Before Powered by: ClassifiedFlyerAds.com We can design your landscape using a picture we take of your own house. We then take the picture and use special software to place trees, grass, hedges and shrubs on the graphic. This will give the customer a better idea of what things will look like when we landscape the lawn. This can be your landscape. It is important for the customer to see what their options are when investing into their homes landscape.Thoughtful landscape planning and design will increase the aesthetic quality of your property, add to its usability, and decrease home energy costs by controlling solar gain and ventilation. A well designed and properly installed landscape will provide years of enjoyment, visual interest and increased property value.Landscape Design and the Design Process Landscape design is the process of analysis, planning, creation and/or construction of exterior spaces utilizing plant materials and appropriate hardscape elements including incidental paving and building materials. What does it takes to be a landscape designer? It takes a thorough grounding in the principles of landscape design, the capability of using these principles to translate a client's wants and needs into a creative reality, the ability to graphically communicate the design, knowledge of plant material and knowledge of soil and hydrology. The design process consists of the following steps: I. Initial Consultation The initial consultation is a process during which: The client and designer meet to discuss the client's needs, wants and desires. The designer assesses the site in order to identify all the essential conditions that will influence the design. This inventory includes the topography, existing site elements such as walkwkays, fences, etc., offsite conditions, availability and quality of light, soil, moisture, wind and existing plant material. The designer makes general suggestions which are discussed with the client. II. Site Measurements Next is to take site measurements and create a base map. III. Site Analysis The designer makes judgments about the site conditions and determines how the design solutions should respond. For instance, should the architecture of the house determine the bed lines? What plant material, if any, should be retained? Should the topography be altered and if so, how? The designer may then translate the judgments into an analytical diagram which shows where needs exist and where various desired elements might go. For instance, such a diagram might show where an offsite view needs to be screened or where one should be used to advantage. IV. Preliminary Design Concepts This stage includes the creation of preliminary design concepts: The designer creates a functional diagram which organizes the site by linking uses that are compatible with each other while separating those that are not. This diagram creates the structure for the design. The designer, on trace paper, creates two or three possible concepts which are based on different proportions, arrangements of elements including circulation patterns and bed lines. These concepts may be supplemented with elevation sketches so that the client bettter perceives the designer's intent. Feedback from the client at this stage is crucial. V. Preliminary Design The creation of a preliminary design is next: Using the feedback from the client, the designer chooses one of the concepts or incorporates parts of more than one to create the final concept. The designer then creates the design and incorporates the grading concepts, the preliminary planting plan and the placement of hardscaping elements. VI. Final Plan The creation of the final plan includes: The designer meets with the client to review the preliminary design. If approved, the designer then turns the preliminary design into final copy. The final copy of the plan should include a plant chart which denominates the botanical and common name of each plant, the quantity, and if the plan is going out for bid, the desired installation size. The chart could also show the mature size of the plant material, bloom time, bloom color and maintenance comments. After     Before We gave this customer basic service with hedge trimming. We cut the grass at the right height.This lawn needed some major help, scary! The grass was full of broad leaf weeds and crab grass and nomes, just kidding.The combination of Bermuda and St. Augustine are a common thing in Texas. Bermuda loves the Sun where St. Augustine likes the shade. There are also different types of Bermuda: Common, Tex Turf 10, and Tif 419. There are basically two types of St. Augustine: Raleigh and Palmetto. After     Before This lawn needed some major help. Like many lawns we come across, the crab grass and weeds have taken over. Having a seasonal fertilizer plan is wise. Call us for an appointment. After     Before After     Before At this commercial account, we professionally pruned trees all around the property. The total amount of trees was about 40 in all. We also made sure that we followed city ordnances when trimming on the street side. The property manager also received a 20% discount