Quick Roll Lawns

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Creating your own lawn from seeds is a difficult task and requires considerable time. But do not think that the classical method is the only option that will allow you to get a flawless green carpet. A new lawn can be created in a much faster way - using rolled lawns. But at speed, that is, at a significant reduction in the time to achieve maximum decorativeness, their advantages are exhausted. There are no less rules and tricks in creating such “fast” lawns than with conventional sowing of lawn grasses.

It would seem that ready-made lawns to order, which can be purchased in rolls, require only one thing - to deploy the sod and lay it correctly. But to create a high-quality green carpet, you will have to take care not only of this. True, rolled lawns will not change their purpose from this, nor will they lose all their virtues. If you set yourself the task of creating a new lawn as quickly as possible, then this is the only option.

A few decades ago, finished lawns were considered something exclusive. This method of creating grass fields was used only in sports arenas and golf courses. But today, a ready-made lawn is an affordable, simple and common alternative way to create new lawn areas. And it is more than appropriate in private gardens, and to choose this particular method it is not necessary to use the services of landscape designers. Today you can buy rolled lawns yourself in any garden center or order in specialized companies, turf does not necessarily come “complete” with its laying. You can create an emerald carpet from a lawn area both yourself and using the services of professionals.

The secret of success of rolled lawns is very simple and lies in its main advantages:

You can judge the appearance of the lawn, its quality, density and beauty even before the purchase, inspecting the turf itself.
Rolled lawns take root in a few days.
Ready-made lawns can be created not only in the warm season (from May to August), but also during almost the entire season, even on frozen ground.
You can walk on such a lawn in just a couple of weeks (full endurance in an ordinary lawn is achieved in a year, and you can’t walk on it for up to four months).
Rolled lawns look attractive already on the day of laying, although they form a completely perfect carpet without “seams” and other traces in just a couple of weeks. But this period is still several times shorter than the period that an ordinary lawn will need to grow, grow, first cut and form a dense turf.
Rolled lawns have a thicker turf. The special texture of a “flawless” or “royal” green carpet is achieved not only by scrupulous professional selection of seeds, but also by growing on special soil, leaving with “secret” components and using cutting-edge technology.
Such lawns almost completely exclude the possibility of weed germination. But this is not all the “pluses”: you can forget about the weekly haircut, elimination of bald spots and other “repairs”, the problem of mosses, without even fear of hail, storms, etc.
There is no need to take care of any complex seedling care: a standard lawn immediately starts for a rolled lawn, including only much more plentiful watering in the first two weeks.

Rolled lawns have their own visible disadvantages:

Their arrangement is much more expensive than the creation of lawns in the usual way.
Rolled lawns require stable moisture and a more thorough approach to irrigation, starting from the moment they are rolled.
Rolled lawns do not forgive mistakes at the stage of laying turf.
The right choice of fresh lawns is the only guarantee that you will succeed.
The range of varieties of rolled lawns is limited only to ordinary and sports types of turf; you will not find decorative lawns among them.
Rolled lawns require only a certain type and height of mowing, they are not suitable for experiments with curly mowing.
Such lawns are more difficult to lay on a non-standard terrain or when creating unusual objects.

Roll Roll Selection

You should not save time on checking the quality of turf

One of the most important advantages of a finished lawn is the ability to verify its quality and characteristics prior to purchase or at the time of purchase. If even when choosing proven seed producers their purchase is always accompanied by a certain risk factor, then in the case of a rolled lawn you can (and should) check the quality of the product yourself. Sod control, lawn inspection is the main guarantee of the quality of the future green carpet. And to focus only on purely decorative characteristics - density, color or gloss of grass - would be a big mistake. The quality of the lawn is checked according to completely different guidelines.

