There isn’t a homeowner alive that would love to have a long filled with grass as beautifully green, healthy, and as luxurious as the fairways and greens of The Masters golf tournament held every April.
At the same time, most homeowners realize that keeping a lawn that looks like it was stolen right off of the Augusta National course will never be a reality unless they take their grass growing methodology very, very seriously.
No, this doesn’t mean that you have to go back to school and get a degree in agriculture or apprentice under a master golf course superintendent to grow beautiful grass. But it does mean that you have to figure out whether or not you should be using sod, hydroseeding, or old-fashioned grass seed to grow the kind of thick, beautiful grass you’ve been hoping for.
Let’s dig a little deeper and find out right now!
What kind of budget are you working with?
The very first thing you have to get your head around is the kind of budget that you have available for your new lawn.
Sod is going to set you back the most money, though you can save a little bit if you’re willing to handle the placement and layout of your new sod all on your own rather than paying someone else, and you can save even more money by searching around for the cheapest grass sod for sale in your area (it can be a headache though). Lawn hydroseeding services are going to cost you a little bit less but you’ll have to hire someone with the tools and technology to apply it to your lawn. Grass seed is the least expensive (and most labor-intensive) of them all, and anyone can do it with nothing but a bag of grass seed and a free weekend.
When are you looking to grow your new lawn?
The next thing you’ll have to figure out is when you’re going to try and grow your new lawn and reestablish your grass.
If you are looking to plant grass seed you’ll have to do so either in the fall (ideally) or in the spring and summer months. You aren’t going to be able to grow any grass seed in the winter and you also need to think about how you’re going to water your lawn to keep it healthy throughout the season as well.
Hydroseeding can be tackled during the spring through the early fall as well, but the earlier in the year you start your hydroseeding the better off your results are going to be. You’ll need to consider watering needs with hydroseeding, too.
Sod can be installed almost all year round (as long as there isn’t snow or frost on the ground) and its water needs are a lot less limited in the long term. If you’re going to be installing sod in the summer, however, you should expect quite a bit of watering to be necessary early on – particularly in high heat situations – or you’re going to get separation on the seams and a patchy lawn.
At the end of the day, as long as you factor in these key questions before you dive right into this kind of project you shouldn’t have much to worry about!