for being a customer for our landscaping and lawn care services, and for hiring us to prune the trees on the rest of his properties in the Metroplex. We are also insured for your safety. We follow all safety procedures when it comes to pruning trees. Trees can be dangerous, that’s why it is important you hire a professional like Lawnborne to handle all your tree work, be it residential or commercial. Just fill out the request form on the home page. Pruning is one of the most important cultural practices for maintaining woody plants, including ornamental trees and shrubs, fruits and nuts. It involves both art and science: art in making the pruning cuts properly, and science in knowing how and when to prune for maximum benefits. There are numerous reasons for pruning. Sometimes you want to train or direct the growth of plants into a particular form or a specified space, like a formal hedge. Or you may want to prune mature plants to control their size and shape, as in the case of fruit trees that are pruned low to the ground to aid picking or hedge plants pruned at a particular height. For fruiting plants, pruning plays an important role in improving overall fruit quality, primarily by increasing light penetration into the tree. Unfortunately, many people approach pruning with a great deal of apprehension. Others view pruning as a chore and give little forethought to technique as they hastily do the job. Proper pruning requires a basic understanding of how plants respond to various pruning cuts. The principles and guidelines in this publication will help you master common pruning techniques. - Figure 1. Current season's growth. Figure 1a. Close-up of a node. You can partly determine the characteristic shape and size of a woody plant and its response to pruning by the plant's natural pattern of shoot growth. When a seed germinates and grows, only one growing point exists, the apex or terminal bud (Fig. 1). When a terminal bud begins growing after being dormant, it leaves a bud scale scar on the branch. You can use the scars to determine the age of a limb or tree by counting the scars. As the new shoot elongates, structures called nodes are formed. A node is the area on the shoot where a leaf is attached (Fig. 1a). One to three lateral buds are produced at each of these nodes. Growth of lateral buds is directed by the terminal bud, which produces a hormone called auxin. Auxin moves downward in the shoot (toward the Earth's center) from the shoot apex and inhibits the growth and development of lateral buds (Fig. 2). This phenomenon is called apical dominance. The intensity of apical dominance varies from one plant species to another. Some plants suppress the growth of their lateral buds until the second growing season; others develop both lateral shoots and terminal buds during the first growing season. Apical dominance influences not only the number of shoot-forming lateral buds and the lengths of lateral shoots formed but also the angle at which the shoots emerge from the main limb. The orientation of a limb or shoot along the main branch has a major influence on growth by its effect on apical dominance (Fig. 3). Because auxin moves downward in the shoot toward the Earth's center, apical dominance is strongest in vertical or upright shoots or limbs. In vertical limbs, vigorous shoot growth occurs near the terminal bud with lateral shoots becoming more sparse with increasing distance from the apex. On the other hand, orientation of lateral branches at 45° to 60° angles from the vertical or main shoot reduces the vigor of shoot growth near the apex and increases the number and length of laterals along the limb further from the apex. On horizontal limbs, apical dominance is totally lost. Without apical dominance to control their growth, lateral buds on the upper side of horizontal limbs develop into vigorous, upright shoots, called water sprouts. As they develop, water sprouts show very strong apical dominance. Water sprouts are a common problem on the upper surface of flat limbs in fruit trees and are removed by pruning.Pruning also reduces the size of the above-ground portion of the plant in relation to the root system (Fig. 5). As a result, the undisturbed root system services a smaller number of shoots and buds. The relative uptake of water and nutrients by the remaining shoots and buds increases, and a flush of growth (regrowth) occurs. Generally, the more severe the pruning (greater size or number of limbs removed), the greater the resulting regrowth. In essence, the plant is regrowing in an attempt to restore a balance between the top and the root system. Pruning generally stimulates regrowth near the cut (Fig. 6). Vigorous shoot growth will usually occur within 6 to 8 inches of the pruning cut. This is particularly true for vertical limbs that have been pruned (Fig. 6a). However, regrowth on limbs having a 45° to 60° angle from the vertical will develop farther away from the cut (Fig. 6b).Heading removes the terminal portion of shoots or limbs (Fig. 7). By removing apical dominance, heading stimulates regrowth near the cut. It also is the most invigorating