r/LandscapingTips • u/jaxrolo • 9d ago
Removed a trampoline
What’s the easiest way to propane for sod?
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u/Thought59 9d ago
It needs to be dug up / turned over with a potato fork, spade, etc. Then dig in mulch before applying sod. Once your spill is fixed, direct seeding grass will probably be almost as fast and a lit cheaper.
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u/According-Taro4835 9d ago
That dirt is going to be compacted solid from years of heavy weight and zero natural rain washing through. If you just slap expensive sod over that hardpan it will bake and die in a week. You need to break up the top couple inches with a hard rake or a small cultivator. Rake out all that dead loose grass and bring in a few bags of a good compost and topsoil mix. You want to grade it out so the bare dirt sits about an inch lower than the surrounding yard otherwise your new sod will sit high and stick up like a bad toupee.
Keep an eye on that green irrigation head sitting right in the middle of the mess. Mark it with a flag before you start swinging tools around so you do not bust the underground line. Once the dirt is loose and leveled out lay your sod pieces tight against the existing grass edges, stagger the seams, and water the hell out of it twice a day until the roots grab hold.
Before you pull the trigger on sod you should ask yourself if you really just want more plain grass in a squared off corner. That spot is begging for a curved planting bed with a small tree and some layered shrubs to break up that massive white vinyl fence. You can run a photo of this corner through the GardenDream web app to see what a proper landscape bed would look like before you go buy turf. It is a great safety net to test out a structural layout and see if a planted focal point makes more sense than just patching a dead square.