Emerald Sod Farms News | Premium Colorado Turfgrass

What is Sod and What are the Best Sod Grass Varieties for Colorado?

In this video, Emerald Sod Farms owner Steve Cooper explains “what is sod” and he discusses the best turfgrass sod varieties for Colorado projects. No one sod variety works best for all applications. The amount of traffic on your sod grass from kids, and people and pets can be a big factor in choosing the best turfgrass sod variety for you. Please call us at 303-654-0202 for help in choosing the best type of turfgrass sod for your application.

Here’s our Emerald Sod Farms video:

Here’s a summary of the video:

A lot of people are asking what is sod. Well, sod is an old farming term and its in reference to the cover of the ground. Our sod, and we also want to call it turfgrass or turf grasses, is a product by which we create a cover which we hope is as native as we can to the environment around it. It is something that’s aesthetically pleasing and friendly to the environment and adds value to your property.

Sod, in the northern regions, in Colorado and the northern states, is made up of what we call cool season grasses. The most common sod or turfgrass that’s available is Kentucky bluegrass and/or different types of bluegrass hybrids that are out there.

The other type of sod that’s available are fescues and rye grasses, and also Buffalo grasses. Each one has its own unique characteristics, but all in all 90% of the grasses used in Colorado are Kentucky bluegrass.

We also have specialty grasses for golf courses which we do a lot of, but they cost a lot of money to maintain such as bentgrass.

When it comes down to making a sod selection, I want you to to look closely at your usage. If you have a lot of dogs or if you have a large family with kids or people playing in the area where you want to grow sod or maintain it, Kentucky bluegrass is your best bet. It has rhizomes, or underground runners, that once established will re-propagate and come back.

Fescue is more of a clumped grass.  For years Denver Water thought it would use less water, and it does use less water, we’ll get into soil preparation and root masses, but you have to have the right type of preparation and soil to take advantage of that. If you damage the crown or the heart of the plant, it will not come back, so fescue is not the best grass variety for high-traffic applications.

Please don’t let someone sell you something that costs more to produce which it does because it costs more to produce, and don’t let them sell you something that doesn’t work. Our salespeople won’t sell you a product that will not work for for your intended needs or purposes.

Buffalo grass, it comes and goes it’s not a real viable alternative. Even cities that have tried to use it in medians and esplanades for less water usage, again they have to have soil depth for the roots to get deeper and for them to take advantage of that. It does not fare well in our type of weather, not as well as bluegrass.

All in all when someone tries to reinvent the wheel or tell you about a new product, right now until CSU or other places like Texas A&M or the University of Nebraska or one of the agronomy departments comes up with a better product, Kentucky bluegrass is your best product for most Colorado applications.

Emerald Sod in Aurora Colorado

Emerald Sod Farms has been growing high quality turfgrass sod since 1987. Our farm is located just east of Denver in Commerce City, Colorado, close to the Denver International Airport. We completed highly successful sod installation projects and furnished sod for projects in Denver, Aurora, Boulder, Parker, Colorado Springs, and other communities in the Rocky Mountain Region.  Call us at 303-654-0202 for more information.

How Much Sod Should You Order for Your Project?

Sod Grass Harvesting – Colorado

Call 303-654-0202.  In this video, Emerald Sod Farms owner Steve Cooper talks about how you can estimate the amount of sod you need for your turf grass sod project. The estimation involves dividing your project area into rectangles and triangles, and then adding the areas of these rectangles and triangles together to estimate the total area of your project. We have a handy sod calculator on our website that you can use to do some of the math.

Here’s Steve’s video:

Here’s a summary of the video:

How much sod do I order? Well the simplest way to order sod is by going out and measuring the area that you have. And it’s easier to work it into squares and rectangles using simple mathematics.

If you have triangular areas, you use geometry, base times height divided by two gives you the area.  A rectangle is the base times the height.

When you come up with those areas, we sell the sod by the square foot, so if you can determine and measure those areas. We have a simple sod calculator on our website that you can go in and use that makes life easier for those that may need the help.

Once you have come up with those determinations and those facts and figures always add at least 5% because you will have to make cuts and unfortunately there will be some wastage along the edges of your property or sidewalks or driveways or what have you.

The Colorado industry standard for sod pieces is a 2′ x 5′ roll, which is 10 ft.². So the goal of your calculations is to determine how many of these 10 ft.² pieces you need to finish your project. Each pallet of sod is 54 of these 10 ft.² pieces, for 540 ft.² per pallet. For large projects, we also harvest our sod in two foot by 125 foot big rolls.

Remember that you will have some wastage. For most projects the 10 ft.² pieces will have to be cut to fit around shrubs, walks, driveways, trees, and other areas of your project. In general, you can account for this wastage by ordering an extra 5%: however; if you have an odd shaped yard or a yard with lots of trees or shrubs, you may have a little bit more wastage.

Turf Grass Sod Farm for Denver and the Rocky Mountain Region

Emerald Sod Farms has been growing fine turf grass sod in Colorado since 1987. Our farm is located just east of Denver, in Commerce City, Colorado, near the Denver International Airport. We grow Kentucky bluegrass blends, dwarf type tall fescue blends, and specialized golf course grass blends developed to thrive in the Rocky Mountain region.  If you have any questions, please call us at 303-654-0202.  You can also request an estimate for an order by using the Estimate Request on our website.

