My boyfriend surprised me with 15 sq. ft of sod

Diamonds are a surprise. I'm not sure sod rates. ;-)

Rough up your ground surface and make sure the sod has good soil contact, then keep it damp for a few weeks (watering once a day-ish if necessary) until it grabs hold.

Then slowly pull the watering back to longer periods, but more at a time, to encourage good deep roots. Ultimately (and optimally) it requires about an inch a week, although Zone 10 CA sounds like it could be near-desert to me so you might need more and/or more often during hot periods.

That's for most grasses. If you can tell us what kind you got, the care instructions will probably differ.

Believe me, these days the surprises are always in the odd categories- in april I got 500 dollars worth of daisy plants, and along with the sod came 2 big hydrangeas. He's a set builder so I get all the leftovers from the sets. It's a strange way to build a landscaping plan but you can't beat the price!

Yeah, this is definitely desert. I'm between downtown los angeles and pasadena. All my friends tell me not to bother with grass at all because you have to water it twice a day. We'll have to come up with a better solution I think. The sod is Marathon II which I believe is a fescue blend?

We'll have to come up with a better solution I think. The sod is Marathon II which I believe is a fescue blend?

Many others here will be of more help with that--I know Kentucky bluegrasses much better.

If it is, I can see that you'd have to water it very, very often near LA. Twice a day sounds a bit excessive, but three times a week, yes. It's fairly drought and heat tolerant, but there are limits. My friend from there (well, off kilter a bit in Malibu) never had grass.

I do know that fescues tolerate shade (far better than KBG, anyway). If you could put it in a place where it gets good morning sun but is protected from noon to sunset (and not under a tree that will suck all the water out of the soil) that would probably help. It still may or may not survive, but you wouldn't have to pour water on it constantly.

I'm guessing you have sandy-ish, porous soil there (just a general guess from the average in semi-arid conditions) that sucks down any water you give it and drains it through. Going overboard, digging down 6 to 8 inches and mixing in some good, heavy, water-retaining top soil in that area would also help it hold water. It's not going to be perfect and you do have to go fairly deep (roots tend to dislike crossing soil boundaries), but it would help to acclimatize a grass that's not built for those conditions.

Watering 15 sqft of turf should be no problem. That's about the size of a normal bathtub.

You could water that small amount of grass like a house plant.

I've got 2 wave petunias that have grown to that size since May...I just water them with the sprinkling can...you could do the same with your 3ft by 5ft patch of grass.

Your major problem is how are you going to mow that lawn??

Good luck and best wishes for you and your new home.

whoops- it's 60 sq. ft of lawn. Still small, but not absurd. Guess I don't understand sizes so well.
Still trying to understand my soil but it's not sandy- don't know what that leaves me with because it's not really clay either. I got a little bit lazy, roughed up the ground and mixed in some manure and compost but probably not deep enough- roughed it up to about 6 inches but only mixed in the amendments to the top layer. Lesson learned: no yardwork when it's 100 degrees, and surprises like that come with a catch.

don't know what that leaves me with because it's not really clay either. I got a little bit lazy, roughed up the ground and mixed in some manure and compost but probably not deep enough- roughed it up to about 6 inches but only mixed in the amendments to the top layer. Lesson learned: no yardwork when it's 100 degrees, and surprises like that come with a catch.

Silt, sand, or clay. The difference is in the particle size, although if you have a mix you'd just call it "loam" and be done with it. ;-) Clay's very tiny, packs easily, and doesn't accept much water. Silt's a little bigger, packs but you wouldn't say you could throw a pot from it, and accepts a little more water (on average). Sand you know.

Organics tend to be gigantic in comparison with the mineral part of soil, take up 0 to 10%-ish (depending on a whole bunch of factors and plain old luck) of the soil, and hold tons of water.

I hear you about the "lazy" part, but working in 100 degrees and stopping isn't lazy, it's prudent. I just spent 13 hours finishing off my irrigation system (and ended up one rotor short, durn it), but our temperature hit a very seasonable and pleasant 75 today.

Sixty square feet is workable at six by ten, and you can probably pick up a really cheap lawn mower (albeit probably poorly maintained) at a yard sale.