Irrigation and Sod Advice

2,701 Views | 16 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by irish pete ag06
evan_aggie
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AG
I'm fairly handy and was first contemplating installing our own sod: 5-6 pallets of st Augustin.... We have about 400 sq ft Augustine now healthy and am prepping the back yard by weeding, rough leveling and an eventual rolling of the native grasses/junk.

Question: would it be ok to just til the soil 55' x 45' btw and then roll it, add some fertilizer, install
Sod, roll again? Do I need to add a few yards of top soil?

As far as irrigation: I've done tons of maintenance in the past on systems and figured I'd install 3-5 zones. I have a plan to add a drip valve along a fence line. Eventually have plumber I've use connect the line to the water. I have 3/4, 15-18 GPM. I know some heads can use 3GPM.

Any feedback or hard lessons learned?

PlanoAg98
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As far as the sod goes, I don't think you need to till the existing ground. I put sod over my entire back yard. The soil was very washed down with roots showing everywhere. Tilling that would have been a nightmare. I put down about 6 inches of top soil and rolled it level it. I then laid the sod and rolled it again to ensure good contact. The grass took off. I think the new top soil gives the new grass roots the nutrients it needs. I've even noticed the new grass on top of the new top soil grows much quicker/greener that other older grass areas of the yard.

In summary, add top soil instead of tilling.
Gary79Ag
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And don't add fertilizer until after the third mowing...sod was already fertilized at the sod farm and adding more as soon as its sodded may do more harm than good. Just water quite a bit for the first 2-3 weeks to help establish a good root system to take to the new soil.
evan_aggie
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PlanoAg98 said:

As far as the sod goes, I don't think you need to till the existing ground. I put sod over my entire back yard. The soil was very washed down with roots showing everywhere. Tilling that would have been a nightmare. I put down about 6 inches of top soil and rolled it level it. I then laid the sod and rolled it again to ensure good contact. The grass took off. I think the new top soil gives the new grass roots the nutrients it needs. I've even noticed the new grass on top of the new top soil grows much quicker/greener that other older grass areas of the yard.

In summary, add top soil instead of tilling.


What if 3/4 of my lawn is just natural mix of weeds/grass? I don't need to kill it first?
PlanoAg98
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Quote:

What if 3/4 of my lawn is just natural mix of weeds/grass? I don't need to kill it first?
I'm not an horticulturist by any means. I took a weed eater to those areas down to the dirt. I then raked/blew as much of the cut grass/weeds up. I then covered it with the top soil and put down the sod. Yeah, I probably got a few remaining weeds popping up in the St. A but I figured I'd get rid of those later. I went for the quickest way to get nice grass in the back yard.
evan_aggie
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My issue is access. 2500 sq feet of area would require 15 yards of soil for just 2" if I did my math right. Most of it would be carried via wheelbarrow.

I'm trying to do this without need 6" of top soil, plus I'd have erosion concerns and drainage questions if I added that much. I've gotten different advice depending on who I speak to of course.

Someone I know that has a greenthumb said tilling may not really kill the native weeds/grasses and recommended treating lawn with roundup to kill everything as it needs to be absorbed through the leaves/green. This would preserve my existing St Augustine. Then said to add 1" of top soil to level everything out and put the sod down.

Whitetail
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What I would do:

Cut it short,
Spray with roundup.
Wait a month
till it good
Rake it to smooth it out
lay sod
Water it
Roll sod
Water it like heck
fertilize after 6 weeks since laid
gigem70
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^^^
This is the correct answer.
txaggie_08
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I laid sod in my entire backyard last year. Didn't roundup existing weeds, just tilled, raked smooth while picking up tilled up vegetation and other debris from home construction, laid irrigation, and then laid Bermuda. Yard took off without any weed issues. I think buying new topsoil would be a waste of money, time and energy.
evan_aggie
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I see you did add "till it".
keo1
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For sprinkler you should hire a professional. By your comment of I know some heads use 3 gpm tells me you know nothing about progressive pipe sizing, zones, valves, heads, or nozzles.
Keo1 Landscaping and Irrigating BCS since '91 If its growing we can mow it
evan_aggie
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So you know all of that because I commented on the flow rate differences based on a lookup table? Am I wrong? I have a 3/4 line at 65-75 psi flowing 16-17 GPM. You are probably right though. This **** is like rocket science and I can barely figure any of it out.



Builder93
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evan_aggie said:

I'm fairly handy and was first contemplating installing our own sod: 5-6 pallets of st Augustin.... We have about 400 sq ft Augustine now healthy and am prepping the back yard by weeding, rough leveling and an eventual rolling of the native grasses/junk.

Question: would it be ok to just til the soil 55' x 45' btw and then roll it, add some fertilizer, install
Sod, roll again? Do I need to add a few yards of top soil?

As far as irrigation: I've done tons of maintenance in the past on systems and figured I'd install 3-5 zones. I have a plan to add a drip valve along a fence line. Eventually have plumber I've use connect the line to the water. I have 3/4, 15-18 GPM. I know some heads can use 3GPM.

Any feedback or hard lessons learned?


You have enough information here to know nothing about sizing your zone. You need someone to help you lay it out and do some real calculations based on flow rates of each head.
evan_aggie
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Rainbird will actually send back a full design when I tell them the static pressure and GPM, and survey style diagram with measurements of the area.

irish pete ag06
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Anyone ever laid sod in a checkerboard pattern if it's a huge yard to save some $? My father in law says he did it with his and it worked out.
Gary79Ag
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irish pete ag06 said:

Anyone ever laid sod in a checkerboard pattern if it's a huge yard to save some $? My father in law says he did it with his and it worked out.
I did even better than that...I had an area of about 80'x40' in the back yard that was basically dirt and weeds. I didn't want to spend about $3K to sod the area with SA and was not in a hurry to get it covered with SA. I cut long stringersfrom my front yard as well as my neighbors yard as we had good growth and edged them once a week.

I used my tiller attachment on my weedeater and cut narrow trenches when I had SA cuttings available and laid the cuttings in there and covered them with dirt and watered the heck out of them. Did the trenches about 4' apart and did the whole area the first year. The next year I did the same thing trenching in between the original threnches and the following year the whole area was covered with a lush coverage of SA. The area in between the trenches filled in nicely via the runners.

So yeah, if you're trying to save $ and are not in a hurry for SA coverage, the checker boarded SA sod will cut the costs in half and will do the job for you and you'll enjoy a lush coverage of SA by the following year!
txaggie_08
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irish pete ag06 said:

Anyone ever laid sod in a checkerboard pattern if it's a huge yard to save some $? My father in law says he did it with his and it worked out.

That will work but you'll have to be aware of the potential for an uneven yard. You'll probably either need to bring in some top soil to fill in or bury the sod squares to dirt level
irish pete ag06
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txaggie_08 said:

irish pete ag06 said:

Anyone ever laid sod in a checkerboard pattern if it's a huge yard to save some $? My father in law says he did it with his and it worked out.

That will work but you'll have to be aware of the potential for an uneven yard. You'll probably either need to bring in some top soil to fill in or bury the sod squares to dirt level


Right. That popped into my head after I posted. Seems like it would end up being very bumpy.
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