There’s something satisfying about watching things grow. Whether it’s a tree you plant when you first move into your house and watch it take root and thrive over the years, or a landscape bed that you fill with blubs in the fall and see them emerge months later, homeowners and their landscape contractors love to watch their work come into bloom.
Of course, when it comes to that sometimes vast expanse of lawn area that most homeowners and commercial property managers have around their buildings, sometimes the most satifying approach is to fill in the space with material that’s already mature. This is where the argument for sodding vs. seeding new lawns takes shape.
“We always try to educate our customers on their lawn establishment options,” says Bob Franey, president, Total Lawn Care, St. Louis, Mo. “We prefer to sod new lawns vs. seed, and we explain to the custom the value of sodding in terms of maintenance and establishment periods. Then we discuss the maintenance of both kinds of lawns and what it will cost long-term to get a seeded lawn to look like sod.”
While Franey says it costs about 7 cents per square foot to seed and $3 to $3.50 per square yard to sod, overall the customer’s cost to establish a seeded lawn is greater. “As a rule, we advise our seeding clients to go abck and overseed at some point following the initial establishment period,” Franey says. “That adds to their cost and also to the time it will take for the seed to take hold. We generally see seeded lawns taking 14 to30 days to establish, whereas sodded lawns provide instant gratification.”
Indeed, having a full green lawn in place right away is one of the prime selling points of sodding. However, other contractors argue that seeding is the way to go for turf health. “The benefit of seed is that you’re getting grass roots established in the soil that you’ve got,” says Bill Akehurst, vice president and director of the landscape department at Akehurst Landscape Service, Joppa, Md. “Sod carries its own topsoil, but once the roots try to grow in beyond that barrier the grass will have a bit of a shock when it tries to move into the soil underneath.”
Jeff Lowartz agrees. “Sod has been conditioned to grown in a certain type of root system that encourages top growth because you don’t want the roots too deep when it comes time to cut the sod,” says the turf specialist for Heritage Green, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. “When you lay sod, you’re dropping turf plants in an old medium onto a new medium and if those two mediums aren’t compatible, the grass may not take. For instance, a new-home builder may request sod grown in sandy loam and have it planted on a clay soil base. If that happens, the grass won’t develop a good root system and will likely have very low drought tolerance. On the other hand, if you seeded over clay soil, the seed would have no choice but to germinate there. It may still have trouble, but it will grow.”
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