Grass Sodding ideas

As one friend (fiend?) said: Only a Madman would do it that way...

I was in a situation where we were going to be in a house for only 4 years at the most, but we wanted a lawn for the kids. One of the kids was only with us 1 more year, and two were only with us 2 more years. What to do?

According to friends, a sodded lawn 1 month old is about the quality of a seeded lawn 2 years old. So if we seeded, it was estimated that it would be 2 years before we could "heavily" use and abuse it. That wasn't great given that in 2 years, 3 of our 4 kids might have moved out of home

One other quick factor, at this house, I had initially tried to do it the cheap way and seeded. And worse, I was doing several acres then, so I seeded it at the minimum the package suggested. If you seed: Don't use the minimum - use the MAXIMUM instead. Don't go cheap, the results aren't worth it.

So of course, we decided to bite the bullet and buy sod. (about 1/2 acre of sod - very large property obviously.)

However, I've never been one to do it by the book. I'm always looking for a way to improve. AND I like to experiment and pass the results on to others, and possibly take advantage of the results myself some day in the future. So I spent an extra $75 and bought a 50 lb bag of seed as well. (If you decide to copy and have an average sized home, probably $10 or $20 worth of seed will do) - realizing that when And here is what I did:

1. Before laying the grass - I "underseeded" the sod with grass seed. My thought was this: If there are areas where the sod is thin or dead - the seed will sprout and grow up through the sod and revitalize it. Also I thought that the grass in even the thick areas would grow up through and help anchor it earlier and better.
2. After laying the grass, I had areas where there were gaps. I made up a mixture of grass and dirt and then hand placed it in the gaps.

At the end of 2 weeks

• all my gaps have very thick lush grass (did I use too much seed?)
• idea 1 seems to have worked as well. What is interesting is this: The seed package suggested it would take 2 to 3 weeks
• the areas around the lawn, where I seeded at the recommended rate, have a little bit of growth, but nothing spectacular. So far the sod+ underseed is clearly the winner given my objectives.

Compared to the cost of the sod, this was a minor extra outlay, and it seems to be an improvement, at least for someone who was inexperienced

Update, having done some seeding (only slightly successful) I have determined in the Calgary area that you should not follow the instructions on the bags of seed. Here is the problem: It is too dry and too hard to keep the seed moist long enough. I have found that seed covered with 1 to 2 INCHES of soil do much better. Now ... maybe if I spent 14 days constantly watering it would be different, but I don't. I have also not tried the 'coated' seed ... I suspect it may be worth the extra cost in many cases.