Tips for How to Lay Sod from Emerald Sod Farms

Call 303-654-0202. In this video, Emerald Sod Farms owner Steve Cooper talks about how lay sod. This is a question we often get from our customers. Laying sod is like laying bricks, and you place the pieces of sod in a brickwork-like pattern. Here’s Steve’s explanation.

People who are our customers frequently ask how do you go about laying sod. Well, it’s akin to doing brickwork.

First in doing your soil preparation once your soil preparation, being that you have a nice smooth grade, then you want to start out by finding the long edge or along the contour of the soil. If you have a slope you want to lay it across the slope so doesn’t wash. Then as you start you want to lay just like you lay bricks. You lay one to one, you make sure that you cross the seams, close the seams, just like you would looking at your wall, your brickwork wall.

The soil preparation mentioned in this video is extremely important. There should be 4 to 6 inches of topsoil, mixed with organics, all across your project area. The organics should be tilled into the soil and then the project area should be graded to provide a gentle slope for drainage. As Steve says in the video, the line you use for orienting the long axis of your grass sod pieces should be across the slope, if there is a slope. If you’re familiar with the idea of contour plowing in farming, the same idea works in arranging sod pieces across the slope in your project area.  Each of our sod pieces is two feet by five feet, covering 10 square feet.

Emerald Sod Farms has been producing high quality sod in Colorado since 1987. Our sod farm is located just east of Denver in Commerce City, near the Denver International Airport. All of our sod is grown on sandy loam soil, which is 83% US Golf Association spec and it percs at six to nine inches per hour. This is incredible soil and it’s ideal for growing turfgrass sod.

Sod Rolls Ready for Delivery to Colorado Customers

If you’re thinking about a turfgrass sod project, please call us to discuss your needs and to obtain a quote. We can guarantee you that your Emerald Sod Farms grass will be freshly cut, adapted to the Colorado climate, and of the highest quality.

Please complete the contact form or give us a call if you have any questions about turfgrass sod or how turf grass sod can be used in your project.

Should You Use Sod or Seed a New Lawn

Emerald Sod Farms Owner Steve Cooper

Call us at 303-654-0202.  Many of our customers ask us if they should use sod, or if they should seed a new lawn. Emerald Sod Farms owner, Steve Cooper, answers that question by talking about the time and resources that go into growing high quality sod. If you account for your labor and the materials and water and fertilizer you would need to grow a new lawn of the same quality, you’ll find that it’s probably cheaper to buy high quality turfgrass sod from Emerald Sod Farms.

Here’s the video:

Here’s a summary of the video:

How much does sod cost? Seed versus sod is always a question as to why don’t I just seed my lawn. Well, when you try that you have to deal with Mother Nature just as we do on a large farming operation, that’s why we exist having sod farms.

It takes us 14 months to get from seed to sod, and in doing so it requires a lot of work, a lot of labor, you may lose it to the wind, to the rain, to the elements, too cold, just as you would trying to do it in your own yard. It just takes a lot of time.

So by the time you go through the process of seeding and trying to grow your own lawn in, than the price that we charge for our sod looks pretty reasonable.

Emerald Sod Farms has been growing top-quality sod in the Denver region since 1987. We’ve provided our Kentucky bluegrass, dwarf type tall fescue, and golf course blends to golf course projects all over Colorado and many commercial and residential projects up and down the front range. Our grass is always freshly cut and we’ll work with you to provide the turf grass sod that you need, when you need it.  Our our quality grass sod will ensure the success of your turfgrass project.

It would be very difficult for you to duplicate the quality of sod by growing seed in your lawn or project area.  Let us save you money and provide you with the quality sod that will benefit your project for many years to come. If you have any questions, please call us at 303-654-0202.

Call 303-654-0202!  Emerald Sod Farms has been growing the highest quality Kentucky Bluegrass, dwarf-type tall fescue and bentgrass blends for more than 25 years, just outside of Denver in Commerce City, near the Denver International Airport.

Emerald Sod Farms Always Harvests Sod in Two-Foot Wide Rolls

Harvesting Sod at Emerald Sod Farms

We harvest our sod in two-foot wide rolls to ensure that our sod is of the highest quality. Why is that?  It’s because we want to provide our customers with a consistent layer of the unique sandy loam soil our sod is grown in.

Our sod harvesters are equipped with a floating cutting head to cut the sod plus the needed layer of underlying soil.  Even though the cutting head adjusts to any minor surface undulations in cutting the appropriate amount of soil to go with the grass, it only works well because we limit the cut to a two-foot width.  If we cut wider rolls, we’d save money because we’d harvest more sod per pass of the harvester, but we’d also make it more likely that the floating cutting head couldn’t adjust to the variations in the surface of the soil.  When that happens, the sod roll would have some areas where there’s little or no soil under the grass.  Without that soil, those scalped areas of  your new sod would likely die.  Your new lawn would be spotted with dead patches of grass.

