Does pieces of grass sod work ok, or do we have to buy enough sod to cover the entire area for a lawn?

Question

This new home that we have rented has a large area in front of the house that had nothing but sand and many fruit trees (sapota and date palms). We live in the middle east - sweltering hot in the summer and spring like conditions for the 6 months of winter.. We found a gardener said he would lay plugs or pieces of grass sod instead of the expensive way of doing it with long strips of sod touching end to end to cover the entire space. It now looks like a grid the way he has placed the pieces. We water well for 10 mins twice a day. Will grass start growing in the open gaps between the sod?

Answer 1

the pieces will be ok, they will grow into the open gaps

Answer 2

Your gardener is probably refering to zoyzia grass plugs, and while somw people do prefer this type of grass there a lot of us that still like the old types like Kentucky blue grass. Zoyzia takes a few years to fill in and during it's dorment phase it turns lite brown in color wheras bluegrass remains green all year long. Zoyzia is also more difficult to mow because it comes in very thick. I'm not even sure if a convential mower would cut it properly.

Some people that I know have told me that with Zoyzia they had to purchase a reel type mower and that those mowers cost quite a bit more than the blade type mowers.

I would suggest that before you make any decisions you should do a web search to find out what type of grass would do best in your area, and with your type of soil. You might find out that the best and cheapest way would be to sow it yourself with the right blend of grass seed using an inexpensive seeder from your local home center.

Answer 3

Some grass varieties like centipede do spread faster and can be set in plugs. Of coarse it'll take a couple years to completely fill in  to a full lush lawn and will cut the cost a lot but the neighbors may see it as being cheap by not laying full ground cover especially in the front side of the house.