AB> We moved into our house in Feb. of 1996.  We went through the summer
AB> of '96 without a good lawn in most of our yard.  This year my husband
AB> has decided is "the year to get a good lawn planted".  We are extremely
AB> poor so we can't afford to have sod put in, any good tips for people
AB> who have NO IDEA what they are doing.
    First of all, have you actually priced sod?  You may find it's much less 
expensive then you would actually expect.  The greatest expense in sod comes 
from having the supplier lay it.  Do it yourself and you will find that 
you'llsave quite a bit.
    For example, at another house that my S/O owns, we redid the back yard 
and needed to resod.  We called around for prices and found them all to be 
very similar.  About $100-115 for just the sod and about $500 if we had them 
install it.  Needless to say, we did it ourselves.  I'd had a little preious 
experience laying sod before and was able to teach my S/O to do it in about 
5 mins.  The two of us did it together - I gave her the smaller portion of 
the yard to do - and we were done in a little over an hour.
    One other option you might consider is just doing a small part of it or 
checkerboardng the sod.  Doing a small area now and then another section as 
you can afford it is a good way to get an area of your lawn looking real nice 
now and not spending too much.  Checkerboarding would be laying the rolls of 
sod with gaps between that you hope the sod will eventually spread and fill 
in.  It works, but it's a slow process, prone to weeds and the exposed edges 
of the sod have a tendency to dry and roll up if not kept sufficiently wet.
    Your final option would be to start a new yard from seed, but you might 
be surprised at the expense and labor intensive cost of that.  You need to 
till or turn your soil, do a reasonabaly thorough job of freeing it of weeds, 
spread the seed and then spend the next 4-8 weeks watering intensely, babying 
it along, keeping animals and others off it and saying daily prayers that it 
all sprouts and fills in evenly.  You also have to hope you got good quality 
seed with a fairly low percentage of weed seeds in it. (Does it sound like 
I'm trying to discourage you from using seed? )
    Whatever route you choose, good luck with your new home.  I know 
first-hand how expensive new digs can be and how much effort and time it can 
take.  My S/O and I moved to a 18 acre hobby farm last July and it's been a 
full time job geting all the things we'd like to do done.  We've only just 
started on our list, but we figure we have a long time to get it all done.
        Byrd Mann
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