The first and most important criterion for choosing roll lawns is to check the freshness of the turf. If you buy a lawn in a garden or landscape center, a specialized company, then usually you will be taken to the site from which the turf for your site will be cut. But in some garden centers or retail stores, turf is presented in the form of finished rolls. And to understand how fresh it is, it is not so simple. If you are guaranteed that the turf will be cut on the same day as laying or you will be brought a lawn for self-laying, cut on the day of delivery - there will be no problems and there is no doubt about its quality. But such cases, in fact, are very rare, and the factor of cutting and laying turf in one day may depend on a variety of additional conditions, up to the weather. And guarantees that promises will not go wrong, should not always be believed. Check for yourself the freshness of the rolled lawn. Any traces of a sweet smell, yellowing of the grass not on the upper “turn”, but closer to the center, to the heart of the roll are sure signs that the lawn is not fresh enough and you should refuse to buy it. However, you can rely not only on the scent: fresh sod retains flexibility, plasticity and “juiciness”. If the lawn was cut more than a day ago, then when folding and unfolding "for trial" it will tear, crumble, fall apart.

Secondly, ask about the composition of the grass mixture, that is, about the cereals that were used to create the specific type of turf. For rolled lawns, the presence of more than 20% of ryegrass seeds is unacceptable. This grass in such lawns "degenerates" in just one or two years. Bluegrass and fescue should dominate in the composition, and their ratio is unlimited.

Immediately pay attention to the quality of the turf structure. Too thin "canvas" directly indicates the poor condition of the grass, rapid forcing, lack of formation of a powerful and dense root system. On a rolled lawn, the thickness of the turf should completely prevent the germination of weeds and rhizomes of perennials. The optimal indicator is about 2 cm.

The quality of lawn care and the absence of problems when creating a turf, with which strips were cut for your garden, can be judged by the quality of mowing. Turn the roll slightly and check if the grass level is even and what grass residues are “stuck” in the turf. For rolled lawns, mowing is carried out very often and the remnants of the mowed grass should in no case be longer than 2.5-3 cm.

Another parameter that is best calculated by yourself, and not trusted by sellers and consultants is the uniformity of sowing, the density of sowing and the number of foreign plants in the turf. The last parameter does not allow more than 2 weeds per 50 square centimeters of soil. In this case, weeds will not be able to visually spoil the appearance of the turf, they are practically invisible. But the sowing density for a high-quality roll lawn should include at least one stem on every centimeter. And the higher this indicator, the better. What you should not do is to be afraid of any bald spots on the lawn: small "voids" will overgrow after the first mowing and their presence does not at all indicate the poor quality of the turf itself. Inadmissible are only bald spots with an area of 40 square centimeters (more than 6-7 cm in diameter).

Make sure that the lawn was not watered before transportation and be sure to warn that such a measure should not be taken if you do not deliver the lawn yourself: “dry” rolls take root much better.

Do not overdo it with "stock"

Calculating how much turf you need to create a lawn in a selected area is not as complicated as many people think. And you need to take sod with a margin, but the amount of tolerance should be the minimum necessary, up to 10%. Even with various errors, the overrun usually remains in the 2-5% range, and 10% will allow you to forget about anxiety and even get a little extra turf, which can be used to design the site.

The lawn is sold regardless of firm, place and garden center in standard rolls - 40 cm wide. In order to understand how much turf you need, you just need to calculate the area of the plot, divide it by the area of one roll and round up to the nearest whole number up . On a large plot or unusual lawn shape, 5-10% is immediately added to the figure.

Site preparation for roll lawn

In the process of preparing the site on which you want to create a "finished" type of lawn, rolled lawns are no different from ordinary ones. The soil not only needs to be dug up, improved with fertilizers, leveled, but also to get rid of rhizomes of perennials and weeds, stones, ramming and final leveling, watering in dry weather 2-3 days before coating. Site preparation is carried out in advance and is similar in all respects to the standard method of creating a lawn. From the point of view of time and effort, it is the preparation of sites that is the most difficult stage in the arrangement of rolled lawns.

Simple Secrets for Proper Laying of a Lawn Roll

After delivery to the site, the sod in rolls must be laid as soon as possible, preferably on the same day, having completed all work on arranging the lawns. But even if everything is ready for you, and you can immediately get to work, you will not be able to work with all the rolls at the same time. Therefore, the first thing to think about is storing the lawn on the site. Brought rolls must be laid in a shade in the fresh air. If you are laying the lawn not only on a fine day, but also on a hot day, then you need to spray the rolls periodically so that they do not dry out. But watering the rolls before unfolding is not necessary, they should only be protected from drying out.

