Monroe sits on the Skykomish, with the fairgrounds on the edge of town. River-bottom ground stays wet, and a yard built as if the water table were low will heave, puddle, or grow moss until someone deals with the water. Sod in the flood line floats, smothers, or rots. We will not lay it there.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98272 · 2020 population 19,608
Sod above the high-water stain
Above the stain, river-bottom soil can grow an excellent lawn if it is not compacted and the grade sheds. We prep and lay, and we keep the rolls off the lowest terrace. That terrace gets a wet planting or a gravel standing area.
Delivery timing matters. Sod that sits on the pallet through a warm afternoon heats up and dies in the roll. We lay what we deliver that day.
The ground in Monroe
We see two kinds of lots. In town, smaller yards with the usual compacted soil and a lawn that has to look fine for most of the year. Closer to the river and the low ground, soils that remember high water. Gravel and drains belong there. A finished bark bed in a spot that floods is mulch in the neighbor’s fence line by spring.
The fair is part of the calendar. People want yards cleaned up and hedges cut back before the traffic and the guests, and they want storm debris gone after the first big fall wind. Trees on these lots — including the old fruit trees — need pruning that opens them up, not a topping that makes them dangerous. Native plantings along the wet edges do the work a lawn cannot.
How we do the work
Sod is instant cover and a slow root. It dies when it is laid on compacted clay, on a moss mat, or in a low spot that stays wet. We strip or till, we fix the grade so water leaves, and we lay tight seams on soil that has been loosened a few inches down.
The first two weeks are water and no traffic. After that we want roots chasing soil, which means less frequent watering. A sod lawn that is sprinkled every day forever is a sod lawn that peels up in August.
We lay what arrives that day. Sod that sits on the pallet through a warm afternoon cooks in the roll, and we will not install it.
What we look at first
- What is under the old lawn
- Grade and where the roof water goes
- Access for the pallets
- Sun, because sod in deep shade is an expensive way to grow moss
Seams and edges
Tight, staggered, no overlap. Edges tucked against beds so the mower does not scalpel a flap. We cut curves with a knife, not by stretching a roll around a corner until it tears.
The first two weeks
Water enough that you cannot peel a corner up by the end of week two. Stay off it. Mow the first time at three inches once it resists a tug. Then ease the water back so the roots leave the roll.
What is under the roll
A few inches of loosened soil and compost, graded to leave the house. Not the old lawn. Not landscape fabric. Not a sand bed that turns into a pan. If we cannot prep, we should not lay sod.
More from this crew
- Sod installation across Snohomish County
- Lawn seeding in Monroe
- Lawn aeration in Monroe
- Landscaping in Monroe
- Lawn fertilization in Monroe
- Sod installation in Sultan
- Sod installation in Snohomish
- Sod installation in Gold Bar
Sources for the climate and the water
- USDA plant hardiness map for choosing plants that can take a Snohomish County winter.
- EPA WaterSense on watering less once a lawn or a new planting is established.
- EPA Soak Up the Rain on keeping roof and yard water from becoming someone else’s problem.
