Well to start make sure you keep the sod good and wet for the first couple of weeks until the roots set. After the roots set start weening it off of water.

Did you apply a starter fertilizer? If not get some down.

I have no experience with TifGrand, but have read a lot about it in trade magazines, and heard from home owners who have used it and it appears TifGrand does not live up to its shade tolerance claims of 60%. So do not be surprised if you see thinning in the shaded areas as the season progresses.

3 hours of sun on Bermuda is considered shade.

3 hours would be considered deep shade for Bermuda and the Bermuda will die off, even TifGrand or Celebration. Not even Saint Augustine can survive with only 3 hours of direct sunlight.

thanks for the feedback! the sod went in a couple days ago and I have been watering each evening.

I can increase the amount of direct sunlight slightly by lopping off some of the lower limbs. I will probably do that this winter.

here is another pic with the area that gets more shade.

Here's what my TG looks like one year after planting. This area gets roughly 5 hours of sun and is irrigated.

So it has been about a year since the TifGrand went in. I had pretty bad shade decline in one area and ended up taking down a near by tree to solve that issue.

All in all the grass has held up really well in areas that receive 5.5+ hours of sun (including afternoon sun). Areas that receive less than that really are not strong and thinned out.

The grass seems to be a much deeper green than 419 but maybe that is just a local observation comparing my lawn to my neighbors'.

Also the areas in full sun greened up much faster than those in the shad. There was about a 3 week delay from when the first patch of grass greened up in the spring until the entire lawn was green.

All in all I am happy with it and will continue sodding my side yard with it this year.

Thanks for everyone's comments.