In addition to the lawn for laying, you only need a special roller for rolling, a rake, a shovel, a knife and equipment for transporting rolls (a wheelbarrow or its equivalent).

The process of laying the lawn is much like marking for sowing, but not quite. On flat areas, the rolls are rolled in a checkerboard pattern (with the canvases shifted, not “edge to edge”, shifting each canvas approximately half its length). On slopes, for the design of which dense ready-made lawns are also often used, they are placed only across. When unrolling rolls, you need to act carefully. Do not bend the turf, do not overturn, fold or crumple, but treat it like a precious carpet. You need to move only on the board, so as not to crush the turf and not cause him even more damage.

But the most difficult part in the laying process is to properly “dock” the rolls together. The strips should never overlap, but even the smallest slots should be avoided. A lawn roll is laid like gluing wallpaper cloths - butt. When laying strips, do not rush to straighten the edges immediately. It is better to cut them and correct them with a shovel or knife after all the lawn has been laid. And if the strip has to be cut, then the edges must be left with a margin.

If the work cannot be completed at dusk, then in no case do you need to leave the lawn in the state in which you stored it during the laying process: the turf cannot be stored even for one night when folded. Rolls need to be rolled out and evenly moistened. In the morning, continue to work as quickly as possible, rolling up the roll for easy carrying and quickly deploying it at the installation site.

Key measures for a laid lawn

As soon as laying is completed, the rolled lawn needs to be rolled up. Only in one case this rule is violated: if the turf is very dry, literally crumbles upon contact, then the first thing to do is to moisturize it. But even in this case, we are not talking about full-fledged watering, but only about easy spraying. But if you did everything right and kept the lawn in a special mode, then you should start with rolling. Even if it seems to you that the turf is heavy and firmly attached to the soil, do not neglect this step. Rolling is necessary not only in order to eliminate all air pockets and achieve a tight “docking” between the turf and soil, but also so that the rhizomes sprouted into the soil as soon as possible. They roll a roll lawn across the seams, and not along the canvases, trying to monitor the accuracy of movements and in no case making sharp jerks (especially when cornering).

Without delay after rolling the turf, you need to carry out the first watering. It is carried out abundantly and generously, impregnating the lawn so that the soil under it is well moistened. Irrigation level should be controlled by checking in different parts of the lawn, in what condition is the soil under the sod, easily lifting the recently laid grass panels. Even for small lawns, try to control at least 10 places.

Only after the first watering, you can remember the edges and evenly trim them, aligning around the perimeter of the site. Trimming is carried out by the usual method - a hoe or a shovel, in a small area - just with a knife.

Care at the first stage of "adaptation"

The first watering is just the beginning of the water procedures that require considerable resources, which rolled lawns will need to quickly take root and resume growth. In the phase, until the turf hardens in the soil, and the grass does not move into active growth, the lawns will need only two measures:

daily watering during the first week and watering after 1-2 days during the second week (it is necessary to maintain a stable uniform soil moisture under the turf, focusing on weather and rainfall, these procedures for a rolled lawn are preferably carried out only in the early morning or late evening);
protect the lawn from any stress, even a light walk for the first two weeks.

The first haircut is carried out relatively early - a maximum of 2 weeks after styling. If the lawn quickly took root, was fresh and grew up, then the mowing can be done on 7-8 days after laying. Choosing a mowing height is quite simple: for rolled lawns, the permissible turf height is well defined and usually is about 5 cm (maximum 6 cm, minimum 4 cm). But if the lawn develops slowly even after 14 days, then it is better to mow the grass a third of the height of the grass (more than 1/3 of the height of such a lawn cannot be cut in the future).

Top dressing for finished lawns resumes very late - only a month after laying and after the lawn is trimmed at least 3 times. But it is best to apply fertilizer exactly a month after laying. For rolled lawns, a comprehensive universal lawn fertilizer is used, strictly observing the dosage recommendations indicated on the packaging by the manufacturer.