How to Lay Sod When It Is Muddy

Put on a pair of knee-high mud boots that fit tightly on your feet. The suction of the mud will pull them off if they are too loose. Put on a pair of rubber gloves and eye goggles. The rubber gloves will keep your hands from wrinkling up and the eye goggles will protect your eyes from splashing mud.

Level the muddy soil with a landscaping rake in the left-hand corner where you will lay the first piece of sod. The corner should be the furthest from where you will lay the last piece of sod.

Lay the first piece of sod in this corner as straight and as square as possible. Pat the grass side with the backside of the landscaping rake to get out all the winkles and level it flush with the soil beneath.

Lay the next piece of sod just to the right of the first piece in the same fashion. Continue laying sod in that row from left to right. Don't worry if muddy water splashes or seeps up between the edges where the sod butts together; this will sink back into the turf after a few weeks with watering.

Walk back to the corner where the first piece of sod was laid. Begin a new row by leveling the muddy soil with the rake just below the first row. Fill in the holes where you were standing when you laid the first piece of sod. Move the rake tines back and forth over the surface from front to back.

Lay the new piece of sod down square on the ground allowing the back edge to overlap the previously laid sod row by 2 inches. Pull the sod toward you until the back edge falls off the sod and into place. Push it to butt the two edges together. Remove the wrinkles by pulling on the left and right edges and by using the backside of the rake. Continue this process until the sod is laid.

Allow the soil and sod to dry out until it is firm enough to walk on, then roll the area using a sod roller. Roll over the sod to ensure proper ground contact and to blend the seams.