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When can you walk on new sod?

Archived in Landscape, Do-it-Yourself |

I’ve been getting this question a lot lately: when can you walk on new sod? Having had my grass down for a little more than a month, and having talked extensively with a neighborhood of folks in a similar position, I think I’d be safe to offer these important tips:

Your Roots

Patience is a virtue when it comes to beautiful grass. Having set your new sod to a thick bed of rich soil, you should have (ideally) spent a considerable amount of TIME keeping said soil wet and hospitable to the freshly sheered roots of your new grass. Keep in mind, those roots are going to (again) grow deep. That process will take upwards of a year. The thing is just before those soft rolls of sod were delivered to your door your grass underwent the stress of its life: roots extending comfortably six or eight inches into the ground of the sod farm were sliced cleanly off at less than an inch.

That’s quite a shave!

So, what are those roots going to do for you and your lawn, particularly when it comes to walking on it?

First, they are going to act as anchors: until the roots extend far enough into the soil to prevent the strips of sod from sliding, shifting, rolling, curling, nudging, or cramming out of place you are going to RISK upsetting your sod both slowing the rooting and risking killing the plants.

Second, those roots are going to give your soil some structure. Unless you are not watering enough, the soil under the sod should be wet to the point of a damp-to-moist mud. We’re not talking goopy; we’re talking footprint-soft, the kind of wet that leaves black smudges on your fingers when you run your hands across it. This is too wet to walk on: if you put your weight on this soil you’d leave small indentations, bumps of up to an inch deep (depending on how much you weigh) in your lawn. So what kind of structure are the roots going to provide? Well, think a tangled mesh. When the roots are sufficiently deep you will have grown a resilient bed of roots that will make your soil under the grass act more like Jell-o than pudding: firm and holding it’s shape, rather than maleable and taking the shape of whatever is pressed into it.

Your Timelines

A few of my neighbors were walking on their grass just days after laying it. Frankly, they didn’t water it enough: it browned in many spots and they’ve since replaced chunks.

Week 1: Water. Water. Water. Treat your new sod like a bed of hot burning coals: soak it good and don’t even think of walking across it.

Week 2: Water. Rest. Water. Think hot sandy beach: tip-toe sparingly, but keep it wet, like the tide, wet and let dry in cycles.

Week 3: Rest. Rest. Water. And for the most part you should be able to walk on it a bit now. You’re probably okay to mow and walk freely on the grass, but don’t go holding a lawn party quite yet.

Week 4: Water as required. If things have gone well, you should see some significant growth and can consider yourself to be the proud owner of a healthy lawn. By week 4, you should be able to treat your new lawn like an newly established plant, watching for signs of illness and trimming as required, but enjoy it as your pleasure allows.

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