Planting a New Lawn Step by Step

Few things are as exciting for a homeowner than planting a new lawn.  With a bit of grass seed or a few pallets of sod, a lush, new outdoor carpet awaits.  There is more to installing a new lawn than throwing down some sod or planting grass seed, though.  A little bit of planning goes a long way toward growing a healthy lawn.

Step One:  Seed or Sod

Before you can begin the rest of your planning, you need to decide if you are going to plant grass seed or lay sod.  The preparation for both is somewhat similar, but the maintenance and time for establishment is different for each.  A seeded lawn takes longer to establish, but is less expensive than sod.  Sod must be carefully maintained during the first month after installation to maintain even growth.  It is difficult to repair sod that dies in patches.  It is much easier to overseed a seeded lawn if some areas do not germinate well.

Step Two:  Prepare the Soil

Whether you are planting a grass seed lawn or laying a sod lawn, the number one factor in long-term success is the preparation beforehand.  Sod has been carefully tended on a sod farm, growing in the best soil with the exact amount of water and food needed to set good roots.  Moving sod from the sod farm to an unprepared base more or less spells instant death for the grass.  Likewise for grass seed.  If there is one single thing you can do to increase the success of your newly established lawn, it is to properly prepare the soil.  Here’s what you need to do:

• First, kill any perennial weeds.  If you are installing a lawn in a particularly weedy area, you may need to go through a few cycles of turning the soil over, letting the weeds germinate and then killing them to reduce the weed seed bank.
• Prepare soil amendments and till them into the soil.  The best soil for grass is sandy loam.  That means a soil that has some sand and some organic matter.  If the soil is all sand, or a very hard clay, you will want to till in a compost/topsoil mix to improve the soil structure and fertility.  It is important to incorporate the elements into the existing soil.  If you simply lay new soil on top of old soil, you can cause a drainage problem because water will not move well from one layer to the next—it could drain too fast or too slowly.

Step Three:  Install the Sod or Plant the Grass Seed

• When installing sod, it is important to stagger the strips so that your lawn does not look like a checkerboard.  Lay the two pieces of sod down, end to end, with about an inch or two of overlap on each end.  Then push the ends together and down to the ground.
• Grass seed can be sown directly on top of the soil.  To keep the seed moist, straw can be spread on top of the seed.  Do not use hay or straw with seed heads, as you will run the risk of incorporating weeds into your new lawn.

Step Four:  Maintain the New Lawn

• With seed and sod, it is important to keep foot traffic off the lawn until it is established.  Sod needs about 3-4 weeks to establish.  A lawn planted with grass seed needs at least two months before any foot traffic is allowed, and up to four months before it can withstand heavy foot traffic.
• After the lawn is established, apply a granular pre emergence herbicide to keep weeds from sprouting in the new lawn.  Do NOT apply this herbicide at the time of planting, as it will interfere with establishment.
• Begin a routine watering maintenance program.