Some of our competitors cut sod rolls much wider, and you might be thinking that you’re saving money by purchasing wider rolls that could cover your project area more quickly.  That’s false economy friends!  You’ll find that some areas of your new lawn will be installed with very little topsoil underneath the grass.

Sod Rolls Ready for Delivery to Colorado Customers

Most of our customers select sod instead of seeding a lawn because they want the high quality turf grass that we provide.  They know that they’ll be enjoying their Emerald Sod Farms turf grass for many years to come and we want you to know that we work hard to ensure that you’re getting a consistent quality of turfgrass, harvested for you in a way that preserves that quality.

For more information, please call us at 303-654-0202 or click this link to obtain a quote.

Emerald Sod Farms Sandy Loam Soil Grows the Best Sod in Colorado

Emerald Sod Farms Sandy Loam Soil

You don’t see the soil under your new sod lawn, but like the unseen foundation of a house, it provides critical support!  The soil underlying your new sod is very important in determining the health of your lawn and the amount of water you’ll have to use to keep your lawn healthy.  Some sod farms have soil with a substantial amount of clay, and that clay travels with their sod to your lawn project area.  The clay-rich soil right under your new grass can form a barrier to hinder the sod’s root growth, and it can also function as a barrier to prevent irrigation and rain water from percolating into your soil.  During a time, in the Denver area and in Colorado, when water conservation is so important, this clay-rich soil will be channeling your sprinkler water into the street.  You’ll need to use more scarce water to keep your new lawn healthy.

That won’t happen with an Emerald Sod Farms lawn.  Before we started Emerald Sod Farms back in 1987, we had our soil tested and the lab determined that it was a sandy loam testing at 83 percent US Golf Association spec.   This is incredible soil, especially so close to Denver!  Our soil also percs at six to nine inches per hour so the irrigation and rain water your lawn receives will go through the grass to the roots, where it will do the most good.

Our turfgrass sod is always harvested fresh for you, whether you pick it up at our Commerce City farm or you order a delivery to your project location.  We can also provide professional installation services if you need them.  Call us at 303-654-0202 for more information or to place an order or fill out our Estimate form.  Emerald Sod Farms has been growing top-quality, certified weed-free sod for 25 years and we’d sure like the opportunity to earn your business.

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Our ESF Four-Way Blend of Kentucky Bluegrass Cultivars is Proven in the Rocky Mountain Region

What about Kentucky Bluegrass Sod for Athletic Fields and Golf Courses?

We’ve used our unique ESF Four Way Blend of Kentucky Bluegrass cultivars for a diverse array of athletic fields through the years.  Starting out back in 1991, Emerald Sod Farms took over the turfgrass sod contract for five years on the old Mile High Stadium for the Denver Broncos. We had to harvest our sod grass a lot thicker than we normally do for that application, and we’d go in at midnight after a game to replace the damaged sod.  It was challenging and rewarding work, and we can say with pride that the Broncos never played on a better looking field of natural grass than the old Mile High Stadium field under our care.

Emerald Sod Farms work at Cordillera in Edwards CO

We’ve also provided our quality Kentucky Bluegrass sod for a lot of football and soccer fields, baseball fields, golf courses, and many sports complexes all around the Rocky Mountain Region.  Our Four Way ESF Kentucky Bluegrass Blend sod, with the proven varieties of grass in the blend, is the best Kentucky Bluegrass sod for use in athletic facilities in the Colorado mountains and in Eastern Colorado too.

Our ESF Four Way Blend works well at altitudes as high as 9,000 feet — the elevation for some of our golf course project work at The Club at Cordillera, two hours west of Denver near Edwards, Colorado.  It’s also worked well at 4, 908 feet, which is the elevation of our work at Fort Lupton High School in Fort Lupton, CO.  We provided sod delivery and installation for the entire high school campus and the football field, and we did the entire installation in ONE DAY!

This blend is so versatile that it’s been the choice for our sodding projects in Montrose, our projects in Las Vegas, and our projects in Big Sky Montana.  The ESF Four Way Blend of Kentucky Bluegrass has been used all over the Region, and it’s proven itself to perform well in a variety of elevations and climates and in demanding sports facility installations.

We constantly upgrade our cultivars with new seeds in order to bring the next generation along but our Kentucky Bluegrass varieties still fall into the same four different cultivar families that we’ve used for many years. That’s why we call it ESF Four Way Blend — it’s our unique grass blend that no other turfgrass companies sell.  Our ESF Blend been proven for years and it continues to work and it continues to be improved, so we stay with what we know works.  Our company never rests on our laurels or our accomplishments over the past 25 years, but we don’t abandon what works well.

If you’re looking for high quality sod for an athletic facility project in Denver or anywhere in the Rocky Mountain Region, please call us at 303-654-0202 to visit about your requirements.

If you have experience with Kentucky Bluegrass in Colorado athletic field applications, please tell us how it’s worked for you.

Related articles

• Kentucky Bluegrass Can Be Water Saving – Turfgrass Sod Denver Colorado (emeraldsodfarms.com)
• How to Install Sod – Turfgrass for Denver & the Rocky Mountain Region (emeraldsodfarms.com)