’t pool in places in your yard.
If you need to grade your yard, check out our tips to ensure you’ll get the proper grading your lawn needs. Make sure to keep the top 4-6 inches of topsoil from your yard, returning it once it is graded.
3. Stimulate Root Growth
Once you’ve graded your yard, it’s time to start amending your soil so it promotes root growth. Start by placing 3-6 cubic yards of compost per 1,000 square feet of turf, then tilling the area at a depth of about 5 inches. After you amend your soil with compost, give it five to seven days to decompose and fully integrate before fertilizing and tilling again.
In your second round of amending your soil, spread a fertilizer that stimulates root growth, typically a 10-10-10 or 19-19-19 formula. Check out this article by Pepper’s Home and Garden to see which fertilizer nutrient ratio is best for your soil.
Don’t know where to start? Check out our fertilizer options, which are optimized for Northern Colorado soil and made easy by having blends specific to the season that you are installing your sod for best results.
Apply the fertilizer according to instructions, then re-till your soil at a depth of 2 inches. After the final tilling, pack the soil by rolling or watering it.
4. Schedule Your Sod
Your soil is ready for sod! Schedule delivery on a day when you will be able to unroll the sod the day it arrives. Same-day installation is critical for the health of your new turf, and important to make all your efforts to prepare soil for sod pay off.
Schedule your sod delivery with Bigfoot Turf today!
To ensure that your hard work of preparing your soil doesn’t go to waste, check out our sod installation services to ensure a smooth and easy process with optimal results.
Have additional questions? Contact us!