type of pruning cut, resulting in thick compact growth and a loss of natural form, as in the case of a formally pruned hedge. Sometimes ornamental shrubs along a foundation overgrow their planting space and are rejuvenated by heading to within 12 inches of ground level. Many broadleaf shrubs such as burford holly, ligustrum, abelia and crape myrtle tolerate this type of pruning. Other types of heading are topping, dehorning, hedging and clipping. Thinning, on the other hand, removes an entire shoot or limb to its point of origin from the main branch or lateral (Fig. 7a). Some shoot tips are left undistributed, so apical dominance is maintained. As a result, new growth occurs at the undisturbed shoot tips while lateral bud development and regrowth is suppressed. Thinning is generally the least invigorating type of pruning cut and provides a more natural growth form of plants. Important in maintenance pruning, thinning cuts are used to shorten limbs, to improve light penetration into plants and to direct the growth of shoots or limbs. Drop-crotching, a form of thinning used to reduce the size of large trees, involves the removal of a main branch (or leader) by cutting it back to a large, lateral branch (Fig. 8a). The cut through the main branch is made parallel to the angle of the remaining lateral. When removing large tree limbs, a series of three cuts are recommended in order to avoid tearing the bark along the main truck and severely wounding the tree (Fig. 8b). One undesirable form of thinning is the bench cut, where a vigorous upright limb is thinned to horizontal limb (Fig. 9). Time of pruning varies with plant species. Prune at times that best complement the growth characteristics, flowering, and other objectives you desire. Many woody ornamentals are pruned according to their date of flowering. For example, spring-flowering plants, such as dogwood or forsythia, normally are pruned after they bloom. Pruning spring-flowering shrubs during the dormant season will remove flower buds formed the previous fall. Summer-flowering plants generally are pruned during the dormant winter season. If plants are not grown for their flowers, the best time for pruning is during the dormant winter season before new growth begins in the spring. Avoid heavy pruning during the late summer and fall because regrowth may occur and make the plants more susceptible to cold injury. Peach trees, for example, should not be pruned from October through January. Some plants bleed heavily after pruning. Bleeding is unsightly but not usually harmful. Trees subject to bleeding should be pruned in the late spring or early summer when leaves are on the tree. Actively growing leaves tend to reduce the amount of bleeding from pruning cuts and allow the cuts to heal more quickly. Plants that bleed readily include willows, birches, maples, beeches and dogwoods. Pruning is an invigorating process, stimulating regrowth in proportion to pruning severity. Light annual pruning is better than periodical severe pruning. The two basic types of pruning cuts are heading and thinning. Thinning cuts are the least invigorating type of cut and are the most effective pruning cut for maintaining woody plants in their natural form. Pruning, particularly heading cuts, stimulates regrowth very close to the pruning cut. Heading cuts, such as topping, dehorning and hedging, often are misused and destroy the natural shape of plants because they stimulate regrowth near pruning cuts. Bench cuts, pruning upright limbs back to flat limbs, result in vigorous regrowth and weak limbs. Instead, thin out limbs leaving those oriented at a 45° to 60° angle from vertical. Pruning time should be dictated by specific requirements or characteristics of the plant such as flowering date, susceptibility to cold weather, etc. Wounds heal fastest when pruning does not disturb important areas of cambium such as the bark ridge and branch collar. Wound dressing is cosmetic and does not promote healing. All too often, improper pruning techniques seriously damage or kill woody plants. If you wish to have woody plants properly maintained, personally supervise or conduct the pruning operation. After     Before Keeping your trees trimmed and pruned can make your property look better, safer and cleaner. Well trimmed trees gives your property that pristine manicured look that will attract more customers. After     Before The tree business is no joke and is not for the average person. Trimming a small tree can be dangerous. When there are power lines and traffic involved, tree trimming is better left to Lawnborne to get the job done. No matter if you’re a home owner or property manager, Lawnborne can trim and prune your trees in a timely manner at a professional level. For your protection, we are insured. After     Before Lawnborne can also service your palm trees or other special landscape plants such as dessert plants like cactus and yucca. We can also maintain your property whether you own a home, business, apartment complex, just as long as there is something growing, Lawnborne is there! After     Before It's not only what you do to your lawn, but when you do it. The first day of Spring is August 15th. What you do in the fall will affect your lawn, since that's when plants go through their major growth spurt. Killing WeedsAutumn is the best time to kill weeds, just as the weather starts to cool down. Weeds grow best during bright, sunny days between 1:PM and 3:PM. In order to get the maximum benefit from your weed killer, spray a weak solution of children's shampoo on the lawn. Believe it or not, this washes the grime off the yard allowing your grass to make better use of sunlight while at the same time making the weeds more receptive to weed killer. In a garden store, soil softener is called ammonium lauryl sulfate, however children's shampoo or even dish soap will do the job just fine. Use a hose sprayer that emits 1 tablespoon per gallon of water. You can use regular or liquid weed killer with your sprayer; put in enough for about 5 gallons of water (you'll have to read your weed killer instructions) and mix with it a tablespoon of shampoo or soap with the weed killer, and apply. Spray just the weeds, not the whole yard. Weed killer retards plant growth. Additionally, you may want to use separate sprayers so you don't accidently feed your weeds and kill your yard. Shake the sprayer periodically, keeping the solution mixed well as you spray. Spot Treatments You can make a potent weed killer yourself for use in spray bottles. Mix a quart of warm water with an ounce of children shampoo, an ounce of vinegar, and a capful of gin. Put the sprayer on stream, not mist. This salty, soapy water will clean and stick to weeds and dry them out; the gin will also help kill the weeds. Feeding the Lawn The secret formula is to mix your dry fertilizer with a four pounds of Epsom salts (which make the lawn green) and a pound of confectioners sugar (which gives the plants energy). Plants need sugar and starch, typically they produce their own via photosynthesis, however you've just provided the materials without the work. Use a rotary spreader set to half your fertilizer's recommended settings. Spread before noon in both the fall and spring. Watering the LawnThe secret formula for watering is a can of beer (which helps the thatch compost faster into better soil), a cup children's shampoo (to break water surface tension and wash away dust), half a cup of molasses (more sugars) disolved in half a cup of warm water (so it isn't thick), and top off with household ammonia (for nitrogen). Note, pouring beer into soap will make lots of bubbles. Do this over the lawn. Spray this liquid on your lawn every three weeks, you should also spray it directly over your fall and spring fertilizer session. Warning: your lawn will get slippery. Mowing Using a sharp blade is the trick, you want to cut the grass, not tear it. Mow after 7:PM so the grass can heal without the scortching sun. Failure to do so will increase the chances of the top of the grass from turning yellow or brown. Sharpen your mower's blades after every two sessions. Trim close around driveways and sidewalks. Bugs love to make homes under overhanging plants. Save Your Grass Clippings Grass clippings can be used in your garden around your vegtables and between plants. They hold in moisture and heat, while also keeping weeds at bay. Grass clippings can also be used for composting. WateringIf you can step on your lawn and the grass doesn't bounce back up, it needs watering.Water between 4:30AM and noon. Water for 45 minutes, if you've used the shampoo mixtures the water should seep right into the soil for the plants to use. The deeper the water goes, the better the plant roots. Aerate the Yard Use shoes with sharp kleets; by poking holes in your yard you let air and moisture get in, while loosing the soil. You can rent aerating machines which pull up plugs of earth. These holes fill in with silt and loose earth during rain storms and do a great job at retaining moisture. Clay Soil Many new homes are built in areas where the good topsoil has been stripped away and sold. The soil needs to be replaced for a good lawn. Cow manure / comprow spread every few months helps out. The trick is not to over do too much too soon and choke new grass that forms. Pest Control The secret formula is one third of a hunk of fatty lye soap shaved and disolved into a quart of boiling water. Mix with four ounces of flea and tick shampoo. Take a hand-sized pinch of chewing tobacco and boil it in another quart of water; filter out the leaves (you're making tea). When done mix equal parts of: the lye-shampoo, the tobacco tea, and antieptic mouthwash. Spray this stuff on your lawn with a setting of one tablespoon per gallon. The solution kills disease, makes the insects sick, and poisons them. After     Before Sod is a mature plant. Sod provides users with a mature, nurtured and developed plant. "It takes us a year or more to grow our seed into the lush, green carpeting that you'll see immediately upon installation." Sod prevents the "mud factor." Customers with children or pets especially benefit from installing sod. "Sod is the easy solution to minimizing tracked in mud to your house." Sod stops washouts. Washouts make for a bumpy lawn surface if the dirt is not smoothed out again. "Not only are you creat­ing more work for yourself in the long run, but you are also setting yourself up for mow­ing and maintaining a bumpy lawn." Sod saves time. Because sod is a mature plant, it needs little attention until it is a root­ed, perfectly matured plant. Two to four weeks is the common amount of time needed for rooting. Sod saves frustration. Take the idea of growing one stand of grass: producers face weather as the biggest challenge. There are other considerations in growing a good lawn, too, such as fertilizer and mowing height. Producers offer the advantage of years of experience in grass growing, which saves con­tractors and the end- user a bucketful of potential mistakes. Sod saves money. Expenses for water, herbicides, insecticides and fertilizer-all the grass-growing aids-are always a factor. "Allowing professionals to take care of these initial applications will save you a fortune." Sod looks better. These good looks are in the genes. "Want to win the best lawn award? To do this, you must start with plants that are composed of exceptional genes." Sod avoids herbicides (in many cases). Popular support of environmental conserva­tion includes using a minimal amount of her­bicides, fungicides and other chemicals. Sod is easy to grow. This is especially true for poor soils. If beginning a lawn with seed, top quality soils are needed to start the plants off right. "Fertilizer and water management become critical when you start from seed on poor soils. It takes more fertilizations to start seed: Sod is instant. "No hassle. No nurturing. No wait. Sod is an instant lawn of lush, green turf." WATERING Your lawn should be watered immediately to moisten the soil and the sod. Water thoroughly, providing about an inch of water over the entire lawn. The sod will require consistent moisture for the next 7-10 days to ensure good, even root development. Water the lawn to keep the sod moist at least twice daily; 15-30 minutes maybe sufficient. Visually inspect daily for any browning. Once the sod has begun to "knit" to the soil surface, gradually increase the duration and decrease the frequency of your waterings until you are watering once a week for 45 minutes to an hour (long enough to provide one inch of water). This schedule can be adjusted by homeowner for the weather, of course, with more frequent applications during the early stages if we experience hot, dry, or windy weather. Less water is needed during periods of rainy or cold weather.Watering is best done during the overnight hours. The hours between 10:30pm and 2:00am are best. This limits the amount of time the grass blades are wet, thus reducing the threat of disease establishment. Do not water from 6:00am through the remainder of the day. Watering during the heat of the day will not damage the grass, but too much of the water is wasted through evaporation loss before the grass ever has a chance to use it. Sod is a very perishable commodity. It can dry out very quickly in sunny, windy weather. Until the roots have grown down into the soil, it is critical that the sod not dry out. As long as this doesn't happen, your results should be excellent.Your new lawn should be fertilized with a slow- release fertilizer 3-4 times per year. The most important application is in early September. A second application in November is the next most important. Sometimes an additional application in October is made for even higher quality turf. If this application is made, the November application is bumped to December. Just remember the "SOD" rule: September, October, and December. Spring fertilization is not recommended. This has been shown to enhance fungal disease activity during the Summer months. Besides, the largest portion of the energy is directed into top growth. This just translates into more frequent mowing. Who needs that?!Mow your lawn as soon as the new sod is well rooted enough to permit the mower traffic without damage (at least a week). Never cut more than 1/3 of total height of grass. Allowing the new grass to become too tall is detrimental and can result in loss of some of the new stand. Always set the mower at 3 inches or above and mow frequently enough that you never remove more than one inch at a time. Do not use riding lawn mower for 45 days after sod is laid. Keep mower blades sharp for the cleanest, safest cut. Lawns cut with dull blades loose moisture more rapidly, are more subject to disease, and take on a lighter, almost grayish cast. This comes from the shredded ends of the grass blades drying out and turning a pale brown in the sun. After     Before Sod or turf is grass and the part of the soil beneath it held together by the roots, or a piece of this material. The term sod may be used to mean turf grown and cut specifically for the establishment of lawns. However, in British English such material is more usually known as turf, and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricultural senses (for example for turf when ploughed), or avoided altogether, due to the alternative offensive meaning of the word "sod". Sod (or turf) for lawns is grown on specialist farms. Most is grown locally to avoid long transport and drying out of the product. It is sold to landscapers, home builders or home owners who use it to establish a lawn quickly and avoid soil erosion. The farms that produce this grass may have many varieties of grass grown in one location to best suit the consumer's use and preference of appearance. It is usually harvested a year after planting. On the farm it undergoes fertilization, frequent watering, frequent mowing and subsequent vacuuming to remove the clippings. It is harvested using specialized equipment, precision cut to standardized sizes. Sod is typically harvested in small square slabs, rolled small rectangles, or large 4-foot wide rolls. Some large sod farms may export internationally. Because of the product's short life after harvest, the sod may be washed clean of the soil down to the bare roots, or sprigs. It makes shipping lighter and cheaper, and avoids some of the loss of soil caused by constant removal of the top layers. Sod can be used to repair a small area of lawn that has died.Seed may be blown about by the wind, eaten by birds, or fail due to drought. It takes some weeks to form a visually appealing lawn, and further time before it is robust enough for use.Turf largely avoids these problems, and with proper care, newly laid sod is usually fully functional within 30 days of installation and its root system is comparable to that of a seeding lawn two or three years older.[2]Turf is however more expensive[3], and requires considerably more water for its establishment.Different types of sod will have different pricing. The availability of sod grasses is generally dependent on where the lawn is located climate-wise. For the United States, landscapers in the northern states will generally sod a lawn with either Kentucky bluegrass[clarify] or tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea)[citation needed]. Kentucky bluegrass has a nice deep green color to it, while tall fescue though not as deep green is excellent for areas that receive medium to heavy traffic since it can resist a lot of abuse. The best, some claim, is a compromise between the two, namely, a grass mixture. Mixtures are also preferred for another reason: disease. "Most [grass] diseases will only strike one type of grass, so the damage will probably be limited [when the lawn was built based on a grass mixture]." [4] Mixed grass sod is sold containing a percentage of Kentucky bluegrass, tall fescue, and/or ryegrass to fill this need.Application Techniques Before applying sod it will be necessary to decide how to prepare the area to be sodded. At least four different schools of thought exist in this area, and installers - whether homeowners or landscapers - swear by their chosen method while being quick to point out the weaknesses and caveats of the other techniques. Sod-cutter technique In this method (also know as the shave-off technique), shovels, hoes, or similar tools, or a machine called a sod-cutter are used to "shave off" the surface of the existing lawn, which is then carted away. Once the grass has been removed, the surface is usually roto-tilled (rotovated) so as to loosen the ground somewhat. If the exposed soil is not of high quality, a layer or two of topsoil may be applied prior to the installation of the sod. The soil is then nicely graded and the sod is installed on top of it. A disadvantage of this technique is that live roots of old grass and weeds may be left over that could make its way to the surface, damaging the new sod-based lawn[5]. Tilling technique Using this method the existing lawn is first tilled (rotovated) thoroughly before the sod is applied[6] There are two variations of the tiller technique. In the first variation, called the tiller-to-the-grass technique, only the top grass is tilled off and the tilled grass is hauled away leaving just soil on which to apply the sod – no grass remains. The remaining soil may be retilled. This creates a smooth and loose bed on which to install the sod. Some landscapers prefer this smooth and loose bed. In the second variation, called the till-it-all technique, existing grass as well as the soil underneath holding the grass are tilled together. The old grass is in effect mixed in with the existing soil creating the surface on which the sod will be installed. Some landscapers prefer this method because it creates the bed on which the sod is installed upfront and without further effort. Some prefer not to use a tiller to prepare the area to be sodded. They claim that if a neighbor or children were to walk over the newly established sod in the first few days after the installation, the turf would become uneven. The claim is that the soil underneath is still very loose. Herbicide application This technique involves the application of a herbicide to the existing lawn prior to applying the sod. The chemical kills the existing lawn thoroughly within seven to ten days. The landscaper then simply rakes off the dead grass and disposes of it, leaving nothing but plain soil in the area