NEW SOD!! Yay! Now what???

[Lilbutterflie]

My backyard was pretty much all dirt b/c our bermuda grass died from being in almost complete shade back there. We have three mature trees covering pretty much the whole yard with shade!

We finally got St Augustine sod installed this past weekend. YAY! No more dirt and mud tracked in the house!

Now, I'd like some advice on how long to keep the kids from playing on it. Anyone else had sod installed in their backyard? How long before you let the kids play back there again?

[Zoe]

Our yard is complete mud too because the previous owners of our house did NOT take good care of it. We're putting in sod this month, and I plan to keep the kids off of it for at least 2 weeks.

During that time, we have a very large deck with lots of riding toys and whatnot that we'll be playing on for fresh air. We might go for walks or go to the local park as well for some running around time.

Congrats on the new lawn!

[Lilbutterflie]

Yup, I think we'll be taking lots of trips to the park, too! We have bikes and ride-ons for playing in the front yard; so we'll be doing lots of that, too.

It's so hard b/c it looks so GREAT back there, and I just want to let them out there to enjoy it! It's gonna be so hard to wait!

[MarinaVanessa]

Pretty much the only way to keep kids off of the sod is to fence it off somehow. Believe me, stakes and plastic ribbon (or rope, barrier tape, string etc.) won't work. My MIL and FIL put sod in their backyard last spring and tried that and the kids went under the tape or ripped it off completely and played with it ON THE SOD. They had to replace part of the sod and in the end they ended up having to fence it off with chicken wire-like stuff. It wasn't that high, maybe 3 ft or so but it kept the kids and the dogs out until the sod could get a chance to dig its roots. Also I'd recommend (but you don't have to) keeping them off of it for 3-4 weeks. Sod should be heavily watered the first 2 weeks to keep it from drying out and it makes it real mushy. The extra time also makes sure that the sod has a good grip and that the roots wont just get smushed.

If you can't or don't want to go that long without using the yard maybe you can just open up a section of your yard so that you can test the sod and see if it gets damaged or not. Then when you feel comfortable with it you can remove the rest of the barrier. Congrats on your new sod!!