sod and trees

We had talked about doing sod in the front yard for a solid year before we finally priced it out and decided to take the plunge for zeon zoysia.  We found a company in Dallas called J & J Sod which had great reviews and decent prices, so we placed an order with them.  They recommended using a special soil and since we were investing in the sod, we figured we might as well give it the best chance for success with some good soil. 

I drove to Dallas for the "Super Soil" (which I was told weighed 270 pounds), but as soon as the weight was resting in the truck, it looked like we had lowered it a good 6 inches. I questioned the guy about the weight of the soil and he said that the bag weighed roughing 800 pounds!!  No wonder the truck visibly lowered from the load.  I quickly called Kevin to make sure that was okay.  He asked me to google the truck bed's capacity, which was 1,600 pounds, so I just put on my emergency flashers and didn't go above 55 mph on the busy freeway.  Definitely more stressful that I thought it would be!

As soon as Kevin saw the truck after work, he wanted to quickly get to work off-loading it...

Let's just say that it took WAY longer than I thought to move all that dirt!

We then scalped the lawn to get it ready for the new soil...

We rented a tiller from Home Depot and set to work really prepping the area for the soil.  At this point, it felt like a major project, so I was crossing my fingers that all the extra effort would be worth it.

I loved having the kids involved not only because they were actually super helpful with the workload, but because it was a great learning experience for all of us.  I want Brooke and Colby to feel confident in their ability to tackle a big project and to not shy away from manual labor. 

After all that work, we were FINALLY ready for the sod installation.  The morning of our pick-up was the rainiest day of the entire year!! We had to rent a flatbed trailer at U-Haul since the pallet wouldn't fit inside Kevin's truck, but it was POURING rain as Kevin ran in to the building to sign all the paperwork for the rental. Once we had the trailer, we made our way into Dallas for the pick-up. 

You're supposed to install the grass within 24 hours of it being harvested, and we also needed to return the trailer, so we had to get right to work.  Needless to say, we were literally drenched and rather muddy as we worked and our neighbors probably thought we were insane because it poured for HOURS.  I was hoping all the extra moisture would help the grass and soil work well together, but some of the soil was washing away from all the rain and the sod along the sidewalk looked like it was kind of floating on the sloshy ground. 

But the end result was definitely worth it...

We had enough for two sections of the backyard as well!  Oh, and after returning the trailer, we went back to Home Depot to rent a lawn roller to smooth out the sod and ensure that it made contact with the soil.  

I was religious with the watering and took pictures a few weeks later...

So far, so good!!

A week or so later, we had Juan (an arborist) come to trim our trees.  I asked him to be really careful on our new sod, and he did a fabulous job raising the canopy and thinning the trees out.  They arrived a few minutes earlier than anticipated, so we weren't quite back to our house yet from Six Flags.  As we pulled in, I was amazed at how many limbs they had already removed.  Brooke immediately commented that she was sad that they removed her "favorite branch", but it looked so beautiful when they were done.  It had been a few years since he trimmed our trees, so it was definitely a needed service. 

I don't have a great "before" picture, but the trimming made a HUGE difference.  The trees were really covering the front view of the house, so they look much better now.

We may not be winning "Yard of the Month" anytime soon, but we were pretty pleased with the difference the sod and tree trimming made to our front yard.  Definitely helped our curb appeal :)