Mulch and Sod Will Help Your Lawn Look Great Quickly

If the harsh winter left your yard looking a mess, mulch and sod are two quick rejuvenation techniques worth trying. Mulching and sodding a quarter acre lawn can be accomplished in as little as three days. Whether you’re planning to put a house on the market or need the yard looking great for an upcoming party, mulching and sodding can make an enormous impact on how clean and attractive a yard looks in a very short amount of time. In this article, we’ll review the short term and long term benefits of sodding and mulching, as well as the best times of year to mulch and sod a yard.

Mulch looks good, suppresses weeds and adds nutrients to the soil. If you’re trying to sell a home, putting down a fresh layer of mulch is one of the best things you can do to make the yard look better. Mulching borders gives the yard a nice clean look and, if done correctly, can help keep weeds down all summer long. This will save you hours of backbreaking work later. In order to keep a yard neat and attractive, most home owners remove leaves and branches that fall from trees and plants that would otherwise replenish the soil with nutrients. In addition to composting, mulching year after year is one of the best ways to add those nutrients back into the soil. Preparing an area for mulch may bring welcome surprises, so keep an eye out for volunteer dogwoods or other desirable plants.

If you have a lawn that’s been neglected for years, you might find that it’s actually cheaper and easier to just put down a layer of sod and be done with it, rather than trying year after year to grow grass in the same spots. Spring is best time of year to put down sod in Virginia, but fall is acceptable as well. The greatest benefit to putting down sod is that you get to enjoy it right away. Someone else has been growing and nurturing the grass for the last 14 to 18 months, so by the time it gets to your lawn it’s naturally resistant to weeds, diseases, pest infestations and many of the other challenges that come along with reseeding a lawn. After just a few weeks, your lawn will be ready for use. If you have a large dog that needs to use your lawn on a daily basis, growing grass from seed can be almost impossible. Aside from the usual challenges, many of the popular turf grasses, like Bermuda Grass, are very difficult, if not impossible, to grow from seed in many of the southern states. When the soil has been prepared properly, sod has a very high rate of success. One of the best ways you can ensure success is to make sure that the grasses being laid at your home were cut from the farm within 24 hours.

The winter this year left black, curled up leaves on plants that don’t normally suffer such damage. Loropetalum, Ligustrum, Camellias and Gardenias are a few of the plants that tend to struggle in extremely cold temperatures. In fact, some of the plants grown here in Virginia, like the Gardenia, couldn’t be successfully grown without a greenhouse just a few decades ago. The biggest thing to look out for is an early warmth followed by a burst of cold. This can actually be more damaging than colder temperatures on their own. The warmth brings plants out of dormancy and makes them much more vulnerable to a hard frost. Although spring and fall are generally thought of as the best times to mulch, putting down a thin layer of mulch in winter can help shield the ground from the warmth of the sun and keep plants at a steady temperature through the winter. If you lost plants last winter or have plants that are susceptible to cold, consider putting down an extra layer of mulch in the winter next year.

If you want a lawn to look great in a matter of days, nothing can beat a layer of mulch and fresh sod. Although yard maintenance will become much easier once you have nice clean borders and a thick, lush lawn, it will revert right back to its current state if not cared for prudently. Contact Oriole Landscaping for more information about sod, mulch or other landscaping matters.