A Dramatic Beginning

 

After

I usually pass on large sod jobs (see Bend it Like Beckham - A Fun Sod Job), but I do enjoy the smaller, more interesting ones.

The customer contacted me to hopefully address other aspects of her property, but this area of her back yard was her primary objective.

She had already done what you will see in the next image and also shared with  me a picture of something similar, which she loved.

Before

I have installed flagstone walkways, sitting areas and staggered stepping stones as well as a few paver walkways and small patios in lawns. The existing turfgrass provided those huggable borders once the cuts were made for setting individual stones or pavers, or by creating a channel, so-to-speak.

Here, we were starting from scratch and there was no creative flub-room like with flagstone or only dealing with simple tolerances when butting pavers next to one another. This was tedious, setting in soil and then cutting sod strips to fill the the gaps - those which will make this design truly pop over time.

Pavers Set

Zoysia would have been a wonderful choice of sod for this design, but would have been a nightmare to maintain in the growing season unless a groundskeeper were to live on-site. It's extremely difficult to knock down Zoysia with a weed eater and a mower will not keep it level with the pavers.

This is a shaded area, but the best suited turfgrass, St. Augustine, has had issues with pests in this area for the last several years...except for the Tamstar variety, which is also more drought tolerant. It was developed several years ago at Texas A&M. If you are a Gamecock fan (I am), get over it. It's some nice grass.

We had many small cuts which had to be made due to the curves of the outline which is not easy to do with St. Augustine so we didn't manicure the edges and borders. This will need to be done once the sod has established and pavers have set. We used no mortar or polymeric sand (both of which have their own issues over time) so there may need to be some leveling touch-up necessary, but so much simpler once grass and pavers have claimed their respective places.

Oh, the "Y" with the abbreviated trunk (I didn't want to say truncated trunk.), I threw in there for the customer's last name. She was happily surprised. I believe so.

The owner admits the entire property needs a lot of attention, but we both believe this was a wonderful beginning.

If she only keeps the dalmatians off of it. (See 101 Dalmatians Minus 99...Just as Well, So Enjoyable)