We live in a world of instant-gratification—movies on
demand, meals ready to eat, next day delivery from Amazon…and instant turf
grass. During many landscape projects,
the decision to seed a lawn or sod a lawn is debated, with each side offering
good reasons to achieve that beautiful turf many Americans have come to
love. This week’s Dirty Little Secret
provides the scoop on which turf grass option offers the best solution,
depending on the circumstances.
Seed
The Good
The Bad
Seeded turf can be a great solution, if timing and
environmental factors allow. But the
window of time in which seed can germinate is limited to after last frost until
mid-summer, as temperature extremes prohibit healthy growth. Since bluegrass
seed takes 15-30 days to germinate, there’s a lot of time spent looking at bare
soil, during which time erosion, weeds, birds, and pets can quickly dig into
that short term savings of selecting seed. Seed also requires constant moisture to keep
new seedlings viable.
Sod
The Good
Soil-backed sod is farm-raised mature turf, cut fresh and
delivered daily. Sod farms cover hundreds
of acres, taking on the laborious front-end work of growing grass so turf can
be transplanted for an instant impact.
Since sod is mature turf, it only needs to be rolled out on
a well-graded yard and watered in place.
And watered, and watered, and watered….
Depending on time of year and sunlight levels, new sod can become a
chore to keep watered until its transplanted roots get reestablished. An irrigation system can help, but adds cost to
the project bottom line. Since sod is
already growing, it’s instant coverage, keeping mud off properties and
pets. It can be installed sooner and
later in the growing season, and can be used quicker than seeded lawns can
after establishment.
The Bad
Cost of sod is always initially higher than seed, to account
for its growing, transporting, installation, and watering needs. Since sod is grown in sunny fields from
sun-tolerant grass seed, it doesn’t tend to work well in shady gardens, or will
require extensive overseeding with shady seed as the turf transitions. Since sod is heavily fertilized and dark
green, there’s often a noticeable color difference when installed next to
existing turf, at least for the first season.
Final Thoughts
In the long term, the cost of the two turf options can come
close to each other, especially when seed needs to be helped along with
additional labor to become established.
Seed requires more patience, but can deliver a healthy turn over time if
willing to invest in the additional establishing work. Balancing time of year, cost and labor
considerations, patience, and site conditions are the best way to determine
which approach is the best.
An additional helpful perspective can be found at the
University of Minnesota Extension page.
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