Field Gallery · Hartford, VT (Quechee)

9,000 Sq Ft of Tall Fescue Sod — Mud to Green in One Day

We spent June 23rd — one of the longest days of the year — on a hillside in Hartford, Vermont, in the village of Quechee. Overnight rain turned the site to mud before sunrise; by golden hour the whole slope was a finished tall fescue lawn. Here is the complete set, on the ground and from the air.

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The Morning — A Site in the Mud

8:30 a.m. on the longest day of the year. The graded pad and the yard around it had taken on heavy rain overnight, so we put our own machines to work bringing the grade back before the sod went down.

Aerial view of the CT Sod crew laying tall fescue sod beside a modern home on a rain-soaked site in Hartford, VT, with pallets and graded gravel staged — Laying the first rolls beside the home while the pad is still rain-soaked.

Drone view at 8:30 a.m. of a CT Sod worker raking the rain-soaked Quechee pad smooth, with fresh tall fescue pallets staged under the home's covered porch — Raking the saturated bed smooth at first light, pallets staged under the porch.

Aerial view of the muddy, rain-soaked sod site in Hartford, VT with an excavator parked in the churned ground — The graded pad churned to mud after a night of heavy rain.

Early-morning aerial over the modern home's black standing-seam roof, the surrounding yard churned to mud and tracked with equipment ruts before sod — From above — equipment ruts cut straight through the wet yard.

Ground-level view of deep mud and ruts on the Hartford, VT site with a compact skid steer working the saturated ground — On the ground, every step sank three to four inches.

A CT Sod crew member trudging across the deep, churned mud in soaked work boots while the crew rakes the saturated ground smooth by hand, fresh tall fescue rolls and a green sod edge waiting at the side in Hartford, VT (Quechee) — Boots sunk in the mud, raking the saturated bed smooth by hand.

Fresh-cut tall fescue rolls stacked on the delivery trailer at the muddy edge of the Hartford, VT hillside, waiting for the bed to firm up — Fresh-cut tall fescue staged on the trailer, waiting for the bed.

A compact excavator and red skid steer parked on the soupy access drive, the morning's rain still standing in the ruts on the Quechee site — Machines parked on the soupy access drive, rain still standing in the ruts.

The Hartford, VT job site — a modern home with an equipment trailer parked on the rain-churned, muddy yard awaiting sod — The trailer parked on the rain-churned yard, ready to go.

Compact excavator and skid steer regrading the muddy ground in front of the home before sod goes down in Hartford, VT — Regrading the washed-out surface before any sod goes down.

Mini excavator and skid steer re-firming the saturated grade in front of the home, working the washed-out ground back to something we can lay sod on — Working the saturated grade back to something we can lay on.

CT Sod crew laying fresh tall fescue sod straight over the mud beside the modern black home in Hartford, VT (Quechee), green rolls already blanketing one half of the slope while a crew member rakes the bare, churned ground on the other — Fresh tall fescue going down straight over the mud, half the slope already green.

A Wacker Neuson stand-on track loader carrying fresh-cut tall fescue rolls across the yard while the CT Sod crew lays them along the modern black home in Hartford, VT (Quechee) — The track loader shuttling fresh rolls across the yard to the crew.

On Video — Mud, Machines & Laying In

Three clips from the thick of it — a drone pass over the muddy site, a walk across the ground before sod, and the tall fescue going down along the side yard.

Drone over the muddy site at 8:30 a.m.

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Walking the mud before any sod goes down.

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Every step sinking — walking the rain-soaked site at 8:30 a.m.

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Laying fresh tall fescue along the side yard.

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Green by Golden Hour

By the end of the day all 9,000 square feet were laid, seamed tight, and rolled in — from the deck and foundation up by the house out to the Vermont tree line, finished in the long evening light.

Finished tall fescue sod blanketing the hillside beside the modern home in Hartford, VT (Quechee), with a CT Sod crew member detailing the edge — The hillside carpeted green, edge detailed by hand.

A CT Sod crew member detailing the edge of the finished tall fescue slope, the new lawn carpeting the hillside green by mid-afternoon — Final edge work on the finished slope.

Newly laid tall fescue running tight along the side of the modern black home, seams knitted and edges cut clean to the foundation — Seams knitted tight along the side of the home.

Finished tall fescue lawn beside the home's black outbuilding and a stacked-stone retaining wall, the green slope falling away toward the Vermont woods — New lawn beside the stacked-stone wall and outbuilding.

Lush finished tall fescue sod lawn running alongside the modern home's elevated deck in Hartford, VT, with the crew wrapping up — Fresh sod running clean to the deck and foundation.

Wide afternoon view of the completed lawn meeting the new gravel driveway, a CT Sod truck parked where the mud had been hours earlier — The completed lawn meeting the new gravel driveway.

Sunlit finished tall fescue sod lawn beside the modern black home and tall pines in Hartford, VT (Quechee) — Late-day sun on the finished tall fescue.

Golden-hour light raking across the finished tall fescue lawn, long shadows stretching down the slope below the home's two-story porch at the end of the longest day — Golden hour — long shadows down the slope on the longest day.

Evening sun flaring behind the modern home as the finished tall fescue lawn glows green along the cedar-post elevation in Quechee — Evening sun flaring behind the modern home.

The finished hillside lawn framed by a tall pine trunk, fresh tall fescue running up to the home with a figure on the deck taking it in — The green slope framed by Vermont pines.

Finished tall fescue sod lawn running the full length of the modern black home at golden hour in Hartford, VT (Quechee), seams tight to the gravel walk — The full length of the home, seamed tight to the gravel walk.

Wide evening view of the finished tall fescue sod lawn sweeping along the modern black home out to the Vermont tree line in Hartford (Quechee) — The finished lawn sweeping out to the tree line.

Aerial view of the finished 9,000 sq ft tall fescue sod lawn surrounding the modern home in Hartford, VT (Quechee) — From the air — green wrapped around the house.

Top-down: lawn, regraded grounds, and the new driveway.

Walk the Finished Lawn

The finished tall fescue lawn on video — from the air and on foot, walked from every angle of the property.

Afternoon drone flyover of the finished lawn.

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Late-day aerial of the whole property.

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The finished lawn, patio out to the tree line.

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Through the backyard to the Vermont woods.

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Along the side of the modern home.

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A slow pass down the full length of the lawn.

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Where the new sod meets the stone path.

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Planning a Lawn in Vermont's Upper Valley?

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9,000 Sq Ft of Tall Fescue Sod — Mud to Green in One Day

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