I’ve been to a variety of parties over the years, spanning many themes and genres. But I have to admit, I’ve never been to a sod-laying party before.
I gotta say, it wasn’t half bad.
Kyla, Alex’s friend and co-worker, bought an attached home deep in Calgary’s south a little over a year ago. Like many new homes in Calgary, it had a wonderful yard of dirt for quite some time before the sod could be delivered. (I find it mildly ironic that a vast field of wild grasses was torn up, only to be replaced with vast parceled fields of slightly tamed grass.)
Fortunately for us, Kyla and her brother had done a lot of the prep work already for us, making the job considerably easier. The yard needed to be graded and flattened before putting the grass down, lest the yard fill the space under the green carpet full of lumps and divots. That’s hard work, and I’m thankful I didn’t have to do it.
They also put down a wonderfully straight line of concrete pads from the back door to the garage, giving us a perfect edge to line the sod mats against and ensure that they worked properly across the yard.
There were a few of us: Kyla, her parents, a friend of hers, Tammy, Alex, and myself. (Alex couldn’t lay sod, but I think I made up for it.) Colette also came towards the end, and helped with rolling and initial spraying. (Which saved me from dragging the roller around and getting wet.)
We were more or less done in about two hours. Which left lots of time for a barbecue. Now that’s a party!
Given that I’d never laid sod before, I have to say that it’s not really all that hard. Heavy and dirty, yes, but not really hard. Provided that the prep work is done first, that is. And that you don’t have a lot of stuff to cut around. But that’s not too hard to deal with, either.
