Question
QUESTION: I moved into a newly built home last July. Either out of laziness or lack of supplies, the landscapers made part of my front yard a really big flower bed. It looks like a desert, so I am going to dig up all the bushes, add grass to the bottom 3/4's and create a proper flower bed under the front windows. The entire area is covered with mulch. I am assuming I need to scrape this layer off first? The "soil" is clay. I live in North Texas. Should I spread fertilizer over the soil before I lay the sod, or fertilize after laying the sod? Sorry for the dumb questions. I am new to all of this, and I want to do it right the first time. I've wasted a lot of money learning from my mistakes in the last 10 months!
Thanks for volunteering your time to help!! ( and addressing the "sugar on your grass issue... I was about to throw 5 lbs. of sugar on my yard...it sounded good)

ANSWER: Hi Erin,

First off, these are absolutely NOT dumb questions. They are actually quite good ones. I do get frustrated on the sugar issue, because I keep getting bombarded with questions from people asking how much sugar to use or this, that, or the other thing. You seem to be one of the select few who actually read up on things before actually writing. I do appreciate that!

You do need to remove the mulch first. Fertilizing before laying sod is also a very good idea, but doing it after laying the sod seems to work just fine too.

If you can get some good organic matter like compost or Black Kow, I'd recommend spreading that on the clay, then tilling it in. It'll help make the clay much more beneficial for growth.

Otherwise, you seem to have a pretty good grasp on things! Oh, and the sugar wouldn't have hurt anything. It just would have been a waste of time.

-C.J. Brown

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: C.J.,

Thanks for your response. Since I wrote last, my neighbor encouraged me to "save money" and plant grass seed instead of laying sod. She said it would only take one week for the grass seed to grow. Now, two other neighbors have weighed in on the issue. One says 6 months, the other says 6 weeks. Which is it?

Should I spend the money and buy the sod? I only need 65 pieces, which would cost me $65 at my neighborhood nursery. Or should I just use the grass seed I've already purchased? Is using grass seed too detail-oriented for an inexperienced individual?

Thanks again for your time!

Erin

Answer
Different types of grass seed takes different amounts of time to grow in. Perennial Ryegrass will be growing in a week and will look good in about 3. Kentucky Bluegrass will take about 2 - 3 weeks before you even see the beginnings of growth and will take several months to establish a decent lawn. That all said, quick growth from seed is no indication of whether or not the grass is good. I FAR prefer Kentucky Bluegrass, even though it's a pain to grow from seed.

If you have a type of seed that is supposed to establish a nice lawn within a week, stay away. It'll be dead again by the end of the year.

Whether or not you seed is completely up to you, but it will take time and present more headaches than sod. If the money is not too much of a stretch, I'd go with sod given how small the area is.

Good luck!

-C.J. Brown