Sod installation in Spring Hill and Hudson, FL

When a yard needs new sod

Some lawns can be brought back with steady mowing and watering. Others are too far gone: brown from edge to edge, more weeds and bare sand than grass, or burned out along a fence where the sprinklers never reached. Seeding or waiting for runners to fill in takes months in that kind of yard. Sod gives you a full lawn the day it goes down.

A lot of the yards we redo look like the photos on this page: a front yard gone brown, a strip along the street by the mailbox, a narrow side yard between the fence and the house, a fenced back yard that turned to sand. Each one went from dead grass to a full, green lawn.

How a sod job goes

It starts with Cesar coming out to look at the yard, measure it and give you a free estimate. On install day the crew takes out the old grass and weeds, rakes and levels the ground so the new sod sits flat against the sidewalk and driveway, and cleans up the edges along beds, fences and the curb.

The sod arrives on pallets and goes down while it’s fresh. Pieces are laid tight together with the seams staggered like brick, cut neatly around trees, beds and sprinkler heads, and pressed down so the roots touch the soil. Then the crew cleans up before leaving.

Watering new sod in Hernando and Pasco counties

Water is what makes or breaks new sod. For the first couple of weeks it needs to stay moist every day while the roots grow down into the soil, then it can be watered less often and more deeply. The Southwest Florida Water Management District gives new lawns extra watering days while they get established, on top of the normal schedule.

Watering days and hours change when the district declares a water shortage, so check the current rules for your address before you set the sprinkler timer. Hernando County keeps its schedule on its watering restrictions page, and the district lists the rules for every county on its water restrictions page. Ask Cesar about a watering plan when the sod goes in.

Picking the right grass

St. Augustine and Bahia are the two lawn grasses you’ll see most around Spring Hill and Hudson. St. Augustine is the thick, wide blade most front yards in subdivisions have. It wants regular water and does well in sun and some shade. Bahia is thinner, handles dry, sandy ground better and needs less water once it’s growing, which is why you see it on bigger lots and along roadsides.

Matching what the rest of your lawn already has usually looks best when only part of the yard is being redone. For a whole new lawn, the choice comes down to how much sun the yard gets, how much you want to water and how it’s going to be used. We’ll talk it through at the estimate.