What to Know About Keeping Your Lawn Healthy and Looking Good

Once a new sod is in place, there are seven steps to take to ensure it receives the care needed to flourish and stay healthy.

1. Keeping the sod hydrated is the first step in new sod care. To stay on track, make a watering schedule to follow. This is important, especially during the first week. Do an initial watering that provides ample water that saturates the soil and the new sod. Continue with the watering schedule a minimum of three times a day, more if the soil and sod are drying out. You do not want this to happen. The consistency of the sod should feel spongy, not hard or brittle.
2. When week two arrives, continue with the same daily watering regimen, but do not overwater, which results in standing water. While you don’t want the sod to dry out, you don’t want to create pools of water. Keeping the soil moist is the goal.
3. As the end of week two approaches, the sod’s root system should have begun establishing itself. By the end of the week, prepare to mow, but be sure the sodded area is devoid of water and is dry. Now you can mow.
4. Since this will be the first time the new lawn is mowed, the newly established root system needs to be protected. This means, do not mow close to the ground. Instead, set the mower so it cuts higher up on the stalk of the grass versus near the ground where the force of the mower/blades could dislodge and pull up the roots. Continue to “trim” the grass tops throughout the second week and lower the mower height gradually at each trim time. Throughout the mowing times, keep to the watering schedule.
5. Once the new sod enters week three, reset the watering schedule to reduce the number of times it is watered. This can be one time a day or up to three times a day. You will also want to cut out daily watering and water every other day unless you see signs of the sod drying out. When starting week four, once or twice a day watering should be sufficient if there are no signs of the sod becoming dry and brittle.
6. If the new sod is thriving and appears healthy and growing, week four can be the transition to a schedule of watering once or twice a day every two to three days. This schedule depends on the weather since excessive heat can negatively affect new sod, which would mean watering more often.
7. Throughout the first year, monitor your lawn carefully and adjust watering as necessary to support a well-developed root system.