Sod for the ditch

9 years ago

We moved in to this house about 20 miles east of Raleigh about three years ago, and while I don't have good grass on the bank it is at least green.

The ditch at the base of the bank is lined with 6" to 10" rocks. The ditch drops about 8 feet in the 100 feet. The rocks are about 4 to 5 feet wide for the length.

In the time I have lived here there have been several times when the water coming down from the ditch, has be 9 feet wide covering the stones. Since it drains good in the periods between the rains the ditch is dry.

Until now I have used the string trimmer to keep the "grass" in the stones respectable

Over the next couple years I would like to replace the rocks with sod. The plan is that each year I would remove the stones in the flatter areas and replace them with sod. Eventually the stones would be gone and the ditch would be all sod.

That is the plan, what are my chances that it will work?

Comment (1)

morpheuspa (6B/7A, E. PA)
9 years ago
If you keep it damp and tack the sod down so rainfall (and flooding) doesn't dislodge it, your chances are good to excellent. Plus lay the strips perpendicular to the way the water runs to avoid ruts.

Tacks can be as simple as metal hangers cut apart to remove the hanger bit, cut at the middle of the base, and tack. I'd use a fair number of them, but wire hangers are cheap and they'll eventually rust away to nothing--well after the sod has rooted.

I'd probably try to time this for periods when flooding is unlikely, but sod will root. Sod can be placed any time between when the soil warms in spring and up to six weeks before it freezes in fall, so you've got a wide window (you'll need to water more often and deeper in summer due to the heat, however, and some burning is expected during summer on fresh sod).
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