to be sodded. If the soil left behind is not of high quality, a layer or two of top soil may be applied prior to the installation of the sod. The soil is then nicely graded and the sod is installed on top of it[7]. Application over the existing lawn With this technique, sod is simply installed over the existing lawn. Since the existing grass is blocked from receiving sunlight, it starts to die within a few days. Sod can be applied over an existing lawn without much concern about the existing grass underneath – it decomposes and becomes fertilizer for the new sod on top of it. This type of sod installation generally costs significantly less than others, since there is no need to haul away the old lawn. When applying over existing lawn it is prefered, though by no means necessary, to removed a strip about four inches wide by two inches deep of the existing lawn beside the edges of sidewalks and other hardscape structures, to reduce the level of the new lawn somewhat at these points, thus concealing the edges of the newly laid turf. Some don't like this technique out of concern that any weeds that existed in the previous lawn may remain to affect the new lawn. Also some fear that the existing lawn will need to be aerated so the roots of the sod will have somewhere to "catch" on to. However, the technique is used with equally successful results, or better, as the other three sod application methods. Post Installation Care Fertilizer Immediately after sod has been applied, it is important to fertilize it so as to give it a good, robust start. When applying sod, application of starter fertilizer with a 1-1-1 ratio of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium may be recommended.[citation needed] The Phosphorus will assist with root development which is important for the successful establishment of sod. Lightly raking the fertilizer into the soil will help minimize the fertilizer from coming in contact directly with the roots and causing possible root burning. When applying sod to slopes, it is best to lay the sod perpendicular to the direction of the slope. This will help prevent rain water from washing out the sod. Sod staples may be applied to hold the sod in place. Freshly-installed sod will need regular watering (without over-watering) to encourage the roots to "look" for water on their own and grow into the soil. Lime and grub killer For best long-term results, it is important to test the pH of the soil and to apply limestone powder (to the installed sod) if the soil is acidic. Most lawn grasses thrive in 6.0-7.0 pH soil.[8] Root-eating insect larvae may infest the newly-installed turf, and if this happens they can kill the lawn in a week or two. Insecticide may be used to prevent this happening. Watering Except in wet weather, newly installed sod will require two waterings per day, for at least three months, and so this technique for lawn establishment is both expensive and wasteful of water. If not watered regularly before the grass has rooted into the soil beneath the turf, the turf may die, either at the edges, in patches, or overall. Constant care and inspection is required during the first year after installation. First mowing of freshly installed sodAt the beginning of a prestigious building project there is often a ceremonial occasion attended by local dignitaries. A senior dignitary is often given the honour of Cutting the first sod, marking the official beginning of the project.As a Building MaterialA sod house, 1901Sod has occasionally been cut out in blocks to use as a building material, especially in grasslands where grass is plentiful and few other materials are available. For use as a building material, sods are cut out in regular block shapes and laid like brickwork, although for strength blocks of sod are usually much longer and wider than typical bricks. This construction was common during nineteenth century settlements of the Canadian and American prairies. Common dimensions of sod blocks used in these pioneer abodes were 2 ft by 1 ft by 6 in (600 × 300 × 150 mm). Cutting sods for building may be done with a spade and axe, but for large scale work a modified plough is used. The bare sod is prone to damage from rain or being knocked down, so the outer walls are usually protected with a layer of stucco or wood paneling. Similarly, bare sod inside is dirty, so the interior may be lined with canvas, tarpaper, or plaster. A variety of roofing methods can be used, and the house can be fitted with conventional windows and doors. Sod houses have the advantages of being very cheap, and well insulated, so that they are cool in summer and warm in winter. The main disadvantages are that they tend to be damp, and deteriorate quickly unless maintained. Sod has also been used in fortification. Blockhouses have been constructed from sod, and it has also been used to make very effective berms or low defensive walls. The Roman-built Antonine Wall in Scotland was largely made from sod.Because of its cheapness and availability, sod walls could easily be made thick enough to be bulletproof. After     Before Powered by: ClassifiedFlyerAds.com After