Whether you are installing a brand new lawn, renovating an inferior one, overseeding to upgrade an existing one or patching to repair damaged areas you must choose a grass for the job. In every case except overseeding, the choice is between various types of turfgrass seed and various types of turfgrass sod.
Whether you do the job yourself, or you hire a landscape professional to do the job the choice is yours. The overall costs are not very different. While sod is much more expensive than seed at the outset, it requires less time and money in followup care.
Advantages of Using Seed
Seeding a new lawn or overseeding and patching with seed are common practices because using grass seed has certain advantages.
More varieties of grass are available as seed.
It is initially less expensive to seed a new lawn.
Seed is easily and rapidly sown over large areas
No special skill is required to sow seed.
Advantages of Using Sod
There are many factors that suggest that using sod for new and renovated lawns or patching is a good choice for lawns.
Sodded lawns are instant lawns. They provide an immediate finished look.
Sodded lawns control soil erosion on slopes and eliminate problems with mud while the grass is becoming established.
Sodded lawns are dense and uniform from the start. They do not require repeat seeding the next season or two.
Sodded lawns do not have weeds and are so thick that weed seeds have difficulty getting established in them, minimizing the need for herbicides.
Sodded lawns can be installed anytime during the growing season as long as they are watered properly.
