Hydroseeding

(Brendan)

Though it wasn't in the construction budget to get sod installed, after living in our new home for even a few days it was clear we were going to need to get some sort of lawn in this year. Almost every night is "bath night" here at the Koop household, because when you have a big dirt pile for a yard and the kids need to play outside, a nightly bath is just something you have to live with. So what to do? Sod was too expensive for us (despite the fact that practically half of Ham Lake is made up of sod farms due to the good soil conditions), and I knew from past experience that hand seeding with a push spreader was not going to be reliable enough to be worth it. In the end, the best compromise was to have our yard area hydroseeded. 

Hydroseeding involves a multi-step application process consisting of machine raking the soil, seeding, applying a fertilizer, and covering with a mulch mixed with a "tackifier" that helps keep the seed moisturized and protects the seed from wind or other disturbances. Hydroseeding is generally 50-80% less money than sod (and my pricing confirmed that), and yet, if done properly and with regular watering during growing, can produce results similar to sod. Typically it's about 4 weeks to the first mowing.

I was able to get bids from three different hydroseeding companies and select one that had a middle of the road price and a great track record and who was also willing to spread a layer of black dirt around for free (provided we get some black dirt trucked in). Here's a video of the company who did our hydroseeding (Hydroseeding Creations) showing their process...

And here's a gallery of their before and after results for tons of projects. One example...

We were able to get them out here to seed our lawn yesterday, just before rain started (and hasn't stopped for 24 hours). Looks like everything has stayed in place despite the rain and we won't have to water for a while! I'll post some exterior pics as soon as it's dry enough